Events

Our stage, ready and waiting.

The warm weather on Mt Fuji has us getting ready for a busy summer season at the Solar Cafe. The event space is available for rental. Contact us for bookings.

Eco-Greenhouse & Earthships Building Workshop

This summer we will build a passive solar Earth Ship greenhouse that can be used as a living space or for growing plants year round.

Earth Ships are built largely with recycled materials, most of which are easily available and free for the asking. Used, steel-belted automobile tires, packed solid with earth, become giant 400- pound bricks that create sound-proof, fire and earthquake resistant, fortress- like walls.

Once built, Earth Ships collect rain water from potable roofing material into water storage tanks that provide an abundant source of water, even in areas with minimal rainfall.

Dates: July 28 to August 1, 2010 (tentative)
Cost: ¥ 48,000 (weekend only: ¥20,000)
Location: The Earth Embassy Solar Café and Farm, on the foot of Mt. Fuji.
Contact: info@earthembassy.org

The Experience Includes:
• Classroom overview of Earth Ship building and its environmental advantages. Discussion in English with Japanese support.
• Hands on experience building an Earth Ship. We will line a 4m x 8m hole with earth-packed tires and build a roof and south-facing wall designed to function as a passive solar greenhouse.
• Farm tour and organic farming activities.
• Hike to nearby Ice caves.
• Three home-cooked meals a day prepared with locally grown organic foods.
• Lodging in the Earth Embassy Guest House.

Solar Cafe’s Spiral Kitchen Garden, fresh for the pot!!!

New Mini Eco Home!

David Howenstien and the Jambo International crew have sponsored a new mini-eco house for our farm.   We got an old grain silo from a local farm and set it in the garden next to the cafe.  Koji Watanabe helped prepare the foundation and brought the big truck to drive it in and unload it.  In June, David and the Jambo team will come up for a weekend and help us put in the new floor.  We will be using twice recycled wood that was once floor boards in a barn, then used at the Tokyo International Flower Show for a country-style garden, then came to us!  Contact David if you would like to join the Jambo farming and building weekend on June 25-27.  jambodave@green.email.ne.jp

the S.S. Highball

Why spend millions and build a ship that can be sunk by an iceberg when you can just sail the iceberg itself? Back in 1997 Professor Patrick Quilty propsed putting a huge plastic bag around an iceberg and towing it Africa as a source of fresh drinking water.  We are proposing, rather than tow it, why not sail it? Most of the movement of ice bergs is due to currents not wind, but a little nudge into the right current might get it moving in the right direction.  And with recent developments in kite powered ships, this may be a viable option.

Winter comes to the mountain

Winter here in Yamanashi Prefecture can be cold and long.  But the beauty of Mt Fuji and the fresh snows that blow off her peak make the long wait for spring bearable.  She is a bit of the earth, sticking up into the heavens to represent us and even on the warmest days here on her foot, the site of the winds blowing over her peaks and carrying snow into the clouds remind us that the winds of heaven are always blowing just over our heads.

Chestnut Harvest

The wild chestnut trees were just babies sprung from seeds carried by the crows when we first started farming the land on the edge of Aokigahara Forest. Now 15 feet tall they provided us with a months worth of chestnut cake, chestnut rice, and of course roasting on an open fire. And those are just the ones that the deer left for us.

Fresh Shitake Mushroom Farming!!!

We first tried spawning our own mushrooms last year but didnt have much luck.  This spring we tried a few oak logs with spores but again only 2 or 3 shrooms popped out in the season.  Until last week! This late in the fall we werent expecting anything, we one morning Eli was going to feed the sheep and noticed a whole mini forest of Shitake had sprung up over night.  Our new Shitake Carmelized Onion pizza is to die for! Supplies limited, and you had better beat Jake to the kitchen or they will be all gone…

Harvest Festival Puppet Show

Ko was the Moon, Natsuco was the Pepper, Jake was the Sun, and Eli played the organ….and they all made the garden grow! Our little fall event was pleasant with Mother and Child Yoga in the morning taught by Tomo-chan from Fuji Yoga. Lunch was pizza the children made from vegetables they picked in the garden. And the puppet show was spectacular! Special thanks to the volunteers and Natsuco for making it all happen and working on those paper-mache puppets all week and still keeping the cafe (mostly) clean.

Annual Rooftop BBQ

The Earth Embassy’s investment and marketing group met for our annual Autumn BBQ on the roof of JIL-Studio next to the Tokyo 4 Seasons.  Our long time advisor Jay Graves flew in from Australia,  leaving the Arete anchored in Brisbane Harbor to join us  for the weekend gathering. Niel Garscaden, our Tokyo media consultant, also attended. Many thanks to our gracious hosts, Yuriko Kobayashi and Josh Lieberman.  Visit this link to see Josh’s cutting edge architectural photography.  JIL-Studio

Nagashima Wedding

We had our 4th wedding at the Solar Cafe this weekend. Our old friends Mr and Mrs Nagashima brought over 100 friends and family to our farm for the weekend. Despite a brief squall just as the bride was about to walk the candle lit aisle, the wedding was a beautiful affair and we were honored they chose to have it with us.