Weird Japan

This is a dog salon in Tokyo. It is also a dog cafe which sells gourmet dog food. Japan has lived up to its reputation for being weird and fascinating. Dean met a girl at a bar who drew a bloody scar on her breast. We found a naked doll in a Kyoto restaurant with a lot of pubic hair. Dean freaked out when the toilet seat lifted up automatically as he walked in. At the baseball games, the Japanese only cheered when their team was batting and politely remained quiet when it was the other side's turn. We've seen dogs in prams, guys with permed hair, women contorting their legs and feet to walk pigeon-toed because they think it looks cute, a guy sleeping with his head rested against a parking meter, deers bowing to get fed, a girl walking away from her handbag and wallet at a train station to have a cigarette (and her belongings were still there when she returned) and we've had a woman apologise to us for the toilet seat being cold. Weird. We love it.

We are family...

After 6 months of backpacking and volunteering, we are now doing the tourist route with family. Lina's brother, John, his girlfriend Christine, and Lina's sister, Lisa, have arrived in Japan. This weekend, we're meeting up with Lina's sister, Kim. It's nice to act like tourists for a while and be with family. Without them, we would forget that we really are just tourists. They make us get off our lazy arses to see things that we wouldn't otherwise see. Well, to be fair, Lina has the lazy arse, not Dean. This is a shot of us in Osaka doing the Japanese sticker photo "purikura" thing. Can't wait to see Lina's dad, Dean's parents and Lina's American relatives next month in the big 'ol US of A.

From small things come great creations

Today is our last day on the farm. In 7 weeks, we have felt biodynamic soil through our hands, smelt growing leaves on tomato plants, rode on the back of a truck full of red and orange lady bugs, witnessed fire flies illuminate the field at night like Christmas fairy lights, heard the sound of rain falling on a greenhouse roof, eaten organic vegetables pulled out of the ground just minutes before and drank tea from freshly picked chamomile flowers. Farming is rewarding because the results are so tangible. You can see, feel, eat, smell and sell the fruits of your labour. The final product is the result of one tiny little seed as unremarkable as a speck. And just as vegetables come from a tiny seed, people are born from a microscopic fertilised egg, great things are the creations of a brainwave called a thought and big journeys begin with one step. This unimaginable trip for us was once just a dream that became an imaginable idea.

How many ways can you eat toast

This is a photo of the long country kitchen table we eat at 3 times a day. The shot was taken at breakfast. Lina had just finished a cup of tea and Dean was waiting for the bell on the toaster oven to tell him that his grilled mince and cheese on toast was ready. One of the workers eats her toast with jam and cheese. Sometimes she puts the cheese on the jam and sometimes she eats it half cheese half jam. Every single morning, the farmer squashes his thick toast with his fingers to make it thin, spreads jam on it with a spoon, then dunks it into his coffee. One time, another farmer squeezed a round layer of mayonnaise from a bottle onto his toast as though it were whipped cream on a scone. Another worker dabs a blob of butter just on one corner and the farmer's son eats his with a block of chocolate. All these creative methods of toast eating makes Lina's plain old margarine on toast a bit boring. Take your time at breakfast and these are the fascinating observations one can make. It's much more fun than gobbling something down and running out the door to get to work.

If we could talk to the animals

After a month, we're getting to know the animals pretty well. There are 2 dogs, 5 cats, 15 rabbits, 3 cows and a turtle. Chobi is a dog that doesn't work. She just follows us around and gets upset when we speak English. She also has a boyfriend from the onsen (Japanese hot bath) down the road who comes around after 10pm. The calf in the photo is Lape. She lives with with her mother, Kanako, and grandmother, Luna. Kanako doesn't like eating day-old grass so we have to cut the grass every single day to feed them otherwise Kanako gets cranky. We thought Kuli, aged 19 years, was the oldest dog in the world. But the oldest dog was a 29 year old Australian blue heeler so that makes Kuli a youngster. The cats spoon each other and the rabbits have multiplied from 2 to 15. Now the girl rabbits are separated from the boy rabbits. Doctor Dean DoLittle moos to the cows and meows to the cats. The farm would not be the same without the animals. We can't wait to work with sea turtles in Guatemala and the poached animals in Ecuador.