Hi everyone and nice to meet you.

I’m Ambrine and I’m gonna stay at the farm until the end of August so this shouldn’t be my first and last post.

I arrived here a week ago and already did a lot!

The very fist day, kaichou treated us to ramen in his favorite restaurant and it was during this evening that I got to be introduced to Larissa, Polina and Caroline. They explained a lot to me during those few days: about how things work in the intern house or work in general.

Everyone here is really nice and very patient. With the language barrier, it is sometimes hard to make myself understood and understand others thanks to my still poor japanese. But we are still able to communicate.

So far the work I had was to start the building of a wall (which was interesting since it was a first for all of us), putting labels on products and relaxing: the temperature is constantly increasing so we had to take breaks often. The rainy season will start soon too so we’ll probably work more regularly inside.

Though I came here to translate the website in french, as a beginner in coding, this could prove to be more difficult than expected. It will be interesting experience and challenge!

In the mean time I get post more diverse pictures, please enjoy these with all the green and mountains that Wakayama has to offer.

[FRENCH]

Salut tout le monde et enchantée.

Je m’appelle Ambrine et je vais rester à Wakayama jusqu’à la fin Août: ce ne devrait alors pas être mon premier et dernier article.

Je suis arrivée ici il y a une semaine et a déjà fait beaucoup de choses.

Le tout premier jour, kaichou (président si on traduit) nous as invités à manger des ramens dans son restaurant favoris et c’est durant cette soirée que j’ai pu faire la connaissance de Larissa, Polina et Caroline. Elles m’ont expliqué beaucoup de choses ces derniers jours: comment les choses fonctionnent dans la maison des internes ou pour le travail en général.

Ici, tout le mode est très gentil et patient. Avec la barrière linguistique, j’ai parfois du mal à me faire comprendre et à comprendre les autres grâce à mon japonais encore pauvre. Mais on arrive quand même à communiquer.

Le travail jusqu’à présent fut de commencer la construction d’un mur (ce qui fut intérressant vu aue c’était une première pour nous tous), coller des étiquettes sur des produits et se relaxer: la température ne fait qu’augmenter ce qui faisait aue nous devions prendre des pauses souvent. La saison des pluies va bientôt commencer aussi; on va donc probablement travailler plus régulièrement à l’intérieur.

Même si je suis venue ici pour traduire le site web en français, en tant que débutante dans la programmation, cela pourrait s’avérer plus difficile que prévu. Ce sera une expérience et un défi intéressant!

En attendant d’avoir des photos plus variées, profitez de celles-ci avec tout le vert et les montagne que Wakayama peut nous offrir.

[By Ambrine Guilbaud – Kannonyama intern from France]

Today turned out to be a busy and fun day. First off, Kaichou brought us to the greenhouse to help pick oranges. We learned how to identify the ones that were sweet, as opposed to the sour ones. And yes, it involved a lot of tasting. Afterwards, Kaichou brought us to a farmer’s supermarket and we had coffee at the adjoining coffee shop, overlooking the prefecture. It was beautiful.

 

Afterwards, Kaichou drove us back to the places where we select lemons. We did some quality selecting till lunch. After which, we had lunch at a local Ramen shop. Kaichou informed us that the restaurant was quite famous, we soon realized why.

 

With our bellies filled with delicious ramen, Kaichou once again brought us to a different working site. It was atop the Buddha mountain. There we helped gather the bamboos, simultaneously enjoying the view. The entire experience was peaceful and exhilarating all at the same time. We were on the edge. During our break, we sipped orange cider and swung peacefully on the swings. Furthermore, the weather went through a cycle of sun and snow, we were able to see the mist gather as the sun shied away.

 

Kaichou to the rescue picked us up and took us home to drop off our things before going for groceries and dinner. It seems we went a bit too crazy doing the groceries, there was so many Japanese food we wanted to try, it was great fun. For dinner Kaichou took us to another famous restaurant, this time for okonimiyaki. Kaichou knew the owner, I swear, the man knows everyone in this prefecture. We practiced Japanese, as we congratulated the owner with his son doing the entrance exams for university.

 

After dinner we came back to where we helped gather the bamboos since Kaichou needed to drop some food for his staff. Again, the view was amazing, you could see the towns all lit up, against the silhouette of the mountains. As if that wasn’t sufficient enough, we were able to see all the stars. The constellations, scattered on a coal canvas. I didn’t realize just how much I missed seeing the stars. The rare glimpses in Tokyo pales in comparison.

 

When we go back to the house, Kaichou and I played around the piano he brought over earlier. Yes, the piano he brought over upon learning I could play. We laughed and bonded, as he played us different songs, teasing the other interns for not being familiar enough with the German national anthem. As he played the tune on the piano. To end the night, we tried the yuzu curd, all in approval.

 

[By Maria Diaz – Kannonyama intern from Ireland & Philippines]