In the Mountains of Gunma

Well, my time in Gunma has come and gone, however I still need to write about it. At the moment, I'm in Yamanashi Province, about one hour away from Mount Fuji. Yamanashi is an area known in Japan for producing fruit, especially Japanese peaches, cherries and grapes. I am working on a grape farm. More on that later.

My arrival in Azuma (the area I stayed in Gunma) was about as I expected. I took several trains to get there, the last of which was very old, small and unpopulated. There were two people on the train for the majority of the trip- me and a Japanese student. I arrived at Sori station, a quaint little place.

Sori Station

Once I got out of the station I got to the payphone to call the host, Komoriya Hiroyuki (Hiro-san). The entrance to the phone booth was covered with cobwebs- not used much. Hiro-san promptly picked me up and we drove off to his family's mountain abode. The drive to his place is beautiful- a slinky road lined with Japanese cedar and cypress, alongside a river in the mountains.

The road just before Hiro-san's cabin

Soon we arrived at his cabin- simple and unassuming. I suddenly had the impression that I was in West Virginia. This place was nothing like what I had seen in the rest of Japan (or much of the United States, for that matter). But as I would eventually learn, the roots of Shalom Forest go much deeper than this humble beginning.

The Komoriyas' Cabin

I was soon given a quick tour of the vicinity. The Komoriyas' cabin is where Reiko (the mom), Hiro (the dad), Karin (daughter, 9), Ryouma (son, 7) and Anri (daughter, 5) all live. Next to their home are some stairs that lead to a bride across the river. On the other side of the river there are two cabins built just for WWOOFers to stay. The main cabin is Yamaneko Lodge (Mountaincat Lodge) and then there is another cabin called Zum Ginsielder (Moon River in German), which was juwst finished by 3 recent high school graduates from Germany who stayed at Shalom Forest for over five months! They took a year off before college and stayed in Japan for nine months. They built Zum Ginsielder entirely by themselves with supervision and help from Hiro-san. Pretty sweet!

The precarious steps leading to the river

The also precarious bridge leading across the river, Zum Ginsielder Lodge in background

Yamaneko Lodge, my home for the past 2 weeks

The inside of the cabin was quite nice. There is a small kitchen nook in the back of the cabin, an old laptop computer (which became out of order, sadly, and thus this post's delay), a wood-fired stove, and a really cool table made out of logs. Something else you may have seen in one of the photos is the projector. While the place is out in the woods and there is no TV to be found, Yamaneko Lodge is equipped with Bose surround sound and a projector screen for watching movies. I really like this concept- the blending of natural environment with certain "high-tech" amenities. The only English language movies around were the Star Wars series. I watched all of them except Episode I and the Return of the Jedi. The Komoriyas are avid fans of Star Wars, Ryouma, especially.

How woeful was I to discover the void within these wee kegs

The ladder to the left leads up to the sleeping loft, where I- wonder of wonders!- slept

I slept in the dark corner on yonder side of loft

Exhausted from about 8 hours of rail travel and lulled by the mountain stream, I slept very well. The next day I would discover what it is like to work and live in the mountains of Japan!