Lost in Kumakogen Town

So! A train from Kyoto to Okayama, across the Seto inland sea on an Anpanman decorated train to Matsuyama the largest city on Shikoku island, an hour bus to the town of Kumakogen then a final short hitchhike north brought us to our workaway stay in Japan.

Hitchhiking was easy, as everyone said it would be in Japan. People are friendly. Standing nervously with our sign displaying the name of the resort with the distance and a thumbs up, after about a minute the third car stopped and offered us a ride. Not bad for our first time! He spoke no English but we had some sort of conversation with very little Japanese and a lot of smiling and nodding.

Greeted by friendly Japanese staff and workawayers either from Europe or English speaking countries, we have settled in to this remote corner of Ehime Prefecture. The typhoon missed us by the way, well the wind and the rain didn’t stop for 24 hours but the eye of the storm passed south of the island then landed on Honshu.

The work is mostly cleaning and some general tidying and helping out such as feeding the ducks. It’s tough for four hours when it’s hot. We have quickly realised how easy we had it in Busan… But we are paid in accommodation (ok, the cabin in the woods is a little damp and comes with some creepy crawlies) and food, delicious hot lunch and dinner cooked by workawayers or staff. Our cooking time comes next week – got to show off that British cuisine… an Indian curry perhaps? Lasagne is out of the window – there are some genuine Italians here.

Internet is limited, posts will get slower and we have already fallen behind with the many we still have to write about travelling up and down Japan too quickly. Sorry, and please bear with us this month!