The Fire House

Today was a very questionable day. After we finished the harvest this morning (there were no more apples to pick) we went to the part of the mountain that our host owns. Soon he plans of turning his land into all sorts of fields growing mountain fruit, wasabi and other interesting japanese crops. For now though, some of his land is used as a burn area. Burning plastic in the states is not ok. Burning plastic in japan is the norm. Today our job was to burn plastic house siding, tires, basketballs and shoes. Then toss in some fire wood to keep it going. Not only did i probably lose 17 years of my life, but i felt very guilty depleting the ozone layer and furthering global warming and polution. Everyone seemed very disturbed but our host just laughed the whole time saying , good job good job. After the burning he took us on a hike through the woods to two different natural springs, one used to collect fish and the other small crabs. We saw mushrooms, and trees and it was very beautiful...until we were led back to the fire house and back into the toxic fumes, pulling our heads out of the mysterious forest and back to the reality that we were killing the planet.

Later today we went to some hot springs. For only 500 yen, or around 5 bucks, men and women enter different changing rooms and strip down. Then, because the japanese are modest, you use a small towel to cover your private areas as you walk from the changing room to the springs. There is an inside spring and an outside spring and they are both very very hot. We spent most of our time half way in and out of the water and a distinct red line appeared where the water had touched us. After the soak we sat on little platic stools in front of a low detachable shower head and washed our hair and our bodies, again, covering up with our small towels. We changed and exited the dressing room where we were greeted by our host who offered us some bottled milk from a vending machine. We accepted to be polite and watched him chug his milk in .5 seconds and place it in a glass milk bottle recyling bin, as this was apparently not a rare happening.

It was an interesting day and I hope I dont have to burn any more plastic tomorrow.