Out of the blue... and into the green.

It's official, we will be hosting a 'work party' here in Okayama on Oct 10th for all our friends and colleagues. The idea of the party is not only to help us with some of the jobs on the land, but also to raise awareness of climate change issues and to persuade people that waiting for their leaders to do something will be too late, and that they themselves can do something.
Hopefully we'll have got the yurt, the shed, and a toilet set up in time, because we're expecting maybe 20 people or more. We'll be putting together the solar array that we've bought (most of), and people will each have a couple of trees with which to start planting our forest garden. Of course, if you're coming, feel free to bring a tree for the forest. Anything productive and suited to the climate. Bushes, trees, ground cover (that handles shade well)... the choice is yours!
We will be providing soft drinks, so bring a bento for your lunch. Party runs from 10am to 10pm. If you want to stay, bring a tent!

It's been hot. Bloody hot! Working out there in the middle of the day is impossible, so we've kind of gone Mediterranean... maybe nocturnal would be closer to the truth. Work starts at sun-up, usually between 5~5:30am, then we knock off at 10 or 11. If there's stuff to be bought from the builders' merchant or some such, we head off and do that in the middle of the day or just chill out (figuratively speaking, 'melt out' would be more accurate) over a slow lunch. Once the site is back in the shade, between 4 and 5pm, we head back to finish off and tidy up. Usually knocking it on the head just before sundown. Not such a hard schedule, but hey, we're not on any particular schedule... actually, having said that, I've kind of gone and created an artificial deadline and battle plan for the next two months, culminating in a "Forest Garden Tree Planting and Solar Array Building Work Party" in solidarity with the 350.org inspired Global Work Party on Oct 10th. Oops!

So, where are we at? Firstly, a new face. Iain will be wintering with us and helping out around the place. He has spent most of the last year down in Kyuushu and has moved up to Honshu recently to look for a plot of his own. Hopefully, while staying with us, he'll be able to find something suitable in the vicinity. Talk of an Okayama based 'Intentional Community' has been bandied around for quite a while now, and who knows, this might be the start of something along those lines.



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So, money has changed hands and documents have been duly stamped. The land is well and truly ours now.
I think I mentioned before that we're trying to get at least some of the woodland to the north of our plot. Here's an image to help you follow what I'm about to say:

The plot to the right, No.3 in the pic, is up for sale and at not too bad a price, to be honest. It's only 300 or so square meters though, and it's somewhat 'separate' from us, if you see what I mean.
The plot to the left, No. 1 in the pic, might be for sale. Trouble is, the owner is currently bed ridden and, unfortunately, non compos mentis. The family that stand to inherit this plot are inclined to realize it before gramps pops it, and thereby add cash to the inheritance rather than keep the land. Or so we've been led to believe. I'd like this bit of land for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it's three and a half thousand square meters of not too steeply inclined san-rin which we could use to build on rather than the small genya down at the bottom of our plot.
Another reason is that while we were exploring at the weekend, we found a small pond (tame ike) that would be really useful if we wanted to or were forced to stop using the mains supply that we have.
The third reason is that it adjoins what I've called 'Plot 2' in the picture. This plot appears to be ownerless, or we've been unable to trace them in the usual manner (city office, real estate searches etc.). Seems like he's just dropped of the face of the earth... which means that if we put up signs stating out intents to claim the land as our own, and if no-one challenges us for 20 years, it becomes ours
Yes, I'm serious. Here's a link to an article by another non-Japanese homesteader in Japan, Ken Elwood, titled "Adverse Possession of Abandoned Land in Japan: A Primer". It tells you all that you need to know
So if I can buy plot No. 1 and claim plot No. 2, I reckon that will do us just about right and we'll be set up for the rest of our time on this good ol' planet of ours.

I've been thinking about how we'll use the land we've bought as time goes on. The permaculture course I've just finished reminded me of the importance of zones. Zones can refer to many things, but a useful set to start with can be zones defined by expected usage, or frequency of visit. I've knocked up a couple of zone maps, only preliminary but reflective of my thoughts as they currently stand, and will put them up here so I can come back to them in the future to see how far off the mark I was

There're three maps. The first with no zones, but a rough idea of what I'm trying to do. The second showing with Zone 0 (the yurt). And the third one showing how the zones might change once the real house has been built. I should add that I've forgotten to include the yurt as a secondary residence in this map:




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Well, it's taken me a week to get myself sat down in front of the computer to type this, so here goes.
I got back from the UK last Wednesday, and what a time I had!

The first few days were at home in Farnham with sis and the folks. It was great to see them all again and everyone was looking relaxed and well. It was reassuring to see that the dining room table is still the place for heated political debate and putting the world to rights, just like it always was. The volume seems to rise at about the same rate as I remember too. No wonder Dad's starting to lose his hearing! I managed to catch up with Rog & family too which was great.

The other reason I was in the UK was to do a fortnight's Permaculture design course down in lovely Dorset.
The course was hosted at Pat Bowcock's "Ourganics", a debt free and self sustaining business that is a venue for permaculture courses and grows produce to sell to the local community. Our principal instructor was Aranya of Designed Visions. The residential (they provided a field and food, we brought tents) course spanned 14 days and covered all the usual stuff that a Permaculture Design course covers.



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Well, the interview with the Nogyou inkai is over and done with. I get the impression that the district we're hoping to move into is about as strict as they come. I think I mentioned earlier that the chou had successfully resisted being swallowed up by their nearest city a couple of years back, and that as a result they were proud as hell about their new found independence.

The inkai was represented by the kai-cho and three senior members, and we had our notary (forgotten the Japanese word for it, a kind of lawyer) with us.

The interview was a fairly weird experience, the notary had told us to not go into any details that weren't brought up directly by the inkai, and so I spent most of my time biting my tongue. I wish he hadn't said that as it made me very self conscious.



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I thought it might be useful for some to see what they can expect to have to do when trying to buy agricultural land (nouchi - 農地) here. There are probably other posts scattered around the threads on GP (the best on-line place to meet other foreigners doing similar stuff) somewhere, but maybe people could post links to other relevant info in the comments below this post.

Caveat Emptor: I'm not a lawyer! This is info that I have gleaned by buying agricultural land myself. There may be inaccuracies or missing info amongst the text here. Please check all this for yourself!

Primer: Dividing the land.


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So, last Saturday we went to have one last look at the Kamikayama plot (Sho-o cho). It'd been keeping us up all week, me worrying about slippage, and Kazumi worrying about the 'being on display' aspect of the place. We also wanted to visit S san, the gent who's got all the useful contacts in the area and was a Miya Daiku until an accident at work took him off the sites.

We intended to just spend the day there, scoping the site, taking soil samples and generally hanging out, soaking it all up. But at the end of the day, while talking with S, he let slip the fatal words "I know a better place..." We bit and asked him if we could take a look at it. "Come round first thing tomorrow." he said. "We'll go take a look."

I was kind of doubtful as we'd 99% decided on Kamikayama, and the place that S had mentioned was a third the size. Still, no harm in checking it out we thought...

So, yet another night in the car at Kamikayama. And man did it rain! We woke up at the crack of dawn and took yet another look around. The site was a total bog. The fact that it was almost all rice fields really sank in. How on earth were we going to build on that, I thought to myself. Anyway, after brekkie at the local michi-no-eki we headed off to meet S.
Boy can he talk. We met at nine, and it wasn't till 12 that I finally said, "Well, the rain's obviously not going to let up. Let's go see the place shall we?" and with no further a do, off we went.



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I'm very happy to be able to write that Kazumi and I tied the knot today. We've been living together for several years now, and dating longer, and a month or so ago decided that seeing as how we were both intending to stick around and get in each other's hair for the duration, we might as well get married. To be honest, we didn't really see the point in formalizing it as the reality spoke for itself. None the less, what with buying land and/or emigrating looking like strong possibilities we thought we might as well. One unfortunate (?) thing was that due to getting some wrong information from the city, we thought that we had to change Kazumi's family name. With that in mind, we bought air tickets in my family name, but it turns out that she could in fact have kept her own name. Of course, the air tickets are not transferable. I know, I know. You try persuading them that it's not actually a transfer... good luck. The long and the short of it is that there's now a new Mrs Moorey in the family. I'm deeply honoured, but can't help thinking that she must be a wee bit mad.

So, in other news. It's been a week of reading and thinking, and I just can't get Sho-o-cho out of my mind. Here are a couple of rough 3D sketches I made. You can see that the idea of a living roof appeals. I don't yet know how good an idea it would be (damp/humidity wise), but the fact that we wouldn't lose too much in the way of workable land and the insulating properties of the soil seem like a good idea.

Listen to me, here I am going on about the place like we've actually bought it. I had a big chat with my folks the other night, and they seemed fairly disappointed when I mentioned that I hadn't 100% decided to return to the UK yet.

Today we went back to Okayama to look at more places. First we went to see a block of land (genya) which was the cheapest we'd seen to date.

It was made up of about 2,500 tsubo at the top end of a small valley. It had obviously been rice fields until several decades ago, but was now well and truly given over to wilderness. It seemed like it was a close second to Sho-o-cho but on reflection it'd take a heap more work just to get the place in a state suitable for planting anything. Sho-o-cho is way closer to a working state than here.
We meet Saiso san from "Archon", another estate agent specializing in traditional Japanese properties. He was very straightforward and showed us around a very nice old house with over 7,500 tsubo of land with it. Sadly, while the house was in pretty good condition, and obviously well built and cared for, it was right in the middle of a hamlet and was totally inaccessible by car. Not only that, but the 1 tan (300m) of rice fields had been farmed in the normal (oil-based fertilizer) way until last year, and it was right in the middle of a strip of similarly farmed paddies. Yet another disappointment was that the bulk of the land was forest, something like 7,000 tsubo of the whole property. Real shame as the price was great and the house itself would have been perfect if it had just been in a different place

The next place was in Hyogo ken, and we met Ashida san from another estate agent, "Slow Life". This one was in even better condition than the first. Once again though, it was in the middle of a block of houses and only accessible by car if you all breathed in and drove veeery slowly. I'm decided at least, I'm not sure that Kazumi is yet though. I don't think we're going to find an old Japanese house with all of the following criteria:
a) enough useful land attached.
b) a price we can afford.
c) of good enough condition to make it worth while.

I'm for a piece of land that we can build something unique and appropriate on. Sho-o-cho is looking better and better the more places we see.