In looking for inexpensive ways to live, eat and survive in Japan while travelling or on my weekend’s downtime, I’ve discovered the WWOOF organization. Now known as “World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms”, WWOOF is a membership based group of farms and workers who have an interest in trading man-power for food and shelter.
I’ve heard of WWOOF from friends in Canada, but was surprised that my friend Rhonda from Australia, ad fellow English teacher here in Japan, has been involved with them for the several months she’s been here. I had no idea that Japan had such a large population of independent farmers. Of course, it makes sense that there would be more independent than not, and more organically grown food than not, but one typically thinks of Japan as ‘uber-industrialised’ and therefore more ‘factory-farm’ oriented. Apparently, this is not at all the case. Perhaps, given the small land space, there is more opportunity for those farms with smaller areas.
A membership to WWOOF costs 5,500 Yen and lasts for a year. Each host has specific rules and regulations, but are all nicely organized and catalogued on the main WWOOFJapan website. If you plan on travelling Japan this might be a nice way to do some tourist-y things, and take a day or two to work in the dirt, get fed and well rested. Also, if you already live here, it might be a nice idea to take a few weekends away from the concrete and Rhonda recommends that it’s a wonderful way to learn Japanese.
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