Hyogo demolition #2 Check out our first full week of work!

Our friends from Soushien came to lend a hand!

EcoJima Hyogo house dismantle part 1

A friend in Japan building an "Earthing room"

What is Earthing?

We will incorporate this concept in with our building project.

The phillipines windship by Japanthropologist

Hi everyone this is a write up by Japanthropologist, on the build my father and I (Tao) assisted in after the super typhoon Yolanda destroyed the village of Batug on Leyte island.
http://japanthropologist.com/tacloban-earthship/

Hello everyone,


Let me start off with a huge thank you to everyone following and watching us. This is so exciting for us and we are so happy everyone is enjoying it. Please don`t be shy if you want more videos or written posts instead please let us know.


Yesterday was a big day for us, we started at 430am and didn`t stop till 830pm. We had a blast, it started out with us driving the low roads through the countryside (instead of toll highways) this took us 4hours. We took great video and pictures of this drive, you will get a sneak peek of these today.  Upon arrival we were told that we had forgotten to give a gift to one of our neighbors. The village we are in is still very traditional, it has a chief (selecting a new one yearly) and a tradition of new comers bringing gifts to neighbors. This is called Aisatsu. Aisatsu is a greeting, and greet is what we did. I was very nervous in the beginning since I have very little Japanese but every person we met was very warm and welcoming. All smiling faces and excited to see what we had to say.

                                 
In the picture I am holding one of the gifts, they are Japanese crackers with our names written on the wrapper. We handed 25 out in total. We couldn`t have done this without Tao's mama Sanae. Sanae took time out of her very busy schedule to have these gifts made up for us, Thank you Sanae.


Our plan yesterday was just to get the upstairs room ready for us to stay in during renovations. We prepared that room as well as ripped up the downstairs flooring and even took out doors, window, and a mud wall.

We swept out the whole room, walls every crack and cranny (remember bug free zone only). Tao put the plastic down to block dust and dirt from coming through.

This is our extra protection, an insect prevention tent. I love nature and all of its gifts (when outside of where I sleep) but the 8 legged ones and others make me scream, run and some times even cry. Japans insects are all super sized too.

                                                        Minmin zemi

This one was in the window of the room when we were cleaning it, he\she is just one of the many different types of cicada.  Each different type has its own song it sings and sometimes they can be deafening when a large group chants together.

Here is your final sneak peek of what we accomplished yesterday.
There will be a video posted next week of our first weeks work. We will explain what the concrete bin thing is too so stay tuned, very exciting.

Thanks again for joining us,
 EcoJima signing out till next week........

エコ島日本語バージョン

Nihongo

Today we have sourced out FREE lumber! YAY! The lumber was originally going to be burned in an onsen (which is a traditional Japanese bath house). Instead of just turning it all in to ashes, we can use it to extend the front framing to accommodate our "Jungle Room". We are so excited and thankful for this. Now our next task is to find a truck. Possibly a rental or loaner or purchase, we will see what next week has to offer us.

 

 

 

We want to save as many trees as possible. 200~500 years of existence can not just be replanted.

Stay tuned everyone and thank you for joining us.

EcoJima finished video final

Timeline

                                                                                     February 2014~

 Tao goes to the Philippines to assist in the Windship build. Click on link to see videos and pics.

 http://earthship.com/philippines

May 1 2014 ~ We made the decision that we would be happier with LESS

 June 1 2014~

We start downsizing in order to save money and lighten our load.

January 21 2015~ We leave Victoria, British Columbia,

Ishigakijima bound!

January 23 2015~ Kabira Bay Ishigakijima Okinawa

We ARE finally here!

Everything we had worked so hard for was finally in our hands.

January 28 2015~ We found our own place! Haha just kidding.

Do we take it? Yes or No

Choices were very limited so, YES we will take it! (we moved in that day.)

 
We met some of the locals.

And also made new friends!

                                                                             

                                    It is amazing and wonderful how quickly kids can adjust.

                                        Mid February we found a small island attached to our own.      

                                                                "CAT ISLAND"  (Southern Gate)

We soon brought one home:)

 We named her Lotus, Lotus was ill. She slept for two days. We realized how desperate the island was for volunteers and foster homes. So we signed ourselves up and became a part of  

Shippo No Kai

translated it means The Organization Of Tails

Since Lotus we had three dogs and another cat.
All of which found permanent homes, the kitty moved with us to Kansai and his name is Simba!