The “mikan shukaku”, better known as the orange harvest, has begun. One week down and five months more to go!  Satomi’s parents are picking oranges as fast as they can. In addition to my weed pulling duties, I am providing the strong back to carry them from the field to the truck, load them, unload them at the house for sorting, stack the containers of sorted oranges, load the sorted containers back into the truck to bring them to Japan Agriculture for storage, and finally, unload them onto pallets.  From there they are whisked away by forklift to places I know nothing of.  Eventually, I fear,  we will pick them up again for another round of sorting.  At about 40-45 pounds per container of oranges a day and 30 or 40 containers a day I am get a good workout everyday.  Satomi has the worst job right now.  She is on cooking and cleaning detail for the whole family.

Check me out in my farmer gear…Japanese style.  I opted for the new version of the traditional “Jika Tabi” shoe. I chose the Jika Tabi not because I am a purist when it comes to Japanese tradition but because I have narrow feet by any measure. And, in general, Japanese people have amazingly wide feet.  My feet were swimming in all of the shoes I tried on. Notice the split for the big toe.  Thanks to that separate big toe compartment my feet don’t slide around too much.  The shoes are so light and flexible it as almost like being barefoot (except there is some protection from sharp pokey things and rotten oranges that would otherwise ooze through my toes when I accidentally step on them).  I don’t advise you to run out an by a pair quite yet.  Give me a few weeks to see if my feet become exhausted from lack of support.

-The Green Tea Dreamer