3 months Wwoofing experience in Japan

Date: 2nd August 2016 - 30th October 2016

Total Expenditure: SGD$1985.30 ​
Transport: $789.10 (including one-way air-ticket from Spore to Osaka at $252 by Scoot)
Insurance (MSIG): $320 (I bought a 1 year insurance because that's how long i planned to travel for)
Food: $215.20
Necessities (phone card, laundry services, shampoo and other groceries): $128
Shopping: $151 (i needed to buy some clothes because it was getting cold)
​Accommodation: $85
Attractions: $66
Miscellaneous (gifts & donation): $155

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​WWOOF (World Wide Opportunity on Organic Farms) was first set up in England and now has connections with farms worldwide in 61 countries. It gives travelers a chance to learn about farming or related activities like organic cafes, art workshop, and hostel; and gives farm owners access to free labour. Ideally workers should work no more than 6 hours a day and have at least one day off a week. 1 year membership fee cost about SGD$76 for Wwoof Japan (that's right, it's by country and not international, unlike helpx or workaway).  After you have registered, you will be able to access to the host listing, see description, pictures, and reviews about the place. 

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Places I've wwoofed: ​

• Hiroshima  (h30077) - Cafe and farm, country side (about an hour drive from Hiroshima city). Interesting people. Very busy place but you will be able to learn many things. 
• Ayagawa (Kagawa) (h32438) - Music event, farm, guest house. I had the most enjoyable time there! I might actually be working there soon :) 
• Shizouka (h6885) - Peach and orange farm. Fixed hours, very lovely family. Best accommodation and food!   
• Fujino (Kanagawa) (h35620) - Farm and Korean Restaurant. Very interesting town (Transition town)! The permaculture centre of Japan is located there! Very warm and friendly people. 

* Click the individual link to see my wwoofing experience for each of the location. 

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Places I've visited:

• Kansai Area- Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Hyogo, Kobe
• Hiroshima, Miyajima
• Takamatsu (Kagawa Prefecture)
• Fujinomiya (Shizuoka Prefecture)
• Tokyo, Mount Takao
• Yokohama​​ (Kanagawa Prefecture)

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Other Unqiue Experience:

• 10 days Mediation Course at Chiba

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​TOP SAVING TIPS

1. Google Map - As you can see the bulk of my expenditure comes from transportation. It's really expensive to travel around Japan. I love google maps because it not only gives the exact details like towards which destination and each train stop name, it also tells you how much each route cost. I usually go for the cheapest route even though it takes slightly longer. 
2. Plan ahead -  You would want to book your bus ticket as early as you can because of the early bird promotions. The price difference can be quite huge. Willerexpress is well known by foreigners because it used to be the only website that has an English version. But recently, Kousoku Bus implemented an english page too. How awesome! It's way cheaper than Willerexpress.  
3. Grab a Supermarket Bento - Whenever i have to pay for my own meal, that's where i go to. You can easily find decent food for SGD$5-$6.  My second opinion is Convenient Stores, which is slightly more expensive than supermarket. 
4. Phone card is unnecessary -  I bought a phone card at the airport for SGD$70. It ran out of value after a month, and i found out that it will cost me an insane amount to top up, so i decided to made do without a phone card. It's less convenient of course, especially when you are arranging to meet up with your local friends. But there are wifi available at most of the train station and convenient store. So it's perfectly alright without a phone card. 
5. Water is free - Tap water in Japan is perfectly drinkable, so do not waste your money buying mineral water. 

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Favorite Places

• 1. Kyoto

​The beautiful town is filled with so much history, culture, and scenic places. I’m so mesmerized by it.
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• 2. Yokohama

I love the mixture of modern and tradition in this town.
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• 3. Fujinomiya

​I’m such a fan of waterfalls. There is much more about this city that is worth exploring.

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​Most Memorable Experiences

• 1. Wwoofing at Ayagawa. 

​It’s always the people that make a trip so amazing. It’s so hard to meet people that you can connect so well with, and I met a bunch of them when I was there. 
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• 2. Mediation Retreat (10 days)

Simply said, it’s a life changing experience for me, life changing.

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​The main reason why i chose to travel Japan when i actually prefer to travel to less-developed countries was because i found out about Kamikatsu, a zero waste town. I had the impression that Japanese pay a lot of attention to environmental issues and recycling, and i was interested to learn more about it. 
Another reason was because i heard so much good things about wwoofing in Japan from my America friend. Ever since i started working at The Food Bank Singapore, i learned so much about how serious food waste situation is in Singapore. I think a lot of education needs to be done, and that people, especially the younger generation, need to get their hands dirty to truly understand the efforts it takes to have that bowl of rice on their table. Since that's what i believe, i wanted to be a role model, to act on it, to start experiencing farming, and wwoofing was the best way to do it. 
 
My 3 months wwoofing experience in Japan was amazing. I think it's the most value-adding trip that i had. I've gained a new perspective of the kind of life i want to lead and the things that i want to pursue. The thing is, once you realise the simplicity of life that brings true happiness, you will never go back to the lifestyle that you lead before. I believe that's a good thing.
 
So I decided to extend my stay here in Japan instead of going to New Zealand for working holiday. As much as i would love to explore the land of gorgeous nature, i feel that i'll be able to learn so much more by staying in Japan.
 
I'm currently volunteering at Kamikatsu, the zero-waste town, and i will be heading back to my previous wwoofing place at Ayagawa for work soon. It's hard to find a job that revolves around my interests, and more importantly, a boss that has very similar mindset as me about how we should lead our life. I'm very excited about what's coming up next and i'm very glad to share with you guys more about my adventure. 
 
I'll be writing about Kamikatsu soon. It's a very interesting town, i'm pretty sure you will be keen to find out more. Stay tuned. :)