Date: 2nd August 2016 - 30th October 2016Total 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 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. Places I've wwoofed:
Places I've visited:Other Unqiue Experience:TOP SAVING TIPS
Favorite Places
The beautiful town is filled with so much history, culture, and scenic places. I’m so mesmerized by it.
I love the mixture of modern and tradition in this town.
I’m such a fan of waterfalls. There is much more about this city that is worth exploring. Most Memorable ExperiencesIt’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. Simply said, it’s a life changing experience for me, life changing. 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. :)
4 Comments
Giacomo
1/3/2018 11:42:37 pm
Hi Shermain!
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GP
7/1/2019 01:08:01 pm
Hi Shermaine Thanks for your post and tips . at first i have some concerns about the safety of woman wwoofing alone but it looks like it is safe
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fan
13/12/2019 02:20:31 pm
reading this exactly 3 years on! this got me interested in wwoofing in Japan :)
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Giacomo
13/12/2019 06:38:18 pm
Haha, oh my God, it's been more than one year and a half already! I forgot to cancel the subscription.
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