Kappore

Kappore Time!!!! Wow what a great time to be in Japan, especially Shimizu. Summer time in Japan has basically festival after festival of all shapes and sizes. Perhaps it's the best way to take your mind of the fact that it's soooo b****y hot and humid.
Shimizu's Port Festival is a 3-day festival on the first weekend of August, with the Kappore dance event held on the Friday and Saturday nights. OEK traditionally has a team that participates on one of those nights.
This year we had over 90 students and family members in our team, plus many other people came and cheered us on.
Way to go everyone who came and especially those who stayed until the end. Anyone who has tried will agree that three solid hours of dancing in the Japanese Summer evening heat is no mean feat. For those students who would like to join next year keep you eye out for posters about it at the school (usually just after Golden Week) and get in quick.

My parents are off traveling again!

ThIS TIME they are off to England for a week and then they are going to Russia for 3 weeks. They will stay in a ship which will travel along the rivers from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
As my mother isn’t so well this means she doesn’t have to move from hotel to hotel but she can take her bedroom with her. When she feels well she can explore the marvels of the Russian landscape and culture and when she is tired she can stay in her cabin and rest – isn’t that perfect!
And dad is there to look after her and share in lots of good times. May they be happy!

Of course it is scary traveling when you are not well but my mother and father want to live their lives as fully as possible until they die! What good role models!!!

So photoes of my mother and me! (the photo with dad was blurry!)



These are an important photoes as I won’t see her for 3 months. When she arrives back in Australia I will be in Japan! So I will miss her but the happiness is that we are out in the world living our lives and this is the celebration.

So on the 15th September I will be back in Shimizu and looking forward to meeting new students, old students, the great staff at OEK and all my wonderful friends! I will stay for 2 months
And to make it even better my daughter Maya and my grandson Izumo will be coming too!!!

LUCKY ME

ANOTHER 100 TREES PLANTED

ANOTHER 100 TREES PLANTED – THANKS TO THE SUPPORT OF OEK AND ALL OUR STUDENTS!

A PART OF OUR STUDENT FEES GOES INTO SUPPORTING ME HAVING THE TIME TO GO AND PLANT TREES = BY BEING ONE OF OUR STUDENTS YOU ARE HELPING TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE!!!
Morning coffee finished and I am off into the bush with my wheelbarrow full of goodies


August should be the time of rain. But you can see next to the wheel barrow the dry red sand!!!

So the next wheel barrow is full of water! So instead of spending time only planting trees a lot of time is needed to go and water all the young babies in the ground – and that is nearly 350 – a lot of carrying water – and getting fit!

AND THEN …
While planting Catherine yelled my name and I went running – but it wasn’t an emergency ~ she was pointing at what looked like a strange bush
~ but it was a great gift…

It was an ECHIDNA!!!
It was a very special moment because it is very hard to find an echidna ~ they have to find you!



(If you want to know more about echidnas read the blog below this one.)

Too much attention so she/he decided to start burrowing but we knew this little echidna was looking for dinner so we left her (or him) to doing what echidnas have to do.

15 minutes later we went back and it had totally disappeared

I am happy planting trees cos I know that life is indeed precious. I want in any little way help this echidna and all the wild creatures have a good life – and for this they only need wild habitats ~ not our money or our comfortable world ~ they ask for so little.

Wild creatures can not live on land when it is like this – no food or shelter …


So why are humans destroying more and more wilderness – more houses, more mining, more, more and more ~ it is a sadder world as we are just taking too much – our desires for more things are our amongst our greatest challenges!
May we rise to the challenge so that one day you or your children or your grandchildren or even your great grandchildren ~ meet an echidna in the wild!
fABULOUS

ALL ABOUT THE ECHIDNA

The Echidna is one of the world’s greatest survivors. They are the oldest surviving group of mammals on our planet, all the way back to the age of the dinosaurs. The platypus and the echidna are the only egg laying mammals in the world.

Not big bold or beautiful, the echidna is the ultimate survivor. It has a small roundish body covered with spines, and intelligent eyes set near the base of a leathery bird-like beak. The nostrils are at the tip with a tiny mouth opening on the underside. It has no teeth. The mouth only opens the width of the tongue - the tongue can extend up to 17cms while darting rapidly in and out gathering food such as grubs, earthworms and insect eggs.

They are independent little animals. They live solitary lives except during the breeding season. They use up to 200 hectares for a home range, which is large for an animal that generally weighs less than 5 kg.
They live up to 50 years.
They must be 5 to 7 years old before they have their first young and that they are not prolific breeders. Up to 50% of young may die reaching adulthood.
The survivors leave their home area when they are about a year old. Some travel over 45Kms before establishing a home range.
Low population numbers and dispersal of the young mean that they do not compete with each other for food or shelter.

It is hard work and you need a lot of luck to find an Echidna. They do not return to ‘home dens’ or burrows on a regular basis and they don't often use the same pathways. Also echidnas walk silently, blend in with their surroundings and rarely emit any sounds.

Because of their lifestyle, we have no idea how many echidnas are left. Historic data clearly show a decline.

Their survival is being jeopardised by introduced predators –foxes & dogs – and by competition from rabbits. A number of ‘quiet killers’ have become evident - herbicides, pesticides, and other chemicals enter the food chain and claim the lives of echidnas as well as other native species.

What are the continued survival chances of the echidna in an increasingly hostile world? One of the most outstanding characteristics is their individualism.
Different in so many respects from other mammals – an egglaying, slow reproducer, with low body temp, non aggressive and not territorial – the echidna still remains an undisputed giant among mammalian survivors.

OEK FAREWELLS GENEVIEVE AND MISATO

In July OEK had to farewell 2 young remarkable women – Misato our assistant manager and Geneveive, our wonderful ESL teacher

Their wonderful work and their presence at OEK touched many and this is indeed is a precious thing ~ All the staff and many students really enjoyed working with them.

For me the gift has been seeing these 2 young women transform more into their potential. They took on responsibility and really tried to do their best and thus make OEK the unique ESL centre that it is.

I believe they opened their arms and hearts to many at OEK and hopefully good memories are the jewels that will remain with all of us as we continue to journey into our lives!!!

I wrote this to Genevieve and I also want o share the same message with Misato ~~~
“I see within you ‘happiness’ and when it is not apart of your journeying, it will always be just around the corner. I believe that good things will indeed continue for you ~ I have no idea what your future holds for you or what dreams are being created but may they take you into your knowledge and your wisdom. Whether it is going back to studies or finding a job ~ may it feed your essence.”

So thank you for challenging yourselves in becoming members of the OEK staff and all the complexities of the work that you undertook wholeheartedly!!!

ARTEMIS ~ PLANTING TREES!

ABOUT 300 TREES PLANTED & ONLY 350 TO GO!!!

We are planting our trees to make a corridor – hopefully when these trees grow they will join 1 bush block with another. This corridor effect will be wonderful.
For the wild echidnas and


for the wild wombats ~it will provide more safety to roam and to find food.




For the wild birds ~ it will provide food, shelter and nesting sites.



For humans the benefit will help create a wind barrier which makes life easier as when the strong winds blow in the valley they also blow sand.

Now it is wheat and barley so the valley has transformed into a most beautiful green. However in the summer the landscape can be barren and parched and where there is a wind the sand blows with it …


For the earth – we are very grateful to have this beautiful earth – how many millions of life forms do we share this planet with – each bringing its richness – even if we don’t experience it as we live in cities there is an exchange – we all eat fish, and some of us love the seaweeds – our amazing oceans and what lives within them !!!




MY STEADY COMPANION
Bogart my patient mate often accompanies me in my tree planting expeditions.
The trees behind him are the ones we planted 2 years ago.



RECYCLING CARTONS AND BAMBOO
We have to protect the young saplings and we do this with milk or juice cartons. The bamboo stakes come from my husband Fumio – he is a gardener and in the winter does a lot of pruning. So he brings them home and we strip them of their leaves and then cut them to size.
Why? - This helps to prevent the rabbits eating them, the wind blowing them over and in the summer the sand from burying them.



WATERING THE TREES
This is the hardest job of all and we will have to do this for at least a year.
Why – because we are in drought. It is the middle of winter but when you dig a shallow hole it is just dry red sand!!! So we have to carry water in buckets and it is heavy work – but I know if the trees could smile they would when we pour water over them!



THE CHALLENGE



To plant as many trees as quickly as possible. But to also have the wisdom in knowing they all need to be watered and that means carrying buckets of water over a distance and in the summer the challenge is to remember the joy of it!