I haven’t taught yoga, heck, I haven’t DONE yoga in years, but the folks at Kurkku saw the yoga page in Living on the Earth and decided I should teach a yoga class first thing Saturday morning at Doshi. To my astonishment, I actually did. Even if my limberness wasn’t what it once was, my body remembered the positions. It felt great to stretch, and I wondered what had taken me so long to try it again. And, happily, the person who was going to photograph me, didn’t. After our warmups, we all went out for a walk in the forest.

Morio and some of the other Kurkku staff taught us about the vegetation, animals and environmental degradation of the forest. The forest at Doshi is a regrowth planted by lumber companies after having cut almost every tree of the original forest.

According to Masanobu Fukuoka, air pollution and pesticides are killing off the matsutake mushrooms that once protected the abundant red pine trees in Japan’s forests from rot, weevils and nematodes. He says that not one single red pine still stands in Tokyo prefecture. I read this in his essay “Pine Blight: A Case of Nature Under Attack” in his book The Road Back to Nature.

After our walk, I played a long set of Hawaiian style slack key guitar on my Pro Series Traveler Guitar while everyone else prepared and ate breakfast.

One group made whole wheat chapatis…

…to cook on the grill, and eat with fruit spreads made from apples and wine slowly cooked together, and from fried bananas mashed with cinnamon.

Another group made rice balls from last night’s rice. Fresh fruit, a chicken and vegetable soup, and what was left from the previous night’s fabulous feast completed our meal.

After breakfast, people took turns telling the rest of us about their altars.

Before we left camp, I signed books and CDs for my new friends, including this gentleman who writes for an outdoor living magazine called Field Life.

After camp ended, some of us staff members went to a nearby hot springs to soak. This lovely lifesized statue stood outside the hot springs near Doshi where we went.

I was so happy to soak in hot mineral water after a weekend in the chilly mountain air.

Next we drove to Fujino to have supper with Setsuko Miura, her husband, Jun, and daughter, Ren, and some of their artist neighbors and their children. Everything on the table was either grown organically or wildcrafted, and prepared at home, either by Setsuko and Jun, or by their friends.

Naturally farmed rice with wild mushrooms in one dish, salad of garden vegetables in the other. At this gathering Setsuko presented me with the copy of Masanobu Fukuoka’s book The Road Back to Nature from which I’ve been quoting ever since.

On their porch, harvested millet dries on the the stalk.

In the hallway, a painting of a meditating man with the same rainbow light coming from his crown chakra as my Peace Girl painting.

Forty-two cool and beautiful alternative style nature freaks from all over Japan showed up at Doshi to hang out and play with me for a couple of days. I’d asked that everyone bring unneeded possessions to recycle into decoupage shrines and altars, and people brought lots of lovely things: yarn, feathers, beads, printed graphics, fabric, buttons, small toys, seashells, paper cutouts, stickers, and more. We placed our treasures on the long tables, and everyone circulated, gathering up whatever appealed to them to use in making a shrine. Some of us gathered leaves, twigs or stones from the surrounding forest. The staff provided glue and scissors, plus fixative to add after the piece was complete.

I explained that a shrine or altar is a three dimensional representation of a wish and it sends a message to the Universe to manifest this wish in reality. It could be a universal wish, for world peace and environmental sustainability, for example, or it could be a personal wish for an outer experience or an inner change. The elements of the shrine need only have meaning for the artist. Through the focus created by making a shrine, the wish constantly attracts energy to itself, and eventually manifests in time/space reality.

I was astonished at the variety and intensity of our creations! One shrine was built of forest twigs. Another incorporated an electronic shimmering peace sign that went through five color and design permutations in its sequence.

This lovely woman made the largest shrine, full of leaves from the forest.

My shrine (on the right) is about caring for the planet. I used a shoebox lid from Greentoe Sustainable Shoes, a postcard advertising a Japanese edition of The Little Prince, the cover art from an issue of 88 Permaculture Magazine, floral kimono fabric, yarn made from recycled saris, a California bay laurel leaf I found in my suitcase, sprigs of dried pine from the Doshi forest, seashells, a tiny broom someone brought (to help the Little Prince clean his planet), a candy wrapper I found on the ground at Doshi, two botanical photographs, five buttons, a leather tag on a hemp cord, and a cutout made from origami paper. I didn’t finish it at Doshi, and added a few more elements after I took this photo. I plan to photograph my shrine and make it the image on my holiday card for this year. Most years I make my own cards. For me, holiday cards are thank you notes to people whose presence enriched my life during the year.

We displayed our shrines on a table, and marvelled at each other’s work.

Next we divided into teams and prepared a feast of natural foods cooked outdoors.

TEAM CHICKEN:

The chef from Kurkku’s upscale city restaurant lead the team that prepared chickens for barbeque on the grill.

TEAM RICE COOKED IN BAMBOO:

One team filled sections of green bamboo with rice and water to be cooked on the grill, delicately flavoring the rice with bamboo.

TEAM GREEN SALAD:

Watercress grows abundantly around Doshi, so we made a green salad with lots of watercress in it. We used the stems as a vegetable in a chicken soup made from the parts of the chicken that were not used to barbeque. I was on the salad team, chopping tomatoes, cucumbers, and scallions.

TEAM CURRY:

For the curry, we needed peppers and onions cut up. The cute girl with the hat in the pepper photo is Rina Usuki, owner of Think Garden bookstore in Hokkaido, who invited me to visit next summer.

By evening, we had prepared dinner for sixty.

Everyone brought plates, bowls and chopsticks, so that very few disposables were used, and everyone washed his or her own dishes.

After dinner, Nambe-san set up the sound equipment…

…and the staff made a stage of twinkle lights inwhich I performed a story and music show.

After my show, people gathered around a bonfire.

I visited with my many wonderful new friends.
This young couple, Kaku and Yurie, owns and runs Sasulai, an earth-friendly shop in Tokyo.

Our workshop guests were not to arrive until around noon, so we had the morning to visit the Permaculture Center and see the natural farming rice harvest in Fujino, 40 minutes away by car.

Across the road from the Permaculture Center, a magnificent old jinja (Shinto shrine).

Main house at the Permaculture Center, which is completely built of recycled lumber and other sustainable materials, including rock and bamboo.

Three chefs at the Permaculture Center. I enjoyed a slice of their whole grain, fruit and nut bread for breakfast.

In the Permaculture Center’s garden, a Roman style bread oven.

Also in the Permaculture Center’s garden, a chicken tractor, per the old permaculture saw, “Never use a machine to do what an animal will do willingly.” In this case, the job is fertilizing and aeriating the soil for a vegetable garden. Two hens in a dome scratch the soil in search of worms and bugs to eat, eat the available weeds and their seeds, contribute eggs to the farm kitchen, and turn kitchen scraps and the insects the scraps attract attact into excellent fertilizer. After six weeks, chickens and their dome get another area of the garden upon which to work, and the earth under the dome is ready for an application of sheet mulch (sort of a lasagna of straw, newspaper, and green waste that gradually all melts together to form loamy soil together with the chicken manure underneath). Once sheet mulch is applied, the soil is never plowed, so that the various organisms that live in it can continue to live and benefit the soil. The farmers make holes in the mulch and place young vegetable plants in them.

Setsuko Miura shows us a work in progress, an earthen garden hut made of recycled lumber and sacks of earth, which will later be plastered inside and out with smooth mud, a building technique that recalls the earth bag method pioneered by architect Nader Khalili of CalEarth.

Next we drive over to the Steiner School (often called Waldorf School in the USA), located in a former public school that fell into disuse as younger people moved away from Fujino. The beautiful sign is lettered in charcoal made by the children at the school under the tutelage of an artist friend of Setsuko’s. Charcoal’s uses are many: as an art medium, as a filter for drinking water, as a garden fertilizer, as an antidote for food poisoning, as a food-cooking fuel.

The rice field prior to harvest. Many rice fields in Fujino have gone to weeds because of the exodus to the cities of younger people. The elders in the village don’t have the strength to work them, so the artists who came from the city are renting the rice fields from the village elders, clearing them of weeds, and planting rice according to the principles of Natural Farming developed by Masanobu Fukuoka, a former agricultural inspector turned rice farmer and researcher, later the author of the bestselling One Straw Revolution.

The group of artists, social workers, teachers and other former city folk who have been working the field all year gather for the harvest. First they remove the net that protected the ripe grain from birds. Everywhere fireflies float above the rice, hunting mosquitos.

Once the netting and poles are removed, the natural farmers cut sheaves of rice stalks with hand scythes and lay them in piles. I got to try my hand at this.

After harvesting the field, the natural farmers will hold a party and music fest. We are invited, but I must get back to Doshi to participate in the workshop. I’m the one in the purple hat, Setsuko is in front of me, and her husband, Jun is behind me.

Lovely Doshi town, high in the chilly mountain air, boasts numerous campgrounds popular with vacationers escaping the summer heat in Tokyo, and hot springs in use year ‘round. The campground where we hold the retreat lies a couple of miles out of town on a dirt road, in a forest with a river running through it.

I am enchanted with the beauty and the sounds of Doshi: Birds and flowing water.

Koki’s best friend Morio Takizawa (like Koki, he’s a writer, outdoorsman, and chef) greets us, and the two of them immediately begin unloading the car and setting up the kitchen. I offer to help, and they say, “Just go for a walk.” So, I do.

One of Doshi’s waterfalls sings in the forest.

A totem pole! Right next to a rusted metal staircase up to the cabins. Wabi sabi.

Another waterfall and stream serenade the cabins.

Up hill from the cabins, a pond reflects forest colors.

When I return from my walk, I’m thrilled to see Setsuko Miura, who came to my show at Kurkku two days before, bearing a a stalk of homegrown ripe sorghum grain wrapped in a drawing and a query about Still Living on the Earth, the sequel book I haven’t yet completed. It was a heartfelt meeting that night. She and her husband Jun Tanaka and daughter Ren (which means lotus), have come to invite me and Koki to visit the Permaculture Center and the Waldorf School, and see a natural farming rice harvest, in Fujino, where they live, the next morning before the camp program begins. Setsuko produces environmentally themed television shows for Asahi TV.  Fujino is like Woodstock, New York, a community of artists two hours drive from a major cosmopolitan metropolis and art city. This is so cool.

She presents me with white radishes from her organic garden. She says we must come to dinner at her house after camp is over. After all, that way we’ll miss some of the weekend citybound traffic. She doesn’t have to ask twice.

In the evening, after setting up the camp main area, the dozen or so staff members relax over dinner together. They set up three grills and cook fish and vegetables, including maitake mushrooms. Since they won’t let me help, I take out my guitar and sing to them.

They are very appreciative, especially after a few beers.
I figure this must be what it’s like to be a pioneer geisha.

The men place a kettle full of vegetables, meats and water on one of the charcoal grills, and create the most delicious soup. How does one eat soup with chopsticks? You hold the bowl close to your mouth and eat the veggies and meats with the chopsticks, and then you drink the soup directly from the bowl. It’s considered polite for men to slurp their soup in Japan. I haven’t heard any women do this, but I bet some do.

On our way driving to the mountain camp at Doshi, Koki and I crossed a river bridge and pulled into a family-owned and -run cafe beside the river for our lunch.

Japan’s abundant rain makes this area thickly forested with many rivers.

The cafe entrance…

…where dried cherry tomatoes on the vine, fresh chili peppers, rhubarb and daikon radish were offered for sale.

The owner of the cafe also made her own spicy ginger miso and offered this for sale. She offered a sample to me and to Koki, a miso-maker himself, who pronounced it delicious, so we bought a container of it to take home.

The menu above the window from dining room to kitchen. The owner and her husband live in a room just off the dining room; their daughter helps in the kitchen. Friends drop in to chat. And in the background, always, the sound of the river flowing.

Nearly everything was locally grown or gathered, with homemade miso and pickles! And how beautifully displayed: two sauteed river fish, white rice, two small pieces of purple sweet potato, miso soup with tiny mushrooms, scallions and leek, a small dish with one slice of octopus, a slice of fish cake, and a slice of mountain potato, tsukemono (pickled vegetables), and a small dish of cooked wild forest greens. Later the owner brought us each a small dish of purple grapes, which, I then learned, are always eaten skinned in Japan.

Today I spent the afternoon and evening at Kurkku’s compound, meeting amazing people, and doing a performance and booksigning in their bookstore. When Koki Aso and I arrived, the bookstore had stacked Japanese Living on the Earth books, all three of my CDs and organic cotton Living on the Earth t-shirts on a table out front, and the staff members were decked out in Living on the Earth t-shirts, too.

I was interviewed by Wakana Mori and Keiko Kamijo, sprightly staff members of Ecocolo, a magazine for eco-babes under forty. They said, “Our readers live in cities. What can they do if they can’t be permaculture farmers in the country?” I pointed out what I learned from permaculture teacher Toby Hemenway: City dwellers create a much smaller ecological footprint than country dwellers. They use less petroleum to commute and to have goods delivered to them. They live in smaller spaces and therefore use less energy to heat and cool. They are also more likely to live close to people of like mind.

But, what, they wanted to know, did I specifically recommend to their readers. I said, “There are three things. First, take care of yourself with organic natural foods, exercise, natural products, sustainable living, creative pursuits, and whatever helps you find serenity. You will need all the strength you can muster to deal with what is ahead in your life. Secondly, you vote with your money every time you spend, so patronize earth- and labor-friendly businesses and avoid the others. Thirdly, get involved in saving the environment and the social fabric around you. Do whatever you can. I think that political action is simply resistance to the super wealthy who are trying to take control of the resources that rightfully belong to all people. The advantage of the people is that we are numerous. If you can organize people, do it. If what you can do is more direct service to the people or the environment, do that. One person can make a huge difference in this world.” I told them about Jaime Lerner’s visionary green city planning in Curitiba.

Clothing designer Aya Noguchi loves Living on the Earth and wants to create an organic cotton fabric printed with illustrations from the book, and make clothes inspired by the patterns in the book. Of course I say yes. I’m looking forward to wearing her creations when I perform!

I did wear Simple Shoes when I performed tonight. They make very comfortable and sustainable shoes with soles of recycled materials and uppers made of hemp. I now happily own a pair of their hiking boots, their clogs and their thongs, which I’d been admiring at Whole Foods for quite some time before coming to Japan.

Soshisha Ltd. began publishing Living on the Earth in 1972.  The Soshisha staff brought me two copies, hot off the press, of the brand new 17th printing of the book.  Yoko Suzuki, of their sales department, told me after my show, they have sold over 37,000 copies to date, a respectable number for Japan, and will continue to publish it for as long as they remain in business.  Who tells an author that?  Nobody.

I am super pleased to see again Mr. Masao Kase, the former chairman of the company, now retired, thirty-two years after the book tour Soshisha arranged for me that was my first trip to Japan. Mr. Kase died not long after that meeting – I was very moved that he took the time to see me again after my long absence from Japan. 

The Kurkku staff and I together planned a menu for my show and booksigning event: brown rice mochi with sweet or savory toppings, plus ginger tea. Their gourmet kitchen has outdone itself, creating bite-sized handmade mochi with pumpkin paste and a black sesame/miso paste for toppings, and a multi-spice, sweet ginger tea. That’s Chef Hisae Daikokuya placing pastes on the mochi, and cafe service staff member Jun Nagamori behind her.

Jun elegantly plated the mochi and ginger tea on small wooden trays.

I sang nine original songs and told stories from my life, particularly those related to the creation of Living on the Earth. Tomomi translated for the audience. After the show we had a question and answer period. One woman asked me, “When do you experience oneness with the Universe?” I said, “Right now I’m feeling at one with the Universe, because I am loving all of you and you are loving me. God is love, and when we love, God is flowing through us.”

The Kurkku staff estimated 90 people in the audience. Standing room only! Some of the people look rather dubious about my having photographed them, but after the show, many brought me books and CDs to sign, told me how important my book had been in their lives, and some brought me art objects and CDs they had made. I would have happily spent the rest of the evening in conversation with any one of them. I was having a peak experience.

After the show, I briefly met record producer Takeshi Kobayashi, the visionary and benefactor of Kurkku and Artist Power Bank, a handsome and soft-spoken man. I am grateful that he and his staff made this day possible for me. It was a dream come true.

Kamakura’s municipal symbol on its man hole covers. Hayama is a suburb of Kamakura, a famous beach resort town an hour by train from Tokyo.

Koki Aso leads me down a back street in Hayama to the beautiful white sand beach where the Emperor’s family summer home stands. It’s an easy walk from Koki and Ayako’s house. The direct route is faster, but the back streets are more peaceful. The people who live there don’t own cars. They use the excellent public transportation and enjoy the quiet. Fancy that!

The back street fronts a river with ducks, egrets and many fish in it, and across the street from the river, I see a small natural foods store with a charming marine life mural on its sign.

Further along the back street is a spring, evidently available to anyone wanting to fill a container with spring water.

The beach, lovely as any in Hawaii, is practically deserted in the cool October breeze.

A Shinto shrine to an ocean god, complete with torii, stands on a rock in front of the Emporer’s summer home.

I admire a forty year old bridge over the river.

Near Koki’s house is a Toyota dealership with colorful flags. For reasons neither of us can fathom, they are decorated with images of monkeys soaking in hot springs. Until I saw these flags, I had no idea monkeys visited hot springs, but now I realize I have another spirit animal besides the rabbit: a monkey who loves to soak.

In Masanobu Fukuoka’s book The Road Back to Nature, he writes, “The whole body unwinds. As the muscles relax, you become comfortable and free. The heart, too, loosens up and relaxes. You become free and uninhibited. This loosening of the body is, I believe, the road to oneness with the Buddha. It is a shortcut to the Buddha, which is why I’m always going over to Dogo [hot springs] with the excuse that “Zazen is fine, too, but one can also attain perfect serenity by stretching out at a spa.”

Hand made sign at Kurkku’s organic restaurant

Today Koki and I took the train into Tokyo to meet with the staff of Kurkku and Artist Power Bank to discuss the two upcoming events: a story and music show with booksigning on Wednesday night in their bookstore, and a two-day retreat at a mountain campground near the town of Doshi.

The staff shows us the three stores and two restaurants that make up their complex. that’s Koki Aso on the left. Beautiful Tomomi will translate for me when I do my show. Lovely Junko, on the right, is vice president of Artist Power Bank and coordinator for all of the activities I will do with Kurkku.

Here’s their spacious, gorgeous bookstore, The Library. The building was created of sustainable materials and designed specifically to house Kurkku and Artist Power Bank.

In The Library, a display of bookmarks, candles and books on a beautifully worn antique table. The Library specializes in sustainability and art books for adults and children.

Here’s their earth-friendly goods store, The Green Shop and its creator. Soccor balls from recycled materials, clothing, accessories and shoes of organic cotton, recycled matierials and hemp , durable natural cookware, everything longlasting and of elegant design.

In The Green Shop, you can buy wallets and tote bags made from recycled waterproof truck tarps made of bright colored, fashionably distressed materials.

The Green Shop also carries a line of stationery and gift bags made from waterproof nautical maps, which, because of changing coastlines, are discarded and replaced with new maps every few years, creating an ideal material for stylish recycling.

Here’s their gardening store, featuring unusual potted plants suitable for city living, plus small scale organic gardening supplies and equipment.

Above the gardening store is their cafe, and above that, a roof garden with a gazebo. I asked if anyone had been married there, and the staff said no, but suggested maybe I would like to coordinate some green weddings for them.

And here is the elegant restaurant where we had our meeting, with hand-crafted glass and ceramic gifts for sale up front. The wood wall covering was recycled from a partially burnt building.

I discovered a group of highly intelligent, creative and friendly people working at Kurkku and Artist Power Bank, both organizations founded and funded by reknowned record producer Takeshi Kobayashi for the purpose of spreading environmental principles and information to help save the planet. I would get to know them all better in the week to come.