Date and Time: Sunday, November 22, 10:15 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Spot: Hamada Farm in Hiratsuka
Hosts: Three Hamada family members and five Hiratsuka residents who love studying English conversation
Participants: Eight people were overseas students studying at Yokohama National University, their family and their friends.
Three people were family members of an engineer working on Yokosuka Navy Base. Nine KSGG members
Languages: English and a little Japanese
In the midst of the third wave of raging COVID-19, KSGG carried out a farm visit, which was the first outdoor activity in this fiscal year. Participation in the activity was limited to those introduced by KSGG members. We, participants, kept socially distanced during transportation and on the farm, wore masks, sterilized our hands, and took our temperatures; thus paying the closest attention to preventing infection, we had lots of fun on a beautiful autumn day!
The Morning Session
In the backyard, where the chairs were set one meter apart, the hosts summarized the overview of the farm. Next, they divided us into two groups, and took us on a tour of the farm, one group starting from the stable, and the other from the pasture. At the end of the tour, the hosts treated us to milk fresh from the cow.
Lunch Time
We came back to the field at noon to find five camp tables set more than two meters apart. The hosts had cooked several dishes using sweet potatoes, such as baked sweet potatoes, daigakuimo* and pork and chicken miso soups with lots of vegetables. Taking our seats one meter apart, we had a nice talk with one another over our box lunches we had brought with us, and also enjoyed their home-made dishes. We had a wonderful time, surrounded by red and yellow autumn tints, and breathing in fresh air.
The Afternoon Session
Ater Nahoko, a KSGG member, delivered a brief opening speech, everyone gathering there introduced themselves. Shige, another KSGG member, instructed us to do warm-up exercise, and we began to dig up sweet potatoes. Each group, consisting of four, harvested 20kg of sweet potatoes on average. The top group got as many as 24.3kg, and the largest sweet potato dug up on that afternoon weighed 1.3kg. The sweet potato digging was over with the award ceremony, in which Nori, a veteran KSGG member,
admired our labors, and the top team received the award. The hosts kindly offered us the sweet potatoes we had cropped. After leaving the farm, we strolled and came to the spot where we could look over Hiratsuka-City, Sagami Bay and Mt. Oyama, and said goodbye to one another at Hiratsuka Station.
( Reported by Masa, KSGG)
daigakuimo * : Deep-fried and candy-coated sweet potatoes
