[Workcamp details]

Preserving the original sceneries in Akame no Mori

I have always wanted to go to Japan for some time to do some social work and to practice my Japanese skill. However, my plans were always unsuccessful after I came back to Hong Kong because normal travel packages simply do not offer any social work opportunity. So when I heard about Voltra’s volunteer workcamp on the radio in New Zealand, I thought “this is it, this is the thing I have been looking for so far!”

I deliberately took half a year off of university as I thought autumn could be the best season to travel to any country. I am not fond of doing hard physical work, so I was a bit unsure whether I would be capable to do them after I applied for the work camp in Mie- prefecture. “But if they don't mind, then I don't mind,” that was what I kept thinking to myself when I travelled on night bus and local trains on my way to Nabari　名張市 from Tokyo the day before the workcamp started.

I arrived early at the meeting place and the host – Mr. Iino 伊井野was very welcoming when he came to pick me up at the station. The workcamp site – Akame no Mori 赤目の森was about five minutes away from the train station. Mr. Iino thought I was English when I talked to him on the phone, so he was shocked when he saw me but he was also very glad that I know some Japanese. He told me the Japanese locals, same as him, really like foreigners who can speak some Japanese, so I and Mr. Iino had a very clumsy but long conversation right at the very first time we met. There was Roman, who came from the Czech Republic; he arrived one day before everyone else so, instead of seeing each other at the meeting place for the first time, we introduced ourselves in the log house later in the afternoon. Since many candidates cancelled their trip to this work camp, there were only six work campers in total left this time in oppose to at least ten in previous rounds. The six of us were of different ages; the three Japanese campers were all eighteen while Roman, who was the oldest , was twenty-eight years old. The Japanese campers spoke good enough English and Roman was cheerful enough with his forever-going attempts to make jokes so we did not have the language and age barriers that we thought we would face. For the first two days we travelled a bit around the neighborhoods in Akame no Mori, and then Mr. Iino took us on his truck to the famous 48 waterfalls in the Akame area. We walked and hiked many hours just in the first two days to get to know each other and the area better, we also met many different people in the local area in many occasions that we made at least six introductions about ourselves in full and proper manners which merely happened in the first two days of the work camp.

We were the 20th round of international work campers in Akame no Mori, which will serve as the last group to celebrate its 10th Anniversary Alumni gathering in Tokyo on 3 October, 2009. We were also the first group to have no official leader for the entire period. That was why most of the time we took direct orders from Mr. Iino. However Mr. Iino only spoke Japanese so the foreigners in our group, including myself, needed to rely on the three Japanese work campers for everything that we do not understand. We talked mainly in English at the beginning but when things got too tough for translation, Japanese generally took priority over English. It was a very great opportunity for me to practice my Japanese and translation skills, and we spent quite a lot of time translating to each other. The process was very time-consuming and very tiring on top of the hard work we had to do in the forest, but that was how, I think, we developed deep friendship and we were driven to build trust among ourselves (the six work campers) as we could not depend on the short term camp leader at all (the temporary leaders came and gone too fast).

Our main duties included cutting weeds, logging trees, making wood chips, carrying branches and timbers on foot and by truck around the Akame forest. We used chainsaws, weed cutters, sickles and many other types of equipment to clean up and repair the hiking tracks in groups within the forest. We mostly worked with Mr. Shibata芝田 in the forest because Mr. Iino has to work in the Day care service centre during day time. Mr. Shibata is 70 years old this year and he was a journalist when he was young. He taught us how to use chainsaw and other heavy, dangerous machines. We were so grateful to have Mr. Shibata around because we grew from nothing to “chainsaw masters” within two weeks. Mr. Shibata also took photos of us during work and each time he would print us a hard copy the very next day.

In the first weekend we worked with 11 other local Japanese people for 2 days in the forest. It was a weekend workcamp which works in conjunction to our international workcamp but it was too short for us to get to know them well. We exchanged emails and address nonetheless.

Half way through our camp, we had a free day to travel to Nara奈良and Asuka飛鳥.　　 However we had to go visit the local primary school on the same day for cultural exchange, we did not have enough time to go there on train. To our surprise Mr. Iino offered to take us there by car. Roman called our free day as “baby-sitting by Mr. Iino” but we had a great time taking the ride. It was something I called it “once in a life time” experience, because I thought there would be no other chance to be travelling with the same people like that again in my life. It was so much fun going to Nara although we were rushing from places to places.

The cultural element of the workcamp was very deep and rich. At the end of workcamp we had to help set up and prepare for a symphony orchestra performance and tree planting in Akame event in Satoyama 里山square for the general public. On the very last day we also helped prepare the stage for Nabari Ondo　名張音頭, a traditional dance performance which was dedicated for seniors in the day care service centre right next to our log house.

We had very tight schedules throughout the entire workcamp and even extra work on cooking and washing dishes for ourselves in groups of twos every day. Apart from working very hard in the forest, we also had drinking parties and endless nights of meeting among ourselves and with Mr. Iino.

Mr. Iino is a forest conservation activist and he works for over 30 years to preserve the original sceneries within the countryside of the Akame region. He said in order to preserve what we see every day, we had to maintain, develop and utilize the forest in a balanced way. We learnt a lot from him however the all of us (including Mr. Iino) were at the same time heavily deprived of sleep from the never-ending nights of meetings and drinking parties throughout the period we stayed.

Although we did not live together for very long time but the day we spent with each other was so intense and unique in itself that worth to be remembered through my life. Not only my goal for some language practice has fulfilled, I was given so much more as I was involved in many events with the local public and the most important of all, I think I have made life-long friends with the international workcampers. The work in the forest was no doubt very hard which was both very physically demanding and mentally exhausting, however it was the hardships, I think, which pull the six of us together so that we made it through one by one. For example there were many works involved before and after the primary school visit, such as thinking of what to do and say in front of the children and the preparation for the 30-minute international workcampers’ show in the opening ceremony of the symphony orchestra event which we had to do in front of 100 local people. The workcamp I had in Mie-prefecture was not about saving the world but it is definitely something that can cheer me up each time when I come to think of it.