Some kind of like spa treatment

Usually pay 100, right?

Hundreds of dollars, usually

In this video we're going to Peace & Nature NPO

Organic farm in Kobe Japan

Bahram, an Iranian man, alongside his wife Shinobu,

has worked to develop the farm for the past 18 years

Working side with their Japanese neighbors,

They strived to retain the appreciation of old method of Japanese farming

Integrating with that,

sustainability

technology

All at the same time

Pretty impressive, right?

He specifically accomplished by holding weekend events

Where participants can come, and experience first hand

What it is like to actually take part in this traditional style of communal planting

This is what you will see today

Along with the "community focus"

"community accomplished"

"traditional rice farming"

We're also going to hear from some of the students who participated

And don't be fooled, these students grew up in Japan

They're going to give insight on what farming means to them personally and community

and as well as how they are involved with the farm

for these technological initiatives that they have placed to help the environment

Naturally I was in a huge rush to discover what an completely inapt rice farmer I would make

but Bahram explained in our orientation that

That would be perceived by cutting down bamboo first

And that had 2 full purpose of helping the neighboring farmers,

but also because where the bamboo had grown up

was where the rice fields were before

So you needed to remove them first, before you can plant more

So it's just beyond this path

Up over the hill, we walked over the edge

I suppose of the local mountain range,

That is where you can do your bamboo chopping

As you can see you can see a lot of bamboo growing wild around

But it's covering a lot of rice field

And the idea is to clean up

So we can give identity to the village back

because there are beautiful rice there this year

And we can use the bamboo, because it's an amazing grass

It works very well in structure, even for architecture

but in this case, we will ground it,

make it into powder and use it for fertilizing the field

There's a lot going on at OZO Base

That involves youth and tries to get kids involved in youth programs

Get really in touch with nature

Do things like the rice planting

but that's an inward initiative

But they are also looking outward

with the power of technology

They have accomplished that in a variety of interesting ways as well.

My name is David, and for my school project I have collaborated with OZO base

to promote forest sustainability using social media

The # I created was #10000treechallengekobe

This project is intended for Kobe but

it is appreciated to become a global initiative

so please post planting a tree using the hashtag

And this will help this project and the environment

ok so we have our safety gear today

and we have our helmet since we don't know what will fall off a tree

And then we have our trusty blades

They were just saying as well that

because it rains so much

There's a lot of frogs

And frogs are food for snakes so

we got to be extra careful of those as well

Now here I'm going to give you guys a dark fact

Bamboo grows notoriously fast

For that reason, it was used a long long time ago,

as a torture device

where they would lay people over the bamboo,

and it will grow so quickly

but still agonizingly slow

but they would grow up through the person who were laid up on top of them

and kill them

You never thought you'd get that on Waoryu! ONLY in JAPAN, did you?

Unquestionably one of the highlights of the day was,

not only the younger kids,

but the students who participated in the day's event

were really enjoying the experience

We make this assumption about the younger generation

that they would only be entertained when we put them in front of a screen,

but when they were sharing their experience of enjoying this and why,

it really spoke to the contrary,

and demonstrated why functions like this are so

still valuable for youthful minds

Always nice when the vegetables harvest

because then my mom brings them home and we have fresh vegetables

and it's sustainable here so there are no chemicals

and things like that in the food you're eating

and you know where it's coming from, which is nice.

This is a perfect place I'm standing right here to highlight

how the shadow can cast over the rice field

and when you clear it out, when you clear out the bamboo that is,

these are collective fields in the sense that

they are right next to each other in the sense of ownership

There is peace and nature initiative here

for ONO compound

but there are also the locals who live here

who have their rice paddies next to each other

And when you clear out a space like this

you're helping yourself but you're also helping your neighbor

and that's another kind of active community they are trying to support

with the initiative here

Next up in our day

we're going to plant some rice

Now the thing about the planting we are doing today is that

it's obviously without any machine

The whole mentality here is,

sustainable

That means doing it yourself

I think it's very valuable to feel

directly connected to whatever that is

going to provide you with nourishment

FOOD

Today we got to directly participate in that,

and I think things are going to get pretty wet

because I was told I have to wear these half length pants

and we're going in bare foot

so there is no turning back now

In the west,

farming is thought as something individual or by each household

so they have been using machinery

but in the Japanese farming culture

is said to have started 6000 years ago in Yayoi period

and did not see the development of machinery

so a community of manpower was needed to grow crops

Today we're doing without the machine

When you have the machine you have it uniformly spaced for you

To overcome that, today we have on either side of the patty,

they have individuals with poles with string attached

which extends across the patties

and at intervals along that string was

red marks which indicates people that are planting

where they should put the rice in

It obviously take more time

but that tactile sense involved is cool

You plant one line across that string,

And those with poles move back half a foot,

and you continue

And another detail which is easy to make mistake

the line moves forward when you're putting in the rice

you always put it in the other side of the string

so it doesn't get pulled over when they move to the next line

The mud actually feels really good in your feet

yeah it's so satisfying

It's sort of like some spa treatment

You would usually pay 100s, right?

This would be 100s of dollars usually.

Yeah, for free

This war paint, is not simply because it feels cool to wear war paint

and I don't do this often

It actually has a totally practical reason

When you put this on,

you 're going to protect you from the sun

natural protectant against being burnt all day

Not only that

but if you have this mud on you,

of course it's going to protect you from the insects as well

Insects could be a huge irritant when you're out here so

finally getting to play in the mud like a kid

but this time with utility

is incredibly satisfying

Just as assuredly

as the sun burnt arms I got from this trip

I also earned appreciation for physical labor again

It was so much fun to get out there

go out to the act of planting rice

I've always been curious to do that

Thanks so much to Bahram and Steen

to being so accommodating

I feel like a changed man after this

I will never look at the food in Japan quite the same way

and be with a greater appreciation

Thank you as well for watching and tuning in

If you enjoyed this stuff please push the LIKE and comment

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For now that's all. Have a great day

Take care out there and we'd see you in the next video