Our host Akio Okano is quite the character. He is the youngest of his siblings and as happens often enough, he (early sixties) and not one of the older brothers has inherited the family estate. The house the deceased parents had up to two years ago is the one we are living in. He is always busy, getting up early in the morning and weekdays after his wife leaves for work prior to 8am he is off and running in his miniature pickup truck.
He grows rice and we presume that at some point he will have to start planting seeds to produce the seedlings that are transplanted into flooded fields. He grows vegetables and we believe the ones he supplies us with come from his vegetable plots primarily. When asked he has suggested that we may be able to help with weeding when it dries up a bit. He used to have chickens, but the coops are empty presently. There is a large greenhouse frame on the premises which looks as though it has been unused for years. Usually a greenhouse is used to start rice seedlings or can be used to grow vegetables or fruit. But it appears that his primary farming enterprise is raising young pigs to a certain stage and then returning them to the owners or for final sale. Currently the pigs are gradually being shipped away. Again when asked he may allow me to help cleaning you know what out of the abandoned pens. As long as I don't mind, as he holds his nose. The pigs are kept in enclosures with a metal roof, otherwise exposed to whatever mother nature can deliver, unlike the pigs in North American factories.
But currently all these enterprises appear to take up very little of his time. His wife leaves for work prior to 8am and returns about 9pm five days a week. And when she is gone he disappears as well. So what does he do? Supposedly he is the house husband. He sings Latin church music in a choir. And currently he is busy getting his art ready for an art exhibition happening next week. We have not seen any of his art yet, but we are hoping he will have time to take us next week. When Yayoi mentioned that she writes tanka (Japanese poetry), he says he would like to do that as well.
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