芋: Japan's Sweet Potatoes

Well, I've told many people that when I went to Japan I would become a farmer. Well, I have kept my word. I have begun to live off of the land. Truth be told, I'm not really doing anything other than "glorified weeding", but hey, a samurai's got to start somewhere right?

Today, I started off by chopping some vines that normally grow around the potatoes. My wife's grandpa (ojichan) would cut the vines and I would chop them up with a fancy samurai/farming blade contraption. I'd take the chopped pieces, load them into a wheelbarrow, and then drop em off at the compost area (actually I don't know what it's called, but, hey, I can't be too far off). 

Repeat the process four more times.

Some of you might be thinking that this is pure drudgery and slave labor, but I actually enjoyed it. I love testing myself and finding fun ways to do boring things, so I made it into a game (where I was the only player). I would try to do the process as fast as I could and even ended up running with the wheelbarrow. I'm sure all the neighbors were goggle-eyed at seeing a foreigner running across the street with a wheelbarrow full of vines, but alas 'tis the price of having fun.

Ojichan then handed me the hoe and let me harvest the potatoes. Oh, what a great experience! I really didn't do much, but I honestly enjoyed the fact that I was "kinda" farming and not just "weeding". Well, for those of you (like me, a few hours ago) who don't know how to harvest potatoes. You basically hoe the earth a bit away from where you think the potatoes are, pull up, and then smile as you see potatoes start breaking free from the ground. After that, you simply stick your hands in, grab the potatoes, and then yank em free.

And that's what these suckers look like. Now, this picture gives no justice to these bad boys. Some of them are actually quite big. In fact, let me show you:

Say hello to my little friend

This imo was like the size of a coconut! Look at that thing! Imagine if you saw that on your dinner plate. I mean, I've never seen a potato so large. Anyways, after the hoe-ing, we used some blade-like tools to cut off the roots and smaller vines from the potatoes and then called it a day.

I would say that I have successfully leveled up my farming skills today. I hope that in a few more levels, I can change classes and maybe become a fisherman. Until then, またね～