June 2023
I was exhausted. My whole body cried out for cold water. I just wanted to flop into cold water and then get a full body massage! We had spent 2.5hrs in the hot sun, digging up potatoes. Whilst I was so glad for warm weather, and had been waiting for this for 12 months—living through two winters back-to-back (Australian and then Japanese)—I would have preferred to enjoy the hotter temperatures doing more pleasurable activities!
Back in April (when the weather had been cooler!) we had planted potatoes in the field at the aged-care facility where Shujin is manager. It seemed to be a community event almost, with a small crowd of people coming to give a hand. Some people cut the seed potatoes and dusted them in ash. Others were digging trenches from one end of the field to the other. Still others were taking the cut and dusted potatoes, and placing them in the trenches, while someone went behind them, covering them with dirt. A few of the able bodied grannies from the aged-care facility joined in the fun. There was so much help given, that the picnic lunch which had been prepared, was eaten at 10:30am!
I had expected that the harvesting of potatoes would, likewise, be a community sort of event, with people coming to work together and get the job done, not just faster, but with enjoyment. Surely the harvesting is more fun than the planting!
It seemed, however, that everyone had disappeared… So the morning had started out with just our family doing it. I pushed the garden fork into the soft dirt and raised up the soil to reveal the potatoes hiding below. The kids dug for them like treasures and placed them in the crate. The sun was steadily getting warmer, and the work was very dirty.
The kids shoes were covered in dirt. Missy was lamenting that she hadn’t worn gumboots. I was lamenting that I hadn’t suggested to her to wear gumboots! Then the unusual happened: Shujin told the kids to take off their shoes. My Japanese husband, with feet as smooth as a baby’s bum, who doesn’t like getting dirty, suggested our children go barefoot??!! With happy cries, shoes quickly flew off their feet and soon they were digging their toes, feet and legs into the dirt and reminiscing Australian days in the garden and at the beach. At one stage Bob literally sat in the ditch that had been made from pulling potatoes out as he wanted to cover himself with dirt but I held him back since he had no change of clothes! (What a party pooper!)
The kids were clearly overjoyed with being told by their dad to take their shoes off, but I was in shock. Did my husband really say THAT? My husband had been changing and growing over the last few months. His eyes were being opened to alternative health ideas that I had known, and many I had embraced, for years. It was great to finally be in the same page, but moments like this still caught me off guard!
“Going barefoot will be good for them. Their bodies can do some grounding,” commented Shujin, referring to the children who were practically rolling in the dirt. I nodded in agreement, but internally, I shook my head in wonder. I was still getting use to the alternate-health Shujin!!
We’d been working for some time in the potato field when the neighbour came out to help us. An elderly lady, I thought she might be in her 70's, but I found out she was well into her 80’s. She strode over to us holding her garden tools, a little hunched-backed, she only came up to my shoulder, and wore her huge, beaming smile on her face. She worked with such strength, digging the dirt and pulling up potatoes. She was a machine! After a little while she disappeared and came back, carrying her whipper snipper! Soon the engine was running and grass and potatoes plants were flying everywhere. I made sure the kids and I were well out of the way! Clearly, she had thought there was an easier way to do things! The field did have a lot of grass growing with the potatoes, so she just razored it to the ground! (Well, a section at least!) If I thought she was a machine before, I was even more impressed now! Those whipper snippers are no light machine! And in Japan, most of them come with a metal disc with jagged edges as a cutting blade. And that’s precisely what she had!
Bob, seeing the now cleared space, deserted us and went over to help the old lady (after she’d turned off that whipper snipper!). She noticed Bob’s bare feet and the look on her face was priceless! Japanese NEVER go barefoot, even inside their own house! So her jawbone hit the ground and her eyes bulged out of her head as she looked in shock at Bob with his bare feet! Soon Bob became the advocate, telling her how good it felt! And then the funniest thing happened, she bent down and took off HER boots! It was my turn for my jaw to hit the ground! And what a sight she was, in her farm clothes, hat with cloth around the back of the brim for more sun protection, with her stark white foot on her shovel, digging up potatoes!
“Kimuchi! (Feels good!)”
And to think, she’d wasted 80 something years of not going barefoot…!
We dug up potatoes for 2.5hrs until I thought I’d collapse if I didn’t stop. My whole body was overheated and exhausted right through to the core. I longed to soak in cold water and feel my body revive! Seeing the crates of potatoes dug wasn’t even satisfaction enough to give me energy! Perhaps knowing that we hadn’t even dug up 1/4 of the potatoes had something to do with it…
Shujin had obligations at the aged-care facility so we hung around, and hung around, and hung around……….. waiting to go home. It was several hours later that our very hot and exhausted family were free to make their way home. We went straight to the creek near our house—a little slice of heaven. The water was freezing. I didn’t hesitate (much!). Soaking down into the water, the heat was instantly pulled from my body and I relished the wonderful refreshing. Ahhhh, boy it felt so good!!
We’d had a big day and I was so grateful for the cool, refreshing water, but the highlight, by far, was when the elderly neighbour had felt some sort of unspoken permission to break the unspoken Japanese rule of always wearing shoes, and went barefoot!
Wow, grounding is so common in Aussie land, never knew or thought about other cultures not embracing it!
So pleased the kids and that lady got to enjoy the experience.
Love reading your adventures xo
I love this post Debbie, that ending line, beautiful 🥹
I have to admit I laughed at “able bodied grannies” 😂
What a cute and funny story to reflect back upon x