Kimono Flea Market ICHIROYA's News Letter No.509
In Japan, outdoor sports are becoming popular- and it may sounds weird but when girls do things which were considered to be men's activities, the girls are called `yama- girl'(mountain climbing girl' or `Tsuri-girl'(fishing- girl). Just simply putting `girl' to activities-but girls' lifestyle has been changed, of course, having more choice, and working in every fields are now becoming natural. `----- girl' expression has encouraging implication.
(Still very little women in administrative position though, but we may write about it sometime in future).
The most popular girls are `farm girls' in Yamagata prefecture.
Six young girls started farming (farming by the girls and for the girls- is the theme of their activity)- and it has been four years.
They have farms(3.2acres) and rice ponds(6.2acres), growing vegetables and rice, and also sell processed goods too.
Their work became a hot topic and their products are now sold at one of the big department also. It is not only because they are `girls'- they are serious and trying very unique methods. To grow rice, instead of using agricultural chemicals, they use Chinese herb mist(the abstracted extract mist made by more than 30 kinds of Chinese herbs). There is no worries of residual pesticide and they say they taste very good.
One of their unique processed goods is `white pudding'. They make eggs with white yolk feeding their chikens with rice, not corn. The pudding tastes mild. They also make several pudding using their vegetables.
Here is their pudding:
They also do `rental farm' business. The farms with `maids'! You may have heard about `Maid cafe' in Akihabara.They compare them with the maids in maid cafe in Akaihabara.
They offer help when you need after renting their farms just like maids, they serve you devotedly.(I do not think they dress like maids like the maids in Akihabara).
They also have `experiential activitiy' program to girls and this program seems very popular.
In Japan, the image of farmers was not good- nougyo(farming) is for older people or only for some country people, (hillbilly might be the word to express this image). This is the last thing for young people, this was the image.
However, they are chaning the image drastically. What they are doing may not be so big yet but has a lot of meaning. They smile can tell, they really enjoy what they are doing and with confidence! We want to send hearty cheers to them, ganbatte, go girls, go!
