WWOOF ing aka housemaids and daycare

We have as of last Monday (the 10th) been WWOOFing. internet as it turns out is not as easily accessable in a house where everyone owns a computer (and i believe there is wireless) but you are the 100 and 101 WWOOFers just passing through. two points.
1) we`ve been busy anyways with awkward moments, strangely articulated work expectations and Obon season 2) we figured out all we really had to do was conjole (congole/ cunjole/ kunjoleee??) one of the children to let us use their computer and here we are. not a big deal.

here is the real story:
we have for the last week been moving around bamboo, doing dishes, weeding, helping with meals, entertaining children and general mucking about Mito, Japan. it has been enjoyable, highly educational and sometimes tedious.
Dorthy is the host and it is with her 3 children, husband and mother that we are staying. she is a manic, forever busy, loud, extreamly generous and helpful woman. she has been continuously teaching us japanese culture via food, customs, videos, conversations and her children which has been amazing. i don:t know how else we could have learned so much in such little time.
we:ve gone to tea ceremony class at the proffessor:s house which was really wonderful.
the over crowded, over modest beach. which ended up being a ploy to babysit the youngest child for 4 hours.
had barbqs, beer, firewords and family visits due to obon season which is the time of year japanese people go home to their parents house and ancestors are believed to come from heaven (or where ever) and visit. altars are laid out, food and beverages, incense and gifts scattered around. it:s one of the biggest holidays in japan and we are extreamly lucky to get to see it first hand.
we`ve had a number of earth quakes here and talks of typhoons but all is well and mito is even quieter and more peaceful than tokyo.
also the foreighnor hating grandmother seems to at least find us only minimally offensive. i believe this is due to anna`s amazing old lady skills.
we are staying with dorthy but actually in the old style japanese house behind dorthy`s newly built house. the floor is all tatami mats, giant windows, bamboo, old decorative tiling, really wonderful. we sleep on matts on the floor and of course no shoes in either house at any point, our feet are not even to touch the entry way floor. serious feet hygiene which sort of laughs in the face of sharing bath water...
(so day two or maybe even one i totally slip and put on shoes while indoors, after the horrified face of the youngest child and a reprimand from dorthy i was then shown the educational video on tatami mats. see very educational. i forgot again this week but no one saw. thank goodness)
this week begins (we thought) the part where we teach young children english. instead it turns out anna and i read a book or two in english and the rest of the time is daycare. i am extreamly thankful this part will only be for a couple of days. it was okay when it was framed as some sort of `save the children` rag but daycare isn:t cultural it:s just tedious.
this week there are more fireworks planned (woo hoo!!!), more english to be taught, more dishes to be done, things to learn and plans to be made for our travels next week.
we have taken a few pictures and hopefully will be able to put them up sometime later this week.


oh last stop in tokyo was the fish market. man that was a hoot.