Plant at Home. Sell at Home. Happy Work.
We got to know the rough information from previous episodes. This time, I would like to tell you the story of the ambition of people who have worked for ten years like us. Yes, according to the name 'Happy Work'. The jobs of the people in this area consists of 3 occupations, namely agriculture, shops, and accommodation services. This is almost a dream city for many people. People live a simple life, get up early, look after vegetation and livestock products. In the late morning people will bring out the products and finish around the evening time. Another cuteness of this city is the city clock and we are not talking about the clock tower. In fact, shops, hotels will open and close at the same time. The whole city close at 6:00 pm. There will be radio broadcasting and the song to wake up the whole city. The shops will be open at the same time from 9:30 am - 5:30 pm, which means we have to adjust the eating time as a tourist as well.
In the late morning, after having breakfast, we chose to ride a bike and only 3 minutes away from the shopping street, we found ourselves surrounded by fields, gardens and organic vegetable plots that farmers planted and then deliver them to restaurants and shopping districts just before the opening time. We saw the cafe and almost every restaurant serves food at approximately 10:30 a.m. for farmers to deliver products first. But that does not mean there’s no fresh market here. During the 3 days in Yufuin, we did not see the morning market, but the vegetable and fresh shops selling periodically along the way. In the shop, you can see vegetables, fruits, and garnish for the neighboring people to buy. The tourists like us can stop by to buy their products as well.
When talking about fresh food, I personally like the idea of selling orange juice here in drilling the fresh oranges that farmers sent directly to the walking street in the middle of the city. The shopkeeper will wash and soak in fresh, cool oranges. Once the there’s an order, they will pull the orange cork to pull the core out, then use a blender that looks like a blade to blend both water and waste. Now that it is ready to serve for people to enjoy the fresh juice in front of the shop at a price of 500 Yen. In the evening when the shops were closed, farmers would ask to share the left orange peels. Some will be fermented into fertilizer. The other part will be processed (pickled, dried and etc.) into many forms of products made of orange peel. So, there is almost no fresh garbage here. This is a complete career and community ecology.
And as I said, the people here are self-grown, so they don't have to leave the city, because each year, Yufuin attracts millions of people each year tourists to come and see the city of agriculture and community reform via the most famous railroad in Japan, Yufuin no Mori which runs through the 3 agricultural cities of Kyushu: Fukuoka, Yufuin and Beppu. This makes farmers only pay attention to maintain the quality of agricultural products, processing (which will be discussed in the next episode). Working at home and staying at home are probably the best things that many people dream about.
Speaking of the concept of agriculture in Japan. The agriculture in japan is supported by the government. This is due to the Japanese landscape being a closed island, therefore, there is a must to focus on food sources in the country by building food security. And because of the land tax system that anyone who has vacant land will have to be taxed at a very expensive rate, so most of the land is not left empty. Some Japanese farmers do not farm all year. Most of the time, farming is only part-time work for landowners. Since there is not much land owned by each family, so the Japanese farmers do not spend much time in farming. Here, the technology is used to help, from rice fields to rice harvesting with a good access to irrigation system that farmers do not have to rely on the seasonal rain.The thing that helps develop agriculture in Japan is the integration of farmers in cooperative forms (JA), which is established to increase bargaining power and cutting middlemen. And because of a good product management and the vendors do not compete against one another until there’s a surplus in the market. With the mind of Japanese people that like to develop better, this makes quality products can be sold at price.
For us, Thailand has many cultural trains that take us to many old cities. We know that trains in ancient times used to carry agricultural products to various areas. But today, culture, tourism, and lifestyle have changed a lot. But let’s hope that one day Thai trains may be able to connect people to farmers like what is happening in Yufuin and Kyushu. Who knows?
Author
Nattaporn Pinpech
Creative / Story teller