Ep. 10 – Did we ruin our Japanese Garden?

My parents left on a tour of Japan, and some friends from Canada came to visit, along with Caitlin. We spent some time in Tokyo exploring the cherry blossoms, and then brought them down to Ito to enjoy some relaxation. It was fantastic to see everyone and introduce them to this new adventure we’re on!

After that, my parents came back and they and Caitlin did a ton of yard work, at the same time as the patio construction got kicked off.

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CHAPTERS
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00:00 Exploring with my Parents
01:32 Prepping for guests
02:26 Picking up supplies
04:41 Off to meet friends
05:26 Meiji Jingu & Cherry Blossoms
08:17 Beach day in Shimoda
10:48 Caitlin flexes her green thumb
11:53 Project Patio begins
18:05 Yard Work
21:08 Pruning the feature Maple
22:53 Preparing for the Patio
24:59 Family Yard Work session
28:40 Outtro

Took my parents out to explore the Kawazu 7 waterfalls
Then we spend a few hours at Shujenzi Temple It’s a really stunning Buddhist Temple in the middle of Izu Then it was time to prepare for more guests. My parents are off to do a trip to Kyoto (etc.), but our friends from Canada are arriving But before they get here, the wood I ordered for my workbench has finally arrived I really gotta remember to bow, and not shake hands haha “Okay! I finally got my wood” “Won’t be able to start working on anything for another week But, it’s all good. So… excited, progress!” (Narrator: He wouldn’t start for another month…) Time to head to Tokyo to meet Caitlin and our friends from Canada I snagged a seat in the front of the special Kinme train today. So cool! Today is about exploring Tokyo. I first took them to Meiji Jingu Then we headed to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden to see all the Cherry Blossoms So beautiful! (Quite a shot I must say *pats own back*) “Doubt tongs, Double tongs!” “Kevin, Kevin give her the ice!” “Kevin’s the middle child, he’s in the middle of the table. He wants to just put his tongs into everything.” “Oh yeaaaah. That engine!” “It’s floored” It’s time for a beach day in Shimoda I can’t get over how clear the water is here. It’s tropical! Nice try Mr. Surfer After the beach we headed up the Mt. Nesugata ropeway to Aizenmyoodo Temple So peaceful and beautiful up there. “It’s pretty built up, with the river through the middle” And we couldn’t forget a stop at Joynt Brewing in Ito afterwards After everyone left, Caitlin couldn’t wait to start on the garden again “Ohayo gozaimasu” (おはようございます) – It means “Good Morning” The big project of clearing the land and building the stone patio is about to begin Just me pointing out the camera, and that I’m filming for YouTube They seemed to get a kick out of the “YouTuber” 🙂 It’s crazy how dense this little area was. So much was removed. “Caity” “So I think that’s what he’s gonna cut down.” “You happy with this?” “Opens it up, we have this area open and all this area open now. And then this guy’s staying? I think we’re gonna keep all that. Because that’s far enough out. Yeah, yeah, and it’s like this way. And if I need to cut it down, I can cut it down. What is this, that feels dead, eh?” “What about this one?” “Do you want that down too? Well where’s the deck going? I really don’t know the shape of it yet I kinda want this guy down because it’s dead. I’d rather replace it. Is it dead? It looks dead, it’s really tiny things growing, but…” “I’m trying to load a translation on here so I can ask some questions You don’t have your phone, do you? I do, yeah. Why don’t you just ask him if that tree’s dead? (Caitlin attempts to communicate with her phone and gestures) “じゃないです” – “Not it’s not” It’s not withered, so it’s still alive. I think, because the maple is there, it’s fine in that line. To stay there? Yeah, to stay there. We could remove that small one there if you really want, the one at the end of the path here. It’s kind of in the way. Okay, sure. But then that’s why I’m like, I kinda want the big one down. But it’s not in the way. The deck definitely isn’t gonna go there because it’s in line with the tree there. So it’s gonna get cut off. Yeah, I just think I feel like I would wanna put a different tree or bush I’ll cut the tree down if we need to. Okay.” “And it’s actually not as much of a slope as I thought it was. Right. Because the half is lowered. Right.” Ok, enough chatting. Back to work Caitlin. I even gave up my supervisor role and started helping too Ok, this was controversial, but they convinced us to trim the Maple tree This Japanese Maple is going to be the feature tree when we eventually get the deck built It’ll cap off the design of the deck. Hopefully it’ll pay off! Trust the process, trust the process… It’s so much smaller now! After clearing out the bulk of the trees and bushes, it was time to map out the area Then they spent hours digging out roots. Very happy it wasn’t me. It was only April, but already so hot. We gave them lots of drinks “やった” – Yatta! (Mean, I did it!) He was working on that root for at least 30 minutes! That was the end of the first day. So much done! My parents came back from their trip in time to help Caitlin do more yard work. Thanks Mom and Dad! There are a bunch of groups of trees around the yard And they’re were all overgrown with vines, fallen leaves and weeds These 3 did a wonderful job of cleaning things up Caitlin still found some time for some fun though Dad found a rock he couldn’t let exist where it was. You can do it! He did get it if you’re wondering. And they built a nice little rock garden around some trees. “Well, it’s been quite an adventurous week. Actually a few weeks, we had our friends come up from Toronto to visit us and it was fantastic having people here staying at the house. We actually spent a few weekends in Tokyo with them as well because for most of them, it was their first time here in Japan. So that was really cool getting to show them around the city. But I think everybody really enjoyed being out here in the countryside and getting time to relax and get away from the grind of living in the city. They all live in big cities themselves. So this was a nice departure. Toured them around the area, showed them the sights, went to the Jogasaki, went up Omuroyama, all the big hits. After that, Caitlin actually got to spend a little time here with me, just the two of us. And that was really nice. So it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to see her in person. So it was nice having some one-on-one time. Really just a prelude to everything that we’re gonna do for the rest of our lives, I think. It’s fantastic. And then my parents came back. They actually made their
way did a 10 day or so trip around Japan. I think they had a pretty good time, although it was a guided tour. And I think my dad kind of likes to do things on his own schedule. So that didn’t really work for him all the time. But I think getting to see some of the major sites and they actually made their way down to Fukuoka and Beppu as well. So all things that I haven’t even done yet. And I’m looking forward to doing that over the next little while, the next few years, probably. So this week we were just hard at work on the yard. Mom and dad and Caitlin did so much cleaning up around all of the different areas here. There’s so many groups of trees that were just overgrown underneath. So they took out all the underbrush and things like that. And it’s really starting to come together as a nice garden. And then the big thing was we finally got work started on the patio, which is just fantastic to see some progress done on that. The idea for it has been in my head since the very first images I saw online about this place. So getting to see it actually come to fruition or get started at least is a fantastic feeling. So it’s gonna take a couple of weeks to get that done. But I’m gonna keep just working on things around the house. Caitlin had to leave, but the parents are still here for a few more days. And yeah, hopefully we’ll really start to make some progress on the house after this.