Our Mint Master Hiromi is here in her new drying space. She built racks on a shoestring budget and is drying nearly a kilo per week. Come up for tea anytime, or visit the HappyAll refelxology shops in Shibuya and Shinagawa for a fresh organic mint foot bah and massage!

No classic Japanese house is complete without a "goba" pine to protect the entrance. We got ours at a local nursery and borrowed a truck from the Solar Cafe landlords to plant it. Stone work by Watanabe Masao and Shoji.

After months of planning and construction, the bath is finally in. Note the Italian tile work.

Emi's mother is back her native Japan after living in Pakistan for over 20 years! Thanks for visiting the Earth Embassy and welcome home!

Rueben is back on TV again with Doubutsu Kisotengai.

Our old friend, Maeda the producer, was up to meet with Rueben and discuss the role. Rueben will playing the role of Rueben, a sheep who just cant get a girl. He will have to compete with other male sheep, and the two guys from Karate-ka comedy team, dressed up in giant sheep costumes(to boost Rueben's confidence1?!). Then Ruben will be introdcued to a number of girl sheep in a traditional Japanese "Omia" introduction party. Good luck with the Ladies Rueben! The show will air in October on TBS.

Lost 9 kilos, read 12 books, dug 20 lanes, ate shamefully most of the berries grown on the field while nobody was looking, that’s how we will remember our last long term volunteer, Fernando, on his way now to Argentina for new adventures.

Solar Café is with little doubt a favorite stop for passers by, if only for the great open view it offers on Fujisan. It is quiet usual to see people stopping at the café to have their photos taken. Another good reason to enjoy tea and home made cake in our place.

Summer months are not only great to climb Fuji-san, but also the most rewarding when it comes to pickup the fruits from months of hard work around the fields. Around the Solar Café and on the fields, everything is blooming and giving juicy nature sweets that will eventually end up as a toping for one of the Café’s home made cake.

Right now we are growing three types of mint: pepper mint, apple mint and spear mint.

It all starts with growing roots from the existing mint by placing some of them in water. The process takes only a couple of weeks really.

Then we place them in the greenhouse during some weeks for them to grow strong and beautiful.

We dig lanes about 30 cm deep where we place the fertilizer from the local stable manures mixed with soil, and use the straw from tatamis to prevent weeds from growing around.

After a month or two we get happy bushes of mint.

We have built a dryer where the mint will rest for a couple of days until it is ready to be cut and packed.

It surely takes space to grow tomatoes and cucumbers. Any greenhouse would look small really because those vegetables grow as big as they grow fast. The process for the tomatoes starts the same way than for mint, growing roots by placing them into water.

...and of course a little bit of basil won't hurt...