I previously played music in a bar in Marseille where there were sometimes 5 banjos. The banjo goes, danka, danka, danka, clanga, clanga, clanga, danka, danka, danka
danka, clanga,  dank, clanga, clanga.  5 together made me lose my will to live. No slow airs, no wailing as you pull bracken. That said, Kina Banjo in Okinawa is a great place. It was a meeting point on the road to the north of the island and Commodore Perry had a cup of tea here in the 1853. It was of course totally destroyed during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Now reconstructed it gives an impression of what Okinawa was like prior  to the war.

War, huh, yeah What is it good for Absolutely nothing Uh-huh War, huh, yeah What is it good for Absolutely nothing Say it again, y'all

Yamada sensei pot third from right

Anyway this is a long lead in to my little bit of land. Thanks to esteemed colleague Natori san, I have the right to grow stuff on a piece of land  just beside Kia Banjo. I love

Nothing so becomes a man, er or woman, as horticulture

to grow vegetables and I feel that a bit of horticulture in Okinawa will be a deeply educational experience. As you can see, the land has not been worked for some time.  By the way, we have just had another smallish typhoon and the soil is drenched. I clear and dig over a patch but do no planting as I think it will be better to let the soil dry  out a bit.

Il faut cultiver nos jardins

I intend to plant a lot of Yomitan purple potato. Loads of butterflies watch me dig.

Inna gadda la vida

Thank you

I eat this

780 yen

here – in a break between digging.

So fine

The soil is a little clayey and interestingly orange in color. I think it will be carrots, onions, beans, salad, radish, big white Okinawan super radish and tomatoes.