Willing Workers – Gorgeous Guests – Nozomi

(Fair warning – long post – go get yourself a hot chocolate first)

Since our move to Tasmania nearly 4&1/2 years ago we have had pretty much a constant stream of visitors. Of course lots of family and friends have made the trip down, but also what I call our “Randoms”

Just by luck & word of mouth we have had a lot of travellers coming to stay and enjoy our little area of the world.

Today I will introduce you to Nozomi, a lovely young lady from Japan who was in the first group of ‘randoms’ that we ever had staying here.

It was one of those serendipity things. A girlfriend of mine was at the coast in NSW and spotted Nozomi and her friend Yusuke (more on Yusuke another time 🙂 ) working at an orange juice stall. She recognised them as Japanese and since she spoke the language, went up and made friends and chatted a while.  She found out that they were working around Australia and were bound for Tasmania soon so she said “My friends have just moved to Tasmania, they love Japan, you should go and stay!”

They got in touch and also asked if another friend (Omi – more on him another day) could join them (Jeff was starting to weird-out at this point wondering how many I was going to try to fit in!!) and I am like, hey why not?

We all had the best time. I was supposed to get them to help in the garden and whatnot in exchange for their board, but we were new to Tasmania too and we just had a lot of fun making new friends and travelling about, definitely some gardening but oh so so so much great food!

Nozomi is a fabulous cook – we were missing Japanese food and boy did we get spoiled!

The kitchen seemed to always be a hive of activity.

From these three initial guests we have been introduced to no fewer than 10 other Japanese travellers who have stayed with us! Some come and work in the garden and kitchen in exchange for food and board, others have paid us a bit of money to simply do a bit of sightseeing.

Nozomi returned with another friend about a year after her initial trip, a lovely man, Aveen, who we have become really good friends with. He is whacky and funny with a heart of gold! (I am sure more on him later too! 🙂 )

Nozomi worked hard while in Australia and saved enough money to fly both her Mum and her Aunt to Australia and treated them to a 13 day holiday to show them where she had been living and working the past couple of years! What an amazing girl!

Of course part of that trip was a 5 day Tasmanian Adventure.

We fit so much in in our five days! Beaches, hiking, national parks and wildlife! Plenty of wildlife!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And just to prove that not all Australian wildlife is out to kill you… here is a baby devil – totally sweet huh? –

And did we eat well while the family was here?? You Betcha!

I think Jeff may have shed a tear when they left!! He especially LOVES Japanese food! 🙂

We really enjoyed their visit – it was pretty much their first time out of Japan and they were so much fun to show around! Like little kids with their eyes open wide! It was great to be a part of that.

Skip forward a bit and Jeff and I got to go back to Japan and travel around a bit. Of course catching up with our friends was an important part of the journey.

We went down to Fukuoka to meet Nozomi, who had gotten herself married to a gorgeous fellow, Tetsu!

They were living with Tetsu’s parents in this beautiful 200 year (plus) home and we were invited to stay. It was the first time ever that foreigners had stayed here! We were welcomed and made part of the family – beautiful lasting memories!!

 

Every morning Tetsu’s parents take an early walk around the local rice fields and shrines. We joined in one morning and it was fantastic.

 

 

And of course we ate really well! Our favourite place was the ramen noodle stalls in Fukuoka!

First you choose a stall and squeeze right on in –

Then you start ordering. The portions are small so you can order a nice variety of whatever takes your fancy! The food and atmosphere are equally wonderful –

All of these wonderful experiences and new friends just wouldn’t have happened without a chance meeting at an orange juice stall and us opening our home and saying “Sure – come on down”

The directions life goes can be interesting and when you embrace it whole heartedly it often shines back on you tenfold.

We were so happy to meet Nozomi and we look forward to seeing them all again someday – they now have a baby girl who we can’t wait to give a cuddle to!