Last Tuesday, the ARI community gathered at a nearby park to enjoy the beauty of Hanami, the traditional Japanese custom of cherry blossom viewing. Surrounded by blooming sakura trees and the gentle signs of spring, we shared a peaceful and
Special workshops will be held. InterFM radio “Lazy Sunday” interview on the 3rd day of the event.
ARI is hosting special workshops at our NGO Village booth at Fuji Rock from Friday, July 28 to Sunday, July 30, and will be interviewed about our booth on InterFM radio program “Lazy Sunday” on Sunday, July 30 from 1:05-1:20PM.
ARI, a multicultural community from more than 20 countries, is a self-sufficient organic farm that offers globally impactful leadership training programs. We will be hosting a booth at the NGO Village at Fuji Rock ’23. Moreover, ARI will be offering a variety of unique workshops, such as a lecture on how to wear the traditional Indian sari, a mini English conversation class with Australian and American English speakers, and an interactive lesson on how to make organic fertilizer from everyday items! These special workshops will be held at the NGO Village from July 28 (Fri.) through July 30 (Sun.) to spread awareness about ARI and our activities.
Also happening this weekend is an interview about ARI’s Fuji Rock booth! It will be aired on the InterFM radio program “Lazy Sunday” on July 30 (Sun.), from 1:05-1:20PM. Please enjoy the talk about “Sustainability, radio, and ARI”.
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary commemorative event to be held on September 16, ARI will also launch a renewed website to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ARI! More details will be announced as they become available. Please take a look at this site as well.
50th Anniversary Commemorative Website
JP: https://ari.ac.jp/50th-anniv
EN: https://ari.ac.jp/en/50th-anniv
ARI’s crowdfunding project and Fuji Rock exhibit have led to an appearance on InterFM radio’s “Lazy Sunday,” hosted by George Kackle and Maya Watanabe.
The hosts will feature ARI as one of the “villagers” of the NGO Village at Fuji Rock, where NGOs and Fuji Rock guests work together to address and solve social & global problems.
This Sunday, July 30, from 13:05-13:20, ARI staff members, including Manoshi — who is a dual citizen of India and Japan– and Jack, who grew up in NYC, will try to introduce ARI’s connection to the SDGs, ARI’s Fuji Rock booth, and ARI’s initiatives in a new and fun way! Furthermore, you’ll get to know more about the ARI community by listening to Manoshi talk about her culture shock after coming to east Asia, saying, “In Japan, there are not cows everywhere!”. And Jack, who was born in New York, will talk about how his English level has actually improved since coming to ARI in Japan! Please tune in for a light-hearted and important conversation about ARI and our initiatives!
July 30 (Sun) 13:05-13:20 interFM George Cockle’s Lazy Sunday | InterFM 89.7MHz TOKYO
https://www.interfm.co.jp/lazy
| ARI will present Fuji Rock ’23 NGO Village Booth Workshop Date: July 28 (Fri.)-July 30 (Sun.), 10:00~17:00 Location: NGO Village Booth at Fuji Rock ’23 @ Naeba Ski Resort in Yuzawa-machi, Niigata Prefecture Fee: 1,000 yen for each workshop Duration: 30 minutes for each workshop |
Every country has its own traditional clothing, just as Japan has its own yukata and kimono! You will try on and learn how to wear the Indian sari, which can be completed with just one large piece of cloth!
How do people in Malaysia play “Teodama” in Japan? How is Shogi in Japan played in Indonesia? How did children in those countries across the sea play when they were children playing until sunset? Let’s learn by playing mini games from around the world together!
We will have a large white cloth for everyone who stops by to draw, paste, and creatively decorate with their own artistic flare! The theme of the artwork will be chosen at random from the many themes provided by ARI, and participants will be asked to draw it on-the-spot from memory! Can you draw a “goat” at this very moment? What shape are the horns? How big is the tail? Where are the ears? How about experiencing “what you know but don’t know”?
ARI is a self-sufficient school where students grow, prepare, and eat three meals each day on their own! There is a lot of waste in the process of growing vegetables in the field, cooking them, and eating them. Such vegetables are turned into fertilizers and used as nutrients for the fields again. However, throwing them into the field as they are will not work. The key is fermentation! At ARI, we use a wide variety of “waste” products and use them to amend our soil in various ways! We start by composting everyone’s leftover food and fermenting fertilizers. Natural yeast made by fermenting ARI’s organic flour! ARI’s livestock feed is also handmade fermented feed! Livestock manure is also fermented and used as biogas energy! This workshop is designed to learn about ARI’s fermentation techniques through all five senses!
Many Japanese people eat rice every day, but how many of us know how to grow it? In this workshop, we will show you how rice seeds are planted and what its growing process looks like through a game! Growing rice is a long and arduous process, but since it is also an indispenable staple food in Asia, please take this special opportunity to learn more about rice! Please join us!
The shortcut to learn any language is to speak it a lot! Since English is the official language at ARI, Japanese volunteers and staff communicate in English on a daily basis. 4 native English speakers and 3 translators will accompany us when we exhibit at the NGO Village booth at Fuji Rock ’23. How about a mini English conversation class with an American-Australian pair? Translation will be available on the spot!
ARI has attracted students from 62 countries in the past, and volunteers come from all over the world, including Japan, the U.S., Germany, and Australia. In such a life, there are a series of culture shocks. We will share some of these shocking aspects with you in the form of a quiz and a game!
(Q1) The staple food in many African countries is not rice, but grains and potatoes such as corn and cassava. How are they processed and eaten?
Tucked away on a hillside in Japan is a unique school…
Life at ARI is brought alive by the gentle and warm haiku accompanied by colorful watercolor illustrations. We invite readers to explore the world of ARI, where life is sustained by seeds and soil and enriched by community.
This English poetry and picture book comes with a Japanese translation and is a perfect gift for all ages. We recommend it for those who want to learn more about ARI, for those who love nature, and as well as for those who want to enjoy beautiful poems and pictures.
Food for All Our Tomorrows –
Poems on Seed, Soil, and Sustainability
By Joyce Ray
with Illustrations by Susan Rock
<Purchase in Japan>
Price – 1,100 yen including tax
Order by phone (0287-36-3111) or email ([email protected]), or purchase at the ARI shop.
If ordering by email, please include the following information:
– Your name
– Your address
– Phone number
– Number of books you would like to order
<Purchase in the United States>
We will mail you a copy of the book for a suggested donation of $20 per copy. This includes shipping and handling. Please contact [email protected] to request this book and include the following information:
– Your name
– Your address
– Phone number
– Number of books you would like to order
Travel expense crowdfunding for participants reaches 1 million yen!
Thanks to everyone’s cooperation, we were able to raise 1,000,000 yen (200% of our goal), far exceeding our goal of 500,000 yen!
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We would like to thank everyone for their support and cooperation in making this project a success. With the funds raised, we will be able to cover the travel expenses of one participant from each of Asia, Africa, and Latin America to learn at ARI.
Once again, we are grateful for your cooperation! Thank you very much!
Now that the project is over, we will be sending out returns to all of our supporters one by one. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your continued support.
In addition, as part of this crowdfunding project, we will appear on a Japanese radio program, “Lazy Sunday” hosted by George Cackle and Maya Watanabe on InterFM radio station. This Sunday, July 30, from 13:05-13:20, ARI’s young staff Manosi and Jack will introduce the SDGs, Fuji Rock, and ARI’s efforts!
July 30 (Sun) 13:05-13:20 InterFM Lazy Sunday Lazy Sunday | InterFM 89.7MHz TOKYO
In conjunction with the upcoming 50th anniversary celebration on September 16, we will also be renewing our commemorative website to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ARI’s founding. Please check it out!
Once again, thank you very much for your support.
We look forward to your continued support.
Welcome to ARI Family Series in our ARI Blog! In this series, we are posting about our community members’ experiences at ARI. As a second time, we are focused on a lovely couple, Claire and Rusty, long-term volunteers!
They have spent 25 years teaching and being taught by many people, from small children to adults, about sustainable farming and living in the United States.
The article mainly mentioned about their experiences, their reasons for coming to ARI, and their life here. They also describe some of the interesting projects they have started, such as a kitchen garden and making recycled paper!
Claire and Rusty Orner – Volunteers from USA
A third of our time has already passed at ARI (Asian Rural Institute). We are here serving through the Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) and the United Church of Christ of Japan (UCCJ). We arrived at ARI on February 10, 2023 and will complete a full year of sharing life together.
We both grew up on farms; Claire’s parents were organic homesteaders and Rusty’s family had a 100-cow dairy herd. We have stewarded Quiet Creek Herb Farm & School of Country Living for 25 years. It is still going strong with two young adults, Sarah and Sylvia, as they teach and maintain the 12-hectare organic herb, flower, fruit and vegetable farm school. Plenty of toddlers to adults continue to learn how to live gently on the Earth in Pennsylvania, while we learn regenerative concepts here in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.
Since 1996, hundreds of volunteers, day long to year long, have helped us grow and share Quiet Creek with thousands of passionate students yearning to live sustainably. As we aged with the farm school, we were committed to “pass the farm school forward” so the next generation could make a difference in the world. We also wanted to continue the “kindness circle” of volunteering in other communities and share the gifts so many have shared with us at Quiet Creek.
In December of 2020, we were ready with airline tickets to come serve at ARI, but Japan needed time to work through the pandemic, so we patiently waited. In the meantime, we accepted an opportunity to volunteer at Gould Farm. It was great training for us to step out of our administrative responsibilities at Quiet Creek and contribute to this new adventure, a therapeutic community of adults seeking mental health healing while participating in farm life. During the experience, we were blessed to build relationships with many folks at Gould in western Massachusetts by building a worm composting system, making bagels, cooking for 100, inoculating mushroom logs, and making cheese.
Now that we have settled in Japan, we are so at home here with our ARI family; this unique opportunity builds community with people from over 20 different countries – Australia to Zambia and thousands of indigenous microorganisms (IMOs). Daily we learn new things from our friends and often conversations are deep and meaningful over FEAST (Food Education and Sustainable Table) cooking and meals. What a blessing that over 90% of our ARI diet comes from the farm; we enjoy mulberries, biwa, mizuna, miso, goat milk, eggs, and pork, to name just a few.
Beyond our standard volunteer duties, we have been invited at ARI to share our combined skills and knowledge of over 100 years of farming experience. With the influence of the ARI Kitchen staff, Ikumi and Ramon, and the assistance of participants and farm staff, we installed a kitchen garden using the permaculture technique of Hügelkultur. The garden is thriving beautifully, and it is so convenient to snip culinary herbs and edible flowers for our ARI community meals. We also sing, pray, teach and bake weekly with the Mingos Gospel Choir, ARI Prayer & Dance Meeting, English class, and sprouted sourdough bread baking, respectively. Other projects involve worm composting, herbal paper making, food processing, and more (maybe an earthen bread oven is on the schedule).
Yes, we are having fun sharing with our ARI family now, and in the near future, our two young adults, Walker and Blue, will come to experience ARI to feed the chickens, tend the gardens, and celebrate ARI’s mission – that we may live together. Thank you all for your support encouraging us to fulfill this life-changing opportunity!
ARI Director Tomoko Arakawa’s book “Seeking Knowledge to Live Together – From the Window of ARI” will be reprinted.
The way of life and one’s own words are inseparable. This book teaches us once again that grassroots activities based on personal encounters and dialogues, rooted in self-reflection, and continued in a steady manner, and the words that emerge from these activities will resonate in our hearts as true “wisdom”.
Translated excerpt from a book review in the Christ Newspaper Web Edition
(Reviewer: Rev. Shoko Kitanaka, Pastor of International Christian University Church)
http://www.kirishin.com/book/60640/
We expect the book to be in short supply for about three months before it is reprinted. Please be patient as you may have to wait.
ARI Director Tomoko Arakawa’s book “Seeking Knowledge for Living Together – From ARI’s Window” is now available for order.
The book is available at the following special price if you order it from ARI.
Please contact ARI to place your order.
(+81) 0287-36-3111
The regular price is 1,200 yen (tax not included), but only for the year 2023
50th-anniversary price 1,000 yen (tax included, shipping not included)
Local Newspaper, Shimotsuke Shinbun, published an article about ARI’s current crowdfunding campaign!
We are grateful to the many people in our local community of Nasushiobara who have remembered and supported ARI’s efforts to nurture rural leaders in the world.
We hope that our 50th anniversary will be an opportunity to reconnect with the wider ARI community and also to create new connections.
Please join our endeavors by supporting our crowdfunding campaign. We begin accepting donations from Saturday, July 1!
By helping us to nurture rural leaders who initiate change from the grassroots in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific through your contributions, you help change the world.
More information about our work and 50th anniversary mission please visit our anniversary website
50th Anniversary commemorative Page
Preliminary crowdfunding link is also available:
by signing up now, the process to donate later becomes smoother!
https://camp-fire.jp/projects/675517/preview?token=1kr5imvz&utm_campaign=cp_po_share_c_msg_projects_preview
Shimotsuke Shinbun 2023.06.27.
ARI Director Tomoko Arakawa was featured in the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun’s “People” column.
Excerpt from the article of Asahi Shimbun
“Aiming to nurture servant leaders and peace builders”
Please keep all ARI staff and volunteers in your thoughts and prayers as they manage rural leadership training.
Please also remember the learnings and activities of our participants and graduates we celebrate our 50th anniversary.
ARI is built on your support. Please join us in our efforts to nurture leaders who serve.
ARI Crowdfunding (Japanese):
https://camp-fire.jp/projects/675517/preview?token=1kr5imvz&utm_campaign=cp_po_share_c_msg_projects_preview
ARI’s 50th anniversary website (English):
https://ari.ac.jp/en/50th-anniv
ARI will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year! We are taking this opportunity to start crowdfunding this year!
Please hit “Like” on the crowdfunding page. We will be accepting donations from July 1st to July 21st!
This time is crowdfunding only in Japanese though, we are planning to have the English one this year for this occasion. Please support us via the 50th-year anniversary website as well.
The money you donate will be used for travel expenses for participants from all over the world to come to ARI.
ARI has been able to operate for 50 years through the support of many people. However, due to the recent depreciation of the yen and the rising price of gas, our expenses have been increasing. In particular, what used to cost 4 million yen in total before COVID, now cost more than 8 million yen.
Please support us so that we can continue to extend this opportunity to as many participants as possible.
Do click on the link below to learn more about the ARI Crowdfunding!
Watch all our online events again!
Join the ARI life with family and friends!
We're looking for on-campus volunteers
Tsukinukizawa 442-1
Tochigi, Nasushiobara
329-2703 JAPAN
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