ARI is currently recruiting Japanese participants for next year.

If you are interested, please come to the Open Campus on Saturday 28th of this month! (More information can be found at the end of this article).

So, here’s a report on the “now” of our Japanese graduate!

【Moe Koyama, 2009 graduate】

Q1, Why did you become a participant at ARI?

I experienced the subsistence and community sharing lifestyle in rural villages in Thailand and Myanmar and wanted to learn about agriculture as a base for living and to live in a community myself.
After interacting with ARI participants in Kyoto, I stayed at ARI for a week. I felt so comfortable that I didn’t want to leave. So, I decided to enter ARI.

Q2, What was your biggest learning in ARI?

One day, I got angry and cried at a classmate who did not cleanup, which was the first time I had been able to express my anger outside of my family. I came to know that anger can come from a desire to understand or be understood by the other person.
The other person also tried to understand me and we reconciled the next day.

Q3, About your current livelihood and life

I’ve had a nice slow-paced lifestyle through practicing small scale farming. I live in a mountainous village in Iga, Mie Prefecture, with my husband, a dog and a goat, where rice and vegetables are grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. We provide a mail-order vegetable box set, as well as selling our products at a marche and local greengrocers / natural food shop. I also work at the shop.

In same time, I am involved in events as a director of the Ai-No-Kai, a nationwide agricultural network.

Having my ARI classmate and friend as a neighbor is a great support.

Recently, pickles have become my favorite.

Q4, A message to those who are considering becoming a participant

I was anxious about English before I entered and after two months, the hardest thing for me was not being able to put into words what I wanted to say. But my classmates encouraged me and I was able to have a fun time.

Many participants do not have English as their first language, and they have different levels of English and different ways of speaking English, so both those who are good at English and those who are not good at English make an effort to adapt to the other one. This is how ARI’s unique English is born. So if you are worried about your English, you may have the sense to speak it more clearly than others!
Don’t worry! Be happy!

☆Open Campus will be held on Sep 28th (Sat)☆

10:30-14:00　¥2,000

Including campus tour, fun program and organic lunch (made by ARI products).

To register, please visit here→ https://ari.ac.jp/entry-form-open-campus2024/

Similar programs will be held on 25 Jan (Sat).

If you are thinking of being a Japanese participant, you can also visit the school on other dates, so please feel free to contact us.