I had just graduated university in the spring of 2013 and was stuck in a rut of existential fatigue where work, love, and life felt hazy at best. Over drinks in a dark and austere pub, my friend told me she was about to head off to Hawaii to volunteer on an organic farm, and all I could feel was the twinge of jealously that every travel-obsessed fiend feels. Trying my best to express support through a crooked smile, I don’t think I could hide my jealously, she asked me: “You want to come with me?”

Thus began my first experience with WWOOF.

WWOOF is an international network that connects organic farmers to volunteers who are seeking a unique cultural and educational experience. Basically, as a WWOOFer, you volunteer your time helping out on a farm in exchange for food and accommodation. WWOOF Hosts differ case by case, but many acknowledge that it is an exchange for a bit of heavy-lifting for sightseeing on a budget in a deeply local environment.

I knew NOTHING about farming and gardening, but I was able to learn so much from my experience in Hawaii that carried with me, years later, to my life in Japan.

WWOOF was always on my mind, and so, this summer, I finally got the chunk of time necessary to WWOOF in Japan!

In this guide, I’m going to give you a comprehensive on how to WWOOF in Japan, and also my thoughts on where I WWOOFed in Soma, Fukushima at Onomura Farm.

HOW-TO: WWOOF in Japan

• How to Contact Hosts

• How to Choose a Host

• What to Bring

• What to Expect (and Not Expect)

How to Contact Hosts

You’ve decided that you want to WWOOF in Japan! That’s lovely! Now, you need to move on to the next step which is contacting potential hosts.

1. Head over to the WWOOF Japan website, fill out the “WWOOFer Application Form” and create a membership account.  It costs 5,500 yen for an one-year membership, and discounts are available after your second year!
2. The “WWOOFer Application Form” is the basis for your WWOOFer profile that potential hosts can view. I encourage you to write about yourself in personal terms and your motives so the Hosts can get a sense of who you are! Most Hosts have some proficiency in English, so you can write in English or Japanese if you’re keen!
3. After your payment has been accepted, you will be assigned a unique username. Login, and you can start browsing Hosts!
4. You can browse Host profiles from the “Host List” or check the notice board if any need urgent help.
5. If you find a Host that you are interested in, you can send them a message using the built-in messaging system on their profile.
6. When you send a message to a potential Host, you should outline clearly:
   • Your name
   • Your username
   • The dates in which you’d like to WWOOF at the Host’s place
   • Whether you have sent a request to only this Host or to several other Hosts
   • Your purpose for WWOOFing to the Host’s place
   • Why did you chose this Host
   • Something about yourself – interests, educational background, etc
   • Dietary preferences, if you have any
7. Once you finish and send your message, it’s time to wait for a reply! The Hosts are often busy, so it may take a while to get a reply. WWOOF Japan recommends waiting ten days for a reply, so it’s best to start contacting Hosts early if something arises.
8. When your Host replies back and confirms your WWOOFing request, you’ve done it! You’re going to WWOOF in Japan!
9. Plan a date, time and place with your Host for the day you’ll start WWOOFing.
10. Make sure to always reconfirm with your Host by sending a reminder e-mail about a week in advance.

How to Choose a Host

The first time I went WWOOFing in Hawaii, I went with my friend who had already chosen her Host. We were super lucky to WWOOF at Kona Earthly Delight’s farm because the Hosts were very kind and invested in teaching us how to actually garden and farm! In addition to tending to regular farm duties, we also had a small learning garden which we tended to ourselves. Our Hosts also gave us plenty of free time in the afternoon to relax and hit the beach!

I feel very lucky that my first WWOOF experience connected us with a fantastic Host, but I’ve heard some horror stories from other WWOOFer friends who weren’t so lucky. We WWOOFed with a lovely couple from America while in Hawaii, and their first Host in Hawaii was a disaster – lack of food provided, overworked, and an abusive Host – they ran away from that Host in the middle of the night!

In Japan, I believe there is a low chance of encountering a truly bad Host as my experience with Japanese people has been mostly extremely positive! They will often go above and beyond to help and make you feel comfortable. Of course, there are anomalies in Japan that might not offer what you may view as a fair exchange.

Hosts will vary from country to country, city to city, individual to individual, but the most important thing to remember is that: you can be picky! 

Take time to read the profiles of each Host and what sort of conditions they have for WWOOFing. Some points that you should pay attention to include:

• Volunteering time per day: it can vary from 6-8 hours (depending on the host)
• Duration of stay: some hosts allow short term WWOOFers while some prefer long term
• Location: most locations will be in the countryside, but some are more rural than others. Some locations might even be located in mountains, especially if you’re looking at WWOOF Hosts in Tohoku.
• Activities: see if the general duties line up with your interests. Some Hosts strictly farm while some Hosts may also engage in other activities like running a guesthouse or restaurant.
• Feedback: reading feedback from past WWOOFers is a great glimpse into what conditions will be like at the Host’s places.

When I was looking through the list of Hosts for Tohoku, I was drawn to my Host, Onomura Farm in Soma, Fukushima because I wanted to learn about poultry and livestock.

Onomura Farm was one of the few farms among the Tohoku listings that specifically stated they raised chickens. Feedback from other WWOOFers said that the Hosts at Onomura Farm were a young Japanese family, and it seemed like WWOOFing in a family environment would be a good fit for me to speak Japanese and connect with local people.

I was also interested in WWOOFing at Onomura Farm because they were located in an area of Fukushima hit hard by the 3/11 Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, and they directly stated that it was an impetus to start their farm after the disaster. This really resonated with me because I wanted to see what forms reconstruction efforts after natural disasters could take on.

What to Bring

While every Host is different, in my experience, you will be doing farm work and you will get sweaty and dirty.

So, these are my essentials that I recommend bringing with you on your WWOOF adventure!

• Work gloves: you will be working with dirt and probably some produce with spikey bits. A few pairs of work gloves will go a long way in making work easier and more comfrtable!
• Gum boots/rain boots: while you can WWOOF in a pair of comfy trainers, gum boots are essential as you’ll probably be WWOOFing around areas that are muddy and soggy.
• Hat: protect your noggin!
• Face towel: it gets really humid in Japan, so I would drape a face towel around my neck while out in the fields and wipe all the sweat that was dripping into my eyes. Wrapping the towel around my neck also meant my neck was protected from sun burn!
• Tenegui: while the word, tenegui, is Japan-specific, a tenegui is essentially a thin multi-purpose towel. You can use it to pack things up or tie it around your head to catch sweat as well!

• Sunscreen: sunburns are no good!
• Bug spray: you’ll probably still get bit, especially if you’re me and mosquitoes crave your blood, but it’s a layer of protection!
• Water bottle: the bigger the better, you’ll get thirsty being out in the fields.
• iPhone/iPod/MP3: this may vary from Host to Host, but while WWOOFing, you might have periods where you are doing pretty monotonous work like packaging product. Having something to listen to during these times is key for not going crazy.
• Book//Tablet/Art Supplies/Something to entertain yourself with: the purpose of WWOOF is to create cultural exchange, but there will be days where you might find yourself too tired to interact with anyone. I often need personal downtime where I just zone out with some media. Whatever you bring to entertain yourself with, my advice is try to download some things for offline viewing as some Hosts may not be able to offer Wifi!
• Omiyage: omiyage is Japanese for souvenir, and I encourage you to bring some small souvenir or something from your home country to give to your host! I brought pencils from Canada to give to my Host’s children and they really loved them.
• WWOOFer Permit: WWOOF requires you to print out your WWOOF permit to show your Hosts that you are a member of the WWOOF community. Of course, print it out and keep it on your person, but I’ve never had a Host ask to see my WWOOFer permit.

What to Expect (and Not Expect)

These are some of my thoughts on what to expect (and not expect) while you are WWOOFing. They are not all Japan-specific, but just some of my observations that I had while WWOOFing in Soma.

• There is no Visa sponsorship with WWOOFing. This is the biggest disclaimer! You will not be sponsored for a visa when you WWOOF. WWOOF is method to experience meaningful travel in which you get to the chance to meet and experience the lives of local farmers. If you plan to WWOOF in Japan as a visitor, it is under a tourist visa so you should refrain from referring to it as “work” as it could be misconstrued by immigration officials.
• If you’re not used to farming, you will be sore. I am not a very physically active person, and in the first few days of WWOOFing, I am always very sore! You will do a lot of squatting and bending over in awkward positions so get ready for maximum thigh burn.

• The activities that you do might be repetitive and monotonous. And it’s not a bad thing! You will be on a farm that has a routine and a harvest schedule. In Soma, I harvested and package eggplants for an entire week which was the entire time I was there! Packaging eggplants was a very monotonous task where I would put eggplants into plastic bags and seal them. Not a glamorous job, but it is essential and vital to helping out your Host. Everything task is an important task.  Even though I only picked eggplants for a week, it was worth it to see the eggplants I picked and packaged on sale at the local grocery store.

• Your Hosts are not your babysitters. Your Hosts are very busy people who are running an entire farm operation. It’s a lot of work and they are often working much longer than you. On each of my WWOOF expereinces, I only WWOOFed around 5-6 hours a day and finished at noon! I had a really lax scehdule, but my hosts often had tonnes of duties to do after we finished. You can expect your Host to provide food and accommodation, but they do not have to be at your beck and call. I was really lucky and each of my Hosts went above and beyond to make my time with them spectacular. In Soma, they took me out to restaurants and we had drinking parties on their dime! They really tried to make me feel welcome which I was so happy about!
• Ask, and, you most often, shall receive. If you are not staying at your Host’s place long-term (1 month+), you may not have the opportunity to experience and learn all of the farm activities. I only picked and packaged eggplants while in Soma, even though I was primarily interested in learning about poultry farming. I just asked my Hosts if they could show me what poultry farming entails and they were happy to have me watch and help them out during my free time. If there is something you want to learn, your Hosts will be happy to teach you and have you help out. You just need ask.

• Speak Japanese, English, Japanglish, French, German, gestures… whatever gets the point across! I had specifically stated in my WWOOFer profile that I wanted to WWOOF in order to get a lot of Japanese speaking practice. In Soma, my Hosts almost exclusively spoke to me in Japanese that I wondered if they knew how to speak English at all. But they could! One of the Hosts spoke fantastic English when we had new Austrian WWOOFers on the farm. The other Host could not speak English as well, but he could get his point across with lot’s of gestures. My point is that, if you decide to WWOOF in Japan, you might be concerned about the language barrier. My advice is: just try to communicate in any way possible and you will get the point across! It’s the perfect opportunity to learn from each other and creative form of communication, so don’t let language barrier become an actual barrier preventing meaningful interaction.

• You will have downtime. In Soma, farming only lasted 6 hours a day from 6am – 12pm, as it would get too hot in the afternoon to work. This meant I had a lot of down time which can be used in whatever way you like. My Host in Soma provided a bike and I would often take the bike out in the afternoon and explore the local area. I’d zip down to the beach, to nearby temples and parks, it was a great way to explore an area I’d never consider going to for sightseeing.
• You will meet interesting and amazing people. All of the Hosts I’ve encountered were super amazing, kind and interesting people and it was always a pleasure to get to know them. If timing works out, you might also meet other WWOOFers, part time workers, or friends of your Host in your time there. My fondest memories include meeting fellow WWOOFers in Hawaii and having improptu dinner parties in our windowless cabin, working at a local farmers market in Hawaii and meeting all the regular customers, meeting a pair of Austrian WWOOFers on my last day in Soma and biking to the ocean to see fireworks together… WWOOF is about exchange and connection and expect to meet amazing people.

Whether or not you have interest in farming or gardening, I really believe that WWOOF is amazing way to get out and experience a country. It’s budget-friendly and while you are doing some muscle-intensive labor, it’s an amazing way to connect with people, the Earth, and yourself.

You can learn a lot about yourself by pushing your comfort zone which is what I feel like I’m doing every time I WWOOF. I usually doubt my decision in the beginning as my body cries out in pain from the farming and my anxious bad brain sometimes prevents me from genuinely connecting with my Hosts, but after a few days pass, all of my worries begin to alleviate and by the time it’s time to go, I want to stay at the Host’s place longer!

I really encourage you to try WWOOFing, and if there’s anything that I did’t cover in this post that you’d like to know about or have a story about your experience WWOOFing, drop a comment! I’d love to hear from you!