WWOOF

http://www.wwoofjapan.com/main/index.php?lang=en


ok I like the idea of this program ( basically you live in a rural town or city with a host family and kinda live and work with them to pay your way in the family) but I want to know if anyone else has heard of it. Is it a real legitimate way to get to Japan and work, grow in the language and culture?

They are well established, part of an international circle and around for many years.

I personally have not participated in their program, but I have been dealing with them in business, where my experiences with them were unfortunately not entirely positive.

Can you please explain your encounters with them?

not sure how uji has been doing business with them but the hosts are totally separate from the head office. that being said i'm quite sure the head office is lenient of bad hosts.

i have had good and bad experiences with wwoof. i was with one host who, while he was a nice old man, drove his employees / wwoofers into the ground and really abused the wwoof rules to the point of breaking them. when i arrived there were around 5 or 6 other wwoofers there. 3 months later i was the only one left, and i ended up quitting without notice too. that was a bit crazy.

on the other hand i've also wwoofed on a farm and there was hardly any work to do. i helped with cooking, walking the dogs, feeding animals. it was a blast.

my advice would be to try it but be ready to bail out if you feel the host is just using you as free labor and abusing the program. wwoofing is about experiencing the local way to run a business, farm, etc. it is not about providing a farm free labor.