Many retired people look on retirement as a kind of second life. See what happens.
Manabu, Hiroaki, Keita, Takafumi
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Script
N:Narrator
T:Takeshima (interviewer)
F:Fujioka(farmer)
N：These days people often talk about stress from work and busy life in cities.
Today we will focus on Mr.Fujioka. He has taken farming implement instead of computer, I mean he had started agriculture after his retirement. He used to be an office worker in a big bank, then after retirement, he decided to move to Yamagata, which is the countryside in Tohoku region and start agriculture by using his retirement allowance and pension.
Now our reporter Takeshima is in Yamagata. Good morning Takeshima!
T:Good morning! Now, I am in the Mr.Fujioka’s house. Nice to meet you,Mr,Fujioka.
F:Nice to meet you, too. Welcome to my garden. It is first time for me to be interviewed. So, I am being a little nervous.
T:Ha ha ha, it is no problem. Take it easy. Oh, your hands are covered with mud! Today, you worked in the garden, didn’t you?
F:That is right! I have worked here, just now. This is the cucumber which I harvested in this morning.
T:Wow, it is so fresh!! It seems to be delicious!!
F:Yes,it is so delicious. Please try to have this. Here you are.
T:Thank you. ……musya musya musya, Ho!! I haven’t eat fresh vegetable like this. I feel natural sweet.
F:It’s delicious, isn’t it? If you put salt on it, the taste will be more delicious.
T:By the way, why did you think of moving to the country after retirement?
F:At that time, my son was just independent on me. So, I could save a little money to buy the land which had spent for him before his independent. Of course the land price in this area is cheaper than that of Tokyo
T:Well, was it a matter of money?
F:Of course it was one reason. Another reason was that I had been interested in agriculture. When I was in university, I majored in Agricultural economics and hearing the low self-sufficiency ratio of Japan, I came to think I had to make at least my own one!
T:That’s wonderful!
F: Thanks! But It’s nothing!
T:Does moving here after retirement give you anything good?
F:Yes. There are so many!
First of all, products are very delicious as you know. If I make them more than we can eat, I sell the rest and get money for trip.
T:I think, to sell product at proper price and earn from that is difficult, isn’t it?
F: Yes, I think it is difficult for ordinary people but since I worked in big bank, I have much skill of selling product!
T: You mean that your former experience helps your life now?
F: yeah. another nice point is that unlike cities, surroundings are excellent as you see.
The air and water here are so clean, that my wife recovered from asthma!
T:Really!?but I can see that environmental here is better than that of Tokyo. Are there some other benefits from country life?
F:Umm…Here, I can live a comfortably slow life because of many elderly familiar people. I fed up with busy life in Tokyo. In our community, We can exchange various information and if we get into some trouble, we can help each other! We are like family!
T:That’s nice! I want to live here by now!
But, on the contrary, I think you have had some unexpected troubles.
F: That is for sure too. Right after the move, crop didn’t grow well and first, my wife was not able to adapt herself to local community.
But thanks to advise by neighbors, I succeeded in raising crop well.
This became a cause that my wife got familiar with them.
Now, my wife and I completely enjoy everyday life.
And as you think the public transportation is not convenient enough to go shopping often, and first we were very confused. For example, the nearest station from here is 10kilometers away!
T:Oh! I can’t believe! How did you get over that.
F:It’s simple…Once we accustomed to use our own car every day to shopping or going hospitals, We don’t have to use buses or trains, now car is indispensable to our life.
T:I see. Sorry It’s time for us to end this talk. Thank you for your time and kind corporation!
＜Returning to studio＞
N: His talk was very interesting you see. there are many difficulties in agriculture in countryside, but what he got from it must be bigger than that
A survey asked to those who have started agriculture shows that many people say that
”Life became full and interesting” or “Life in countryside is refreshing to both our body and mind”
I think there are so many difficulties in modern busy life but many people found their own solution and overcame it. Why don’t you find your own solution!