Last June groundwork Fukuoka went to Hoshino to made miso ( http://bit.ly/1eTcwoZ ). On the last weekend fermentation was finished, so we drove there to collect the miso and to make some miso-soup with some local people, but this time there were also a trainee from a other company. She came from Switzerland and is doing an internship at a photographic agency in Fukuoka. The event took place in a local school. Additional to the local people some children came, which normally live in urban places, but moved to Hoshino for one year to experience living in a village. 
We started on 7:00 am at Kasugabaru station in Fukuoka and arrived in Hoshino around 9:15 am. It was a nice and sunny day with a temperature of ~15°C. The vegetables which we put into the miso-soup were brought by the people who came to there, so we had carrots, Chinese cabbage and a lot of radish. While the half of use were washing the vegetables, the other half, including me, drove away to get the miso. The miso was stored in a house which is now only use as a storage. There around 7 buckets of miso with a weight of 5-10kg and one very large 50 kg bucket. While we were away the most people had arrived and the most adults were helping cocking in the kitchen. When the rice was finished 
also some children came to the kitchen to help making riceballs. When we were nearly finished everyone met at the entrance to watch the miso-buckets get opened. Tables were placed in the meeting hall of the school, we carried the food there and set down to eat. After everyone was finished with the meal, we cleaned the kitchen and went the Joyo. There we split the remaining miso into 5kg bags and cleaned the buckets. Before we went home, we went to a ramen-shop for dinner. When I was back home it was around 9:00pm.
In the end it was a nice, but very long day. The miso-soup was very good and the people were also very friendly. I was also very interesting to see how miso is made.
Written by Maximilian Grunow
Groundwork Fukuoka 