Kawasaki picks up the tomatoes in the greenhouse. (Photo from Sina Weibo)
Kawasaki had been through a lot since he tried his best to promote compost technology in China.
When the 70-year-old was upset, he refused to eat, shouted and shed tears. The only thing he distracted himself from loneliness with was writing a long post on Sina Weibo, one of the most popular social platforms in China – similar to Twitter – telling his 40,000 followers that "I'm mad everyday, but work hard".
He considers China his second home. The life in Japan left him only despair and he wrote "I will die in the land of China" as a promise to himself.
He doesn't trust young farmers as the flock of young learners spent just days in the farm and then left. Some tried to take advantage of Kawasaki to go to Japan and some made vows to learn but quit after a week due to the smell of the compost.
But not all of them. Zhao Ranfeng was hired by Kawasaki to plant vegetables in the farm.
When the two first met, Kawasaki tried the leek Zhao had planted, and said "it's bitter because you added too much nitrogenous fertilizer."
Zhao suddenly knew he was in the company of a real deal. He soon started working at the farm.
Zhao said Kawasaki was extremely responsible, stubborn with his work and treasured promises. "If I promise him prune side shoots of the crops in the morning, I can't do it afternoon, otherwise he will be angry and stop eating."
Kawasaki plans to give away liquid fertilizer to local farmers to grow organic wheat next year. He said he could buy that wheat at a higher price to increase income for farmers.
Kawasaki once wrote down the meaning of him working here. "I'm mad that every day's work is tough. Some people go to places with better conditions and equipments and it's easy to reach success. But here, working in a place with tough condition is priceless. It is never easy way to help people. It is the happiest time during my 70 years for me to work in Xiaoliugu village."
When asked why, as a Japanese man, he worked so hard for China's agriculture, he didn't answer directly. He said he had a 25-year-old son who immersed himself in spacecraft knowledge and kept talking about the probability of humans being able to live on the moon.
"My son love to say 'why we learn about universe is because we are in the universe'", Kawasaki said.
