Mud Land Fest 2022 Held!

Hello. I'm Yukari Itaya, a collaborator.
Heading to Mud Land Fest 2022 on Sunday, July 24, 2022.
The clouds visible from the highway are cumulonimbus. They hint at a summer day.
The path from the parking lot to the venue and the wide sky are also pleasant.

At the venue, food trucks and the mascot character of Sammu City welcome us.
It is supported by Sammu City and introduced on their migration and settlement portal site, and people from Sammu City are actually running booths for ring toss and hometown tax donations.

I was running a booth as NigeBar.

Ozone LLC, which operates NigeBar, is also quick to engage in initiatives like the OZONE DAO, so we were selling non-fungible NFT folk crafts, as well as T-shirts and miso for dipping that goes perfectly with harvested vegetables.

Carrots just pulled out and washed, and miso! It was well-received that it goes great with chocolate-flavored Mogucups.

We were also selling organic cotton T-shirts that can be mud-dyed.

The hamburger next door was also delicious, and when I brought it into my tent to eat, my friends were lining up one after another at the hamburger food truck.

The frozen and sliced strawberries were also very popular.
I bought some myself, and it was delicious.
Besides this, there was a tuna dismantling show and meat being grilled at the BBQ area, condensing the best parts of a suburban festival.

The highlight of the food is, after all, the vegetables you can harvest yourself in the field!!

The sweetness that spreads when you harvest corn, peel it, and eat it raw!!
It's truly delicious. Exquisite. Even for me, who goes to buy from local farmers during the summer and eats corn as a staple food almost every day, this is the first time I've encountered such delicious corn!!!

You can also pull out carrots and eat them!
It's even more delicious when you add Odawara miso.

When I was at the shop, friends covered in mud appeared one after another.
Everyone looks so happy.
When I went to the field, a MUD LAND was truly spreading out.

At first, I was a little hesitant about the mud.
Once you step in, it's soft and pleasant.
This is only possible because it's an organic field where many microorganisms live.
It's a full-body mud pack.

While talking about the next project with friends I always work with on PR, we were covered in mud together lol

At first, I had resistance to putting mud on my face... but considering the effects of sunscreen and a mud pack, I willingly applied mud to my face.

At this point, I wonder if anyone knows who is who...?
It's comfortable, this mud!!
I never played in the mud with my whole body like this when I was a child.
I had never swum in a sea of mud either.

Good children must never imitate this!
If you play like this in normal mud, it would be a disaster, with your skin turning red from irritation... It's only possible because it's good soil.

Blue sky and white clouds.
When you get a little hungry, you can pick corn from the field next to you and eat it.
This is my first time experiencing this. And this is a festival!
While listening to music, I am enjoying such a luxurious time.

Live performances of various instruments, and everyone doing Bon Odori.
There was even a scene where a yoga class was held in the mud!!!

People I didn't know, people I met for the first time, people I hadn't seen in a while, and friends I always hang out with. Everyone there was smiling, and it was truly a very peaceful moment!

It was also the day that Reiwa City would disappear this year.
Because of that background, many friends from Reiwa City also participated.
Even people who were meeting in person for the first time immediately hit it off in the world of mud. It was a very good opportunity to wrap up this year's Reiwa City.

Even if you're covered in mud, you can feel refreshed if you get into a Goemon bath!

While cleaning up, I had the chance to talk with Kanichi Saito, who lent us the venue. He said, 'Once the harvest is finished in June, I keep this space open in preparation for this day. If everyone plays in the mud together, the desire to die disappears. This is a contribution to society.' Those words stayed with me.

I felt that it is precisely because of the understanding and cooperation of the local people that this has become such a wonderful, community-rooted activity, and that the local government officials are also willing to cooperate.
The venue, now that the festival was over, seemed to have returned to its usual, casual landscape. We have created a place of connection filled with many memories!

Until next year. I hope to continue activities that cherish loved ones, play together, and expand the circle of fulfilling wishes, all with a calm, joyful, and warm heart. In this limited life, let us spend our days in a deep, flavorful, and wonderful way.