Rice Farmin'

Today was an exceptionally fine day at the farm. The sun was shining but with fall knocking on our door it was not too hot. From the morning it looked as if it would shape up to be a normal (yet wonderful) day, picking peppers, beans, pumpkins, planting, digging, etc... but the afternoon offered me an unexpected treat. I got to work in the rice field today.

We spent about two hours hanging the harvested rice to dry in the familiar (if you have spent any time in Japan in late summer) rice drying racks (I didn't get to wear one of the cool bonnets). Then I got to climb into the mud to cut and bundle the rice myself. The farmer does have a small machine that can do the work faster (and with more CO2 emissions) than me, but there were areas that were too soft and muddy for the machine and had to be done by hand with a nifty little tool that all-too-easily cut through my shoe as well.

One thing I was surprised at was the size of the fields it takes to grow one person's worth of rice. I don't have a photo of the paddies, and I don't know the exact size, but it was about half of a city block. It only produced enough rice to provide a little less than a year's worth of rice for the farmer's family of six; father, son (30), son's wife(>30), and son's three children (5, younger than 5, and younger still). I thought for sure it would be a more economical use of that space and the time it takes to grow it, for them to plant a cash crop and buy imported chinese rice at the supermarket. Or, for even more money, forget the cash crop and build an apartment complex (it's pretty close to the station, about 40 minutes frrom Shinjyuku, and a beautiful area).

Apparently however, because of it's location, it gets too much water running off from the surrounding hills. If they want to plant something other than rice, they will have to fill it in with dirt from other places which will be extremely costly. Even still, the son intends to stop growing the rice there once he get's complete control of the farm from his father. I guess the land will just revert to a bamboo grove, like much of the area already has as farming families opt for the salary-man life, abandoning their land.

I wonder if there wouldn't be someone from the big city who wants to go in the other direction though that would be willing to pay even a small amount to borrow the land for growing their own rice...

The photos above are from our trip to Kyushu, and the fields you see are much bigger than what I was working in today. For a nice photo gallery with description of Japanese rice tradition, check out The Rice Cycle.

This NASA movie of the 2005 Hurricane Season is one of the most fascinating clips I have ever seen (this year). Despite a short description, I don't know what it all means, but in addition to it's fascination value, it sure is purty to look at. And I am even more excited to discover that the NASA site has a whole gallery of similar animations. I know what I will be doing for the rest of the night. A curse on World Changing for introducing me to new and improved ways to waste my time and use more electricity!