Planting Rice – Spring Has Come to Saitama

If you are driving around Japan this time of the year you are bound to see one of the perfect images of Japan, the rice planting. In the old days this would have been done by villagers all over the country by hand, working next to each other, both men and women together, old and young, to plant the rice in the water filled fields one by one. These days it is usually done by machines to save time. I met this old man and his grandson tending to the family fields with the shy young man walking behind the sowing machine and filling any spots the quick machine missed. What used to be the work of a whole village is now two to three people and a day of work. When I spotted them they were just about to fill up the last row in the last field. I used to think that rice plants grew in water (pity my ignorance), until a man from the ministry of agriculture told me that rice can grow in dry land as well, but it is exceptionally hardy to being flooded in water, meaning that farmers early on figured out that if they flooded the fields the rice plants would survive while all weeds would drown and die. When the rice is big enough not to be threatened by the competition from weeds the farmers will stop flooding the fields and save the water to irrigate other fields downstream. It used to be that the highest lying fields would get the most water and the first water, but today we have electric pumps and water rights have been established in courts. In the old days, whole regions could go to war with each other over water rights and farmers downstream would use all sorts of manual pumps to painfully get the water into their fields. Work that could easily be sabotaged by a mean peasant from the village down river armed with only a shovel.

I took these pictures in Saitama prefecture just north of Tokyo, in a the city of Kuki (久喜) I think、probably within walking distance from Wada (和田) station. Enjoy!










　

Mount Fuji in the Spring

Warmth has come to Tokyo and we are just in that fragile space between spring and summer where it still gets a bit chilly at night while almost uncomfortably hot during the day. Now, if we can just keep this until the rainy season comes it would be great! On a trip from Hamamatsu in Shizuoka prefecture, going back to Tokyo I took these photos of a sunny Mount Fuji from the Shinkansen train. As usual, I was the noisy one with the camera. I love how it looks like Mount Fuji has come alive and smoke is rising from the old volcano’s mouth, but it’s just clouds. Late spring early summer train rides in Japan, there’s nothing like it! The last image is availabe in a large format, in case you need a new image for your computer desktop.

Hamarikyu Gardens – Scenes and Trees

I met a friend today who told me a story about trees that inspired me to dig through the photos of the Hamarikyu Gardens I took in January this year. The story goes that my friend’s uncle was selling part of his farmland on the outskirts of Tokyo to raise some cash. The developer who bought the land asked for the man to take down a big tree that would have to be removed to make room for the new houses, and just as the uncle was going to put the chainsaw to the old tree, a pretty big hardwood that was probably about 200 years old, a local carpenter walked past and offered to buy the felled tree on the spot. For the princely sum of 8 million yen. Not bad. I wonder how much the trees in this garden is valued? Anyway, here’s some more photos that I really liked but I haven’t been able to put in a narrative or a proper post. I still love the sky in these photos!

Fanta Fruit Punch

Here’s one of the latest new Fanta drinks to come out this year. It’s been very slow on the Fanta front lately, and this is merely a rehash of an old classic, with the same label and design, that was out 30-40 years ago. I haven’t had time to try it yet, but it’s in the fridge waiting for a really hot day outside! Readers who have been with the blog a really long time will recognize the design from the vintage can collection I posted in June 2009.