day 231 - suburban rice (2)

Rice mansion. Obviously these are not poor rice-farmers on the bones of their bum. I read that this kind of landscape was a common thing around outer-Tokyo only twenty years ago, but now it's almost disappeared. Fortunately it's still common-place around Himeji. Recently we've seen a lot of rice-fields swallowed up by new subdivisions as we take the train between here and Kobe. It would be a great pity to see them disappear here as they are part of a way of life and provide open space and  the best outdoor classroom for kids!

A courier van appears to be making its way across the rice fields.

Lyn's walk to school. Lyn took this from the top floor of Asahi Chugako. It shows part of her daily walk to school where she took all the rice photos.

Almost ready to reap and netted against marauding birds. This is the rice paddy next to our stop for Bus 11. (Shirasagians call this 'the rice-paddy bus stop'!)

An almost-ripe head of rice.

day 230 - suburban rice paddies (1)

Flooded! Fields which may have grown daikon, crucifers or legumes through winter are cleared and flooded with nutrient-rich river water by an ingenious reticulation system of gravity-fed stone and concrete channels, gutters and slice-gates...

No oxen or water-buffalo here! Everyone seems to own or borrow a Kubota tractor or cultivator...

Seedlings await planting out.

Just planted.

Totally submerged, and with the weather warming, the rice grows at a phenomenal rate.

In this part of Japan it's more common to see a family rice paddy than a front lawn. It's certainly much better use of water. Even wealthy middle-class suburbs are often interspersed with  family plots. There's a long tradition of rice-growing here and people like to keep it up as much for social and familial reasons as producing their own food. Most of these shots were taken around Aboshi near Lyn's school (Asahi Junior High) from beginning of the flooding several months ago.