A month or so ago was rice planting season in Japan. Living in the countryside, this is an important time and it seemed that there are rice fields everywhere! One will pop up hidden behind a supermarket, or the postoffice- even my schools have their own fields ready for the students to plant and harvest.

Rice paddies are flooded with water during cultivation and therefore provide a great photo opportunity- wide sweeping planes mirroring the sky and reflecting the trees. I traipsed to a highpoint in Hagi one evening to take in a vista of the city; rice fields vividly reflecting the reds, oranges and purples of sunset as the sun slowly disappeared behing Hagi’s famous castle mound.