Day 285 – planting rice – the old fashioned way

Following on from Day 283 – planting rice.

These days most the rice is planted by machines. Big, clever ones that drop a little bunch of rice seedlings in a perfect straight line, the perfect distance apart.

Some people however, maintain the traditions of the past – trudging and squelching up and down the paddies, hunched and bunched. The old lady in these pictures was planting all day, weaving a perfect field of rice.

Around the countryside of Japan you can see the remnants of traditional rice planting – sweet old ladies with hunched and crooked backs, a hangover of a youth spent bunched over planting rice.

If I had not seen the old lady planting I would never have suspected the field had been nurtured by hand. It was as perfect and uniform as if a machine had done it. I bet it will taste better too!

Day-285-3

traditional-rice-planting-japan

rice-planting-japan

Day 283 – planting rice

I live in countryside Japan, in Japanese – the inaka. The scintillating cityscapes, neon glow and electronic toilets you may imagine are flipped on their head – glinting skyscrapers exchanged with meandering rice paddies; the neon glow with twinkling stars; the electronic toilets with… normal toilets.

Rice planting season is a big deal in the inaka. Rice fields crop up everywhere you can imagine – behind the local supermarket, at the local schools… around most corners.

Some friends of ours offered us the chance to join in, allowing us to hand plant some rice at their local farm. The next few posts document the experience – this one just concentrates on the view.

rice-planting-japan

rice-fields-japan