The Rice...

Rice. The root of all things in Japan. Everyday I eat rice. Rice cakes, rice flour, rice vinegar, mochi rice (small rice balls served with sauce, sometimes), spaghetti with rice instead of noodles, rice in soup, rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, rice for dinner. We even drink rice wine, aka sake. Once upon a time rice was even used as currency in Japan! Rice is important is an understatement. Rice has fundamental importance to the country and the culture.

A close up of the rice plant.
Rice fields pop up everywhere. Wait, let me rephrase that: Rice patches pop up everywhere. Everyone says rice fields & I think to myself, "That is nothing close to a field." At home fields are acres, that as-far-as-the-eye-can-see type. Here some of the areas are maybe 100 square feet! I call them patches. I'm doing my best to learn about rice, besides knowing that it's high in carbs (which is all I eat here!).

Before the rice is planted the fields are dried on & dried up. Similar to this small field, I mean patch. See how steep the edges are!!

The rice kind of resembles corn in the fact that it is intricately planted in rows allowing you to see the definition. (That thing in the right corner is the ramp you use to get into the field.)

When I first got here the rice was just beginning to grow and now everyday it grows taller and taller. I can imagine this is what people think about the corn back home. Knee-high by the 4th of July comes to mind. :) I don't really know exactly how tall the rice is because it grows randomly throughout the neighborhood in these areas that resemble trenches. All of a sudden the sidewalk just drops off about three feet into the rice field and there is usually a ramp going down into the field, excuse me - patch. The fact of the matter is that it's really quite terrifying when you are riding your bike passed. There are no guardrails, no fence, nothing. Sometimes I get so nervous that I'm going to fall into the rice field of, I can only assume, mud, insects, snakes, and all that is disgusting, that I ride my bike on the complete opposite side of the sidewalk. Once I saw a bike that had tipped over into the rice field - I'm convinced that person is probably missing.

I'm not exaggerating about the depth of the fields.

It's a long way down. I can't believe I got close enough to take this picture. I'm somewhat terrified of these things.

The harvest is coming soon. I'm going to see if I can watch someone or help out a farmer, if that's what they're called, to learn more about the crop. My interest is somewhat strange considering at home I know nothing about corn and really don't care to.

I'll keep you posted.

much love

-tara-

xoxo