Japanese Upper House Elections

This coming Sunday, July 29, is election day in Japan, definitely for upper house of the national government, if not for local institutions as well. For those of you interested in learning a bit more about Japanese politics, there's a feature today on the BBC International website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/) on the views of Japanese citizens on the "state of the union" so-to-speak. I know I was surprised to read that a lot of the same issues people are concerned about in the States are also issues people are concerned about in Japan.

Typhoon? Earthquake? Where?!?!

Hiddey ho there all! I've gotten a few concerned emails after Mother Nature's party in Japan this past weekend, so I wanted to put your fears to rest and let you know that all is A-OK with me and mine, but how about the nice, dramatic, delayed blog posting? :-) You might find it a bit incredulous to learn I was actually backpacking and camping in the Japanese Alps this past four-day weekend! More on that story to come later in the broadcast. I just wanted to toss out a quick posting to let you know everything is fine in my neck of the woods, and post some photos as proof that you could have fooled me the typhoon and earthquake were major news earlier this week. :-)

Rice Planting 101

After the previous blog entry, I can hear the collective readers’ cry of, “Please, Mandy, tell us how you plant rice! It sounds so interesting!” Well, I’d hate to disappoint my readers, so your prayers have been answered. Here is my rendition of how you actually go about the rice planting process.

Okay, first you need a rice paddy……hee hee, I won’t go that indepth. I think Mayumi and Mocchan do their rice planting a bit more of the old fashioned way. I’ve seem some people out in small tractors in their rice paddies churning the mud. I don’t think there is any other way to actually plant the rice than do it by hand, but I’m sure there are some more “high tech” methods of measuring out your rows, weeding, etc. Mayumi and Mocchan’s method of measuring rows is to use an inch-diameter-thick piece of wood about a yard long that has intervals (of what kind of distance, I don’t know) marked by colored tape. You start at one side of the rice paddy and measure out rows kind of the same way you put up lane lines in a swimming pool. Put the measuring stick against one “wall” of the rice paddy and mark your rows using thick twine wrapped around sticks on either end. Unwind the twine as far as you need to go to stretch across the length of the rice paddy, then shove the sticks on either end into the mud. Just make sure the twine is above the water line so you know where the heck you’re supposed to go with the rice plants. We set up maybe 4-5 row markers at one time, so you kind of plant three rows at a time between two row markers- one to the immediate left of the twine, one in between to twine markers, and one to the immediate right of the second row marker.

The rice plants come in square clumps that look like sod people use in the States to plant new grass in their yard. It seems easiest to have someone first go through the squares to pull the individual rice plants apart (and get rid of bad plants). After the plants have been separated, you grab a handful or two, take 2-3 plants together, and just push them lightly into the mud, where they suction quite easily. Leave about an adult’s foot-length in-between each rice plant on all sides, and repeat. And that’s it! The tricky part about rice planting is not losing your balance in the mud.

There were 9 of us on the rice planting day, although 2 of those 9 were under 5-years of age, so they and one of their parents took up the task of keeping us well-informed on the biology of the rice paddy and nearby creek, which primarily consisted of delighted squeals when someone found a frog, or lizard or extraordinarily large tadpole. In the end there were 6 of us that did most of the planting, including two 10-year olds who must hold the record for speed-rice planting. They were definitely putting me to shame! Half the rice paddy was already planted, so we spent about 3 hours finishing up the other half.

On weeding day, I think there were nearly 10 people on-hand, so we were able to spend a very thorough 2 hours weeding the 3 terraces of rice paddies (none of which are really all that big). One of my first-grade junior high school students came with her mother and baby sister. It's always awesome to spend time with students and their families outside of school.

Fun times in Tokigawa!

I Wanna Be A Rice Farmer

Two weekends ago, I helped my friends Mayumi and Mocchan, the owners of the organic café, Poponoki, plant their rice crop. This first time around, I simply wanted to learn a little more about rice farming, since it seems to be the primary agricultural practice in Japan, but for the rest of the time I’m in Japan, Mayumi and Mocchan will have no need to twist my arm to help them plant rice. It was LOADS of fun. Talk about a throw-back to childhood. Rice planting gives you a perfectly good reason as an adult to stomp around in the water and mud and play with reptiles, amphibians and insects…..and actually be productive in the process.

This past weekend, I helped weed the rice paddies. I know that sounds like an utter bore, but if you think planting rice sounds like fun, weeding is even more so! When you plant rice, the paddy is flooded with water, so the water-level is high and the mud-level is relatively low. By the time you get around to weeding, the chances are pretty good that the mud level will be thick and the water level thin, so instead of being shin-deep in water (as with the planting process), you’re shin-deep in mud. Awesome. And here’s what makes it even better – weeding primarily consists of playing in the mud. Of course you need to be on the look-out for larger weeds and grasses that need to be yanked, but all of the smaller grasses and algae are simply pushed under the mud. It really is quite akin to making mud pies. So you just go along your rows of rice (that are no higher than your knees at this point), talk to your neighbor, watch small, pretty rice paddy spiders scoot across the mud, keep a look-out for frogs (some only the size of your thumb-nail), get buzzed by dragonflies and push your hands in the mud up to your forearms.

I think I’m going to quit my job as an English teacher and become a rice farmer. :-) If only. I’d love to have a reason to go play in the mud everyday. And to top it all off, when you’re done and have to rinse off, you just step down the bank into the creek that runs alongside the rice paddies and do a little creek stomping. Fabulous!