When I say I live in farm country, it’s no exaggeration.
That’s my house in the photo, and that’s my neighbor plowing the field in preparation for planting rice. Someone very close also raises chickens. I can hear them cawing. Or cock-a-doodle-doing. Or whatever chickens do.
Farmers here work hard and like boxers never know when to quit. I’ll never forget my first visit to Sasayama as a WWOOFer back in 2007.
I was standing outside with my host, Gen and Ray Avery, looking onto a sweet potato field, adjacent to his property. There were two elderly men working on tying soybean plants to keep them from flopping over on the soil.
Pointing at one of them, obviously the older of the two, Gen said, “See that old guy right there. He’s 105. And the other one is his son. I think he’s 84.”
Believe it or not, they’re not an exception. They’re the rule! I often see both ladies and gentlemen right in my own village, well into their 80s and 90s, hunched over, some barely able to walk, doing what they do best and obviously still love: Digging, planting, weeding, hoeing, all the myriad of activities needed to make things grow. I guess that once farming gets into your blood, it becomes the defining theme of life itself, an essential raison d’être for these folks.
I have to say, I’ve learned to appreciate the “cycle of life” as never before. Of course, growing up in the temperate American Midwest, we predictably cruised through the year on the carousel of seasons. Each one had its characteristic motif. The contrast between sub-zero winters with two months of snow, and the other three seasons — those also dramatically contrasting with one another — was stark, and a critical component of enjoying life.
But farming in a temperate climate takes this rotation of the seasons to a whole different level. Prepping, plowing, planting, growing, harvesting not only are quite functionally interesting to a guy like me who grew up on exhaust fumes and Motown music, but the aesthetics are breathtaking.
Of course, what you see here is the early growth period. Rice was planted about two months ago, soybeans a month ago. Now that we’ve made it through the June rainy season — and survived massive flood-level downpours lasting six days last week — it’s just a matter of maintenance TLC until the fall harvest.
Enough talk. First here are some of the farmers in my neighborhood. These photos were all taken within 15 minutes of my house by bike, in every direction.
Yes, I truly live in farm country!
And here are some landscapes, which is exactly what I see on my daily bicycle rides, which are usually between 20 km (12.4 miles) and 32 km (19.9 miles).
Life In Japan: Rice and Bean Fields
When I say I live in farm country, it’s no exaggeration.
That’s my house in the photo, and that’s my neighbor plowing the field in preparation for planting rice. Someone very close also raises chickens. I can hear them cawing. Or cock-a-doodle-doing. Or whatever chickens do.
Farmers here work hard and like boxers never know when to quit. I’ll never forget my first visit to Sasayama as a WWOOFer back in 2007.
Pointing at one of them, obviously the older of the two, Gen said, “See that old guy right there. He’s 105. And the other one is his son. I think he’s 84.”
Believe it or not, they’re not an exception. They’re the rule! I often see both ladies and gentlemen right in my own village, well into their 80s and 90s, hunched over, some barely able to walk, doing what they do best and obviously still love: Digging, planting, weeding, hoeing, all the myriad of activities needed to make things grow. I guess that once farming gets into your blood, it becomes the defining theme of life itself, an essential raison d’être for these folks.
I have to say, I’ve learned to appreciate the “cycle of life” as never before. Of course, growing up in the temperate American Midwest, we predictably cruised through the year on the carousel of seasons. Each one had its characteristic motif. The contrast between sub-zero winters with two months of snow, and the other three seasons — those also dramatically contrasting with one another — was stark, and a critical component of enjoying life.
But farming in a temperate climate takes this rotation of the seasons to a whole different level. Prepping, plowing, planting, growing, harvesting not only are quite functionally interesting to a guy like me who grew up on exhaust fumes and Motown music, but the aesthetics are breathtaking.
Of course, what you see here is the early growth period. Rice was planted about two months ago, soybeans a month ago. Now that we’ve made it through the June rainy season — and survived massive flood-level downpours lasting six days last week — it’s just a matter of maintenance TLC until the fall harvest.
Enough talk. First here are some of the farmers in my neighborhood. These photos were all taken within 15 minutes of my house by bike, in every direction.
Yes, I truly live in farm country!
And here are some landscapes, which is exactly what I see on my daily bicycle rides, which are usually between 20 km (12.4 miles) and 32 km (19.9 miles).