RICE FIELDS

One of the special things  about the Japanese countryside is the rice fields. They look a bit bleak during the winter, but after the spring rains they are flooded with water and planting takes place. The flat shallow water reflects traditional tile-roofed farm houses. Farmers in wide-brimmed hats and rubber boots plant dark green tufts in straight rows.  It must be back-breaking work. As the weather gets hotter and hotter frogs begin to croak through the night, and small bats flit over the fields at dusk.

Before long the rice field is a knee high mass of intense green and the white herons arrive to create a dazzling contrast as they search for prey in the man-made wetlands. Large pale blue dragonflies hover over the green spears, and flowers bloom along the edges of the fields.






Come August/September golden colors creep into the fields as the grain ripens. On my recent September trip around Lake Biwa I enjoyed the beauty of the countryside at harvest time. Heavy heads of grain bowed the rice plants. Farmers worked with small harvesting and threshing machines.

In newly harvested fields bundles of rice straw stood among the stubble, and smoke rose from rice husks the farmers spread on the fields and burned. The smell of the smoke mingled with the new tatami smell of ripe rice. Fields harvested early were showing green regrowth among the straw. Startled grasshoppers sprang away like tiny springboks as I rode my bicycle along the famers' roads between the rice fields.

I don't think there are any Japanese tours to enjoy the rice fields at different times of year, but in my opinion they are one of the loveliest things about Japan.