Rice Week - Harvest Time
Just to prove to his wife that he was actually here working, Wes from Hiking in Japan insisted (at rice-cutting-blade point) that I post these photos.
With the help of Wes and our faithful local assistant Maiko, we're on track to finish the rice harvest today. The weather couldn't be better - sunny skies after a few days of typhoon. It also doesn't hurt that we only grew half the amount as last year.
Mona helped as well, but due to child labor laws, we had to give her outrageous amounts of break time, which she more than happily took advantage of.
The typhoon wasn't so great for most of the neighbors, though.
On the first night of the storm, Mr. Neighbor was ordering Mrs. Neighbor to come help him harvest the rice by hand - starting at 8pm, in the dark and rain. She said he was crazy. He said something along the lines of "If you want rice this year, then…" (I'm paraphrasing - I have no idea what was actually said, but that's how it looked.)
Why the rush? Their field is closest to the river, and it had been raining for two days straight. I went down in the afternoon to at least tie our metal drying racks to a tree so that if the river did flood (as it does every few years), we'd still lose all our rice, but maybe the racks would survive.
So far, no flooding - but it takes time for the water to work its way down from the mountains, so even though the rain has stopped, we're not in the clear yet. If the water stays down, we should be able to finish harvesting this weekend.
Thanks to the rain, many of the rice stalks have toppled. When the grains get too heavy, the stalks fall over, which makes it harder to harvest. Instead of just running a machine through the field, farmers often need a second person to hold the stalks up with a stick and guide them into the machine's blades. And when the rice is heavy and wet like it is now? Not fun. But if they wait too long, the rice might start sprouting in the field.
No one is happy about the rain. What surprises me most is how everyone acts like they didn't see it coming. I've been here four years, and every year it rains before the harvest. Every year the rice gets heavy with water and falls over. Every year we worry about flooding. Am I the only one who's gotten used to this?
More on the Rice (and Ninjas)
You'd think the ninja would be a big help in the harvest - you know, handy with blades and all. Think again. I'm proud to say that even though I'm not a ninja myself, I'm hands down the fastest with an ine-kama.
Next week is dakkoku time, so I've gotta start practicing with my ashifumi dakkoki - that's the good ol' pedal-powered rice-kernel-off-the-stalker machine.
Just to prove to his wife that he was actually here working, Wes from Hiking in Japan insisted (at rice-cutting-blade point) that I post these photos.
With the help of Wes and our faithful local assistant Maiko, we're on track to finish the rice harvest today. The weather couldn't be better - sunny skies after a few days of typhoon. It also doesn't hurt that we only grew half the amount as last year.
Mona helped as well, but due to child labor laws, we had to give her outrageous amounts of break time, which she more than happily took advantage of.
The typhoon wasn't so great for most of the neighbors, though.
On the first night of the storm, Mr. Neighbor was ordering Mrs. Neighbor to come help him harvest the rice by hand - starting at 8pm, in the dark and rain. She said he was crazy. He said something along the lines of "If you want rice this year, then…" (I'm paraphrasing - I have no idea what was actually said, but that's how it looked.)
Why the rush? Their field is closest to the river, and it had been raining for two days straight. I went down in the afternoon to at least tie our metal drying racks to a tree so that if the river did flood (as it does every few years), we'd still lose all our rice, but maybe the racks would survive.
So far, no flooding - but it takes time for the water to work its way down from the mountains, so even though the rain has stopped, we're not in the clear yet. If the water stays down, we should be able to finish harvesting this weekend.
Thanks to the rain, many of the rice stalks have toppled. When the grains get too heavy, the stalks fall over, which makes it harder to harvest. Instead of just running a machine through the field, farmers often need a second person to hold the stalks up with a stick and guide them into the machine's blades. And when the rice is heavy and wet like it is now? Not fun. But if they wait too long, the rice might start sprouting in the field.
No one is happy about the rain. What surprises me most is how everyone acts like they didn't see it coming. I've been here four years, and every year it rains before the harvest. Every year the rice gets heavy with water and falls over. Every year we worry about flooding. Am I the only one who's gotten used to this?
More on the Rice (and Ninjas)
You'd think the ninja would be a big help in the harvest - you know, handy with blades and all. Think again. I'm proud to say that even though I'm not a ninja myself, I'm hands down the fastest with an ine-kama.
Next week is dakkoku time, so I've gotta start practicing with my ashifumi dakkoki - that's the good ol' pedal-powered rice-kernel-off-the-stalker machine.