If you want rice, you have to go into the mud 👹🍣🎎 Wonderful Japan

In the beginning of May Japan enters the so-called "Golden Week", a cluster of several holidays, which finally gives many Japanese a well-deserved break. But especially in the countryside, for many people there is no time to take a breather, because now the new rice has to be planted. Most rice fields are operated "full-time", but there are a lot of other families who beside their other businesses traditionally still cultivate rice fields and harvest them later. In this way they provide not only themselves, but also relatives and friends with the most important food of the country.

Of course, those who have to cultivate rice fields "on the side" have to do it in addition to their normal job, i.e. on weekends or during the week, before going to work or after returning home. Fortunately, there is not so much to do every day, but twice a year, for planting and harvesting, they are getting quite busy.

In the past, people had to do all the work by hand, so planting took several weeks of struggling through the rice fields and straining your back. Nowadays, there are machines that do the work in a very short time and you only have to make sure that the supply of fresh rice seedlings does not run out and that you afterwards checked and corrected where the machine missed some spots. Especially in the corners and at the edges, you can finally go directly into the field and plant by hand.

Since we were in such a good mood this year, we simply offered to help a little with this final work and to lend a hand. Even though I would also like to be there myself once during the machine planting, but we had then taken the opportunity to finally go on a so necessary little trip again. At the end of our short vacation, the weather was finally on our side and we spent the last day as planned and arranged in the countryside and in the fresh air.

The rice fields are flooded before planting and look from a distance like small lakes, from which now everywhere small green plants stuck out. But as mentioned, there were spots here and there that still needed to be reworked, and that's where our help was now needed.

The rice to be planted looked at first glance like fresh green grass, which could be a nice addition to your garden. However, the bales could be easily divided, and so after a brief explanation, I took off a handful of plantlets to get a little active myself.

For each spot you need two or three thin plantlets, which roots you press lightly into the soft soil, so that they can start to grow there. Actually a very simple thing, but the longer you are at it, the more you feel your back. But since I don't have to do this work every day, I was actually in a good mood the whole time and even enjoyed this task. The good weather and the nice company have of course also contributed their part to me feeling so good.

In some places the machine had slopped a bit and left out some stripes. There we had to go kinda deep into the paddy and into the mud, in which one could easily sink up to the knees. Fortunately, I had the right boots and the right clothes, so my biggest worry was just not to lose my rubber boots. These seemes to feel quite comfortable in the mud and kinda wanted to get stuck there.

But my effort in the mud field was rewarded and I returned without any losses. Even though afterwards I looked a bit browner and crustier around the bottom, but that could be rinsed off quite well with a water hose. And since a little exercise is always good, by the end I felt even better than I did at the beginning.

I also like the view over the rice fields. First the plants are still small but soon they grow in height and before you then stretches an almost endless green-yellow swaying sea. Until then in September the harvesting machine is brought into action. But that is another topic.

At the moment I still enjoy the calming view over the wide water surfaces, on which the innumerable small rice plants bend in the wind. This region, in which I am currently allowed to reside, really has a very charming side, which I am only too happy to indulge in.