Harvest

One of the first things we noticed when we arrived back was that the paddy field behind our house was mowed down.  I had a feeling we were going to miss the harvest and I was disappointed.  So imagine my surprise when I rode to the supermarket today and along the way encountered two other fields mid-harvest!  It was the one time I didn't bring my camera along so I had to drop the groceries and dash back out to try to catch what I could. 

one of the last stalks standing

little boys like machinery the world over

you can't tell but they were feeding the stalks into the machine
(they were also laughing at me and the little boy watching them)

as far as I can tell, this machine cuts it down, hulls it (is that
the right verb?) and then spits it out

very efficient

now it's just a hay field

I have a theory that the fields in our neighborhood belong to families around here.  Like, that's their year's worth of rice in that field.  Or it's some kind of co-op situation.  When we take the train into Tokyo we go through vast, endless paddy fields interspersed with green houses.  I think those are the corporate fields.