Curiouser and Curiouser

As I am still suffering from horrible jet-lag, (not having a job to go to during the daylight hours hinders recovery--I know, I know, cry me a river ;) I am going to phone in a post I've had on the back-burner for a long time.

Most of the houses in our neighborhood (but not ours) are surrounded by concrete walls that are about, oh, six or seven feet high.   For some reason that is unknown to me, almost everyone has a tiny little door (I would have to hunker down pretty low to go through them if that gives you any idea) built into their wall.  Chad and I disagree as to what is on the other side of the doors; I think it's Wonderland but he thinks it's John Malkovich's mind.

Side note: I asked someone about who owns the paddy fields near our house and was informed that they are the property of small-time local farmers.  I also received what I refer to as the "foreigners-sure-do-ask-ridiculous-questions" look.  I get this look a good bit (along with vague answers and/or laughter) which is why sometimes I just don't ask. 

I also call them the "hobbit doors" in my head

 

 

 

 

Update: Since I wrote this post, I have learned that these are "kitchen doors" that were put into older houses as a place for deliveries to be made.  So there you go.  Mystery solved. :)

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. 

Observations

We arrived back home this weekend from a week-long vacation in the US.  A few observations I made on my first trip back since we moved here:

1. America really is a "melting pot".  So many different ethnicities, nationalities, accents....Japan, on the other hand, is a big pot full o' Japanese people. 

2. Moe's and Target really need to expand into Japan.  I'm seriously considering a letter-writing campaign.

3. The flight (and jet lag) from Japan to the East Coast is tiring, but tolerable.  The flight (and jet lag) from the East Coast to Japan is a miserable, miserable experience.  You somehow lose a whole day and spend 24 hours awake.  It's like achieving time travel but in the worst possible way.



Also, yesterday (Monday) was another national holiday here.  It was Health & Sports Day.  This holiday was created after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics to commemorate the opening ceremonies.  At some point it was moved to fall in with the Happy Monday System.   Poor jet-lagged Chad had to go into work for a conference call even though the offices were closed.  I noticed one of my neighbors playing ball with some of the neighborhood children in the street....could have been coincidence, but I've never seen her out there before so I'm going to believe she was celebrating. ;)