Rice to see you, to see you, Rice!

If you ever have the good fortune of travelling through the Japanese countryside in a train (not the Bullet Train), one noticeable feature of the landscape are the rice fields.  They are everywhere!  You can never have enough rice I guess and it is the staple crop of Japan.  My students are amazed when I tell them that we don’t grow rice in my country.  What do you eat then? Um potatoes and bread (and usually not the low GI variety either).  I then tell them that while we don’t grow it, we do still eat it.  Again, amazement followed by confused looks.  ‘If you eat it, why don’t you grow it?’.  Cos we buy it from other countries, like yours.  And maybe it has something to do with the soil and the climate?  I’m reaching now.  The hole I’ve dug for myself is getting deeper.  I’m talking to a bunch of kids who are being raised up in a society that promotes and exemplifies self-sufficiency.  They have no concept of relying on others to do what you should be quite capable of doing yourself.  But then again they also don’t understand international trade or the global market either.  Hmmmm can we just stick to the alphabet please?

A few weeks ago, Bridget, Willa and I set off for a place in the country called Senmaida.  Apparently there are two Senmaidas in Japan.  One of them happens to be in our very own Prefecture, two hours away to be exact.  In English, it’s loosely translated as the ‘1000 rice fields’.  Bridget refers to it as the Japanese ‘Machu Picchu’.

It’s a series of rice fields, of all shapes and sizes ‘cascading’ down one side of a mountain.  You can well imagine that given its’ location, the drive there would involve negotiating a very long, narrow, winding and stomach churning road to get to the top.  I almost didn’t make it.  I had made the mistake of eating breakfast that morning consisting of toast smeared with jam and peanut butter.  I could feel the peanut butter now slowly creeping up my throat, threatening to spill out at any given moment.  I closed my eyes for most of the journey up the mountain but that didn’t seem to do much at all.  We stopped off at the first lookout and jumped out of the car.  Willa and Bridget stepped out to get a better look and I shot out of the car to throw up.  Bridget handed me a small paper bag that I proceeded to fill up with my breakfast.  After wiping my face and mouth several times, and gulping down some water, I felt okay to carry on.  Next thing I know, we’re posing for photos! 

The rice fields were planted long ago and over the years their number has diminished.  There certainly aren’t 1000 of them there anymore but still enough to create a lovely effect.  The different shapes and sizes of the rice fields make them unique as the standard rice fields that you see in Japan are rectangular, uniform and located on flatlands.  Senmaida is a little known tourist spot tucked away in the countryside.  However, the rice that is grown there is not for show.  Nothing in this country which is classed as food, is ever wasted.  The rice fields are planted and harvested like rice fields are supposed to be planted and harvested.  Each rice field is labelled with a name usually of someone who has ‘sponsored’ that particular field or maybe even been responsible for planting it.  We had seen a small field which had been funded by a well known politician, so the casting of the sponsorship net extends beyond the boundaries of the little mountain village.  It’s a nice tranquil place and worth the trip if you’re in the area.  We were lucky enough to meet an elderly man who showed us his spectacular pictures of Senmaida, taken over the years.  His photos were from different angles, in different seasons, at different times and one of them had even featured in a lifestyle magazine that he happened to have a copy of in his back pocket!  Sadly, his pictures weren't for sale.  

There's something peaceful and carefree about the place, although you'd be crazy to try and roll down the mountain.  You'd drown before you get to the bottom.