Here at abelard.org, we take a lot of photographs. Many of them are pretty. This is the fourth of what I hope will become a regular “photograph with little or no explanation or comment” feature.
One of the best things about living in Japan was the paddies fields. Japan doesn’t seem to go in for zoning laws, so one gets to see these tranquil oases - with rows of little green stalks sitting in peaceful blue floods, interrupted by occasional muddy footprints - dotted around the place, even in the centre of large towns. Almost wherever you go in Japan you will be able to see the forest-covered mountains, great and small, near and far. Despite all this green, Japan doesn’t go in for the vast grassy parks and tree-lined streets common in Europe. Thus many Westerners comment on Japan’s lack of green, but there is green to be seen all around.
As the year goes around, you can watch the rice get planted and harvested; watch the rice slowly growing and smell the amazing perfume as vast fields of it ripen at once; watch the floodings, typhoons flattening fields and fields dried up again; watch the egrets, storks and less exotic birds flocking, following the tractors and feeding; watch the old couples quietly farming their fields in their ‘coolie’ gear; watch as the drying racks are assembled and the rice is hung. If you live in Japan for long enough, you start to tell the seasons by the rice. |
[Taken in Japan on the 26th June 2004.]
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