This was such a joy to read! The narration is impeccable, with a perfect blend of informative and evocative. What a great little glimpse into the shrinking world of traditional Japanese agriculture. Thank you, from a Japanese Canadian environmentalist with a background in sustainable agriculture who now finds herself living in Japan.
Thank you so much for your kind words! It means a lot coming from someone with your background. We share a lot in common - it's a pleasure to connect, Linda! Hope you're enjoying the warmer days in Japan.
Although I have lived in Japan for some 43 years, and have written about rice farming, I never considered the need to clean the streams that feed the paddies. Thanks for sharing this knowledge, and thanks for growing rice the old way!
Thank you for sharing! You probably know a lot more than I do about the history of rice farming and cultivation, but in my village, there are maps dating back to the Edo period indicating that the largest rice fields were next to the river source. Post WWII, a lot of the fields were used as spaces for tree plantation so unfortunately, we only have a fraction of the rice fields we had in the past. Please let me know if you are able to dig through your older post about rice farming, I'm always curious to learn more and have another perspective.
A beautiful post - filled with the joy of community, the forest and frogs. There’s such a subtle underlying message of ‘cherish what we have’ and I’m grateful for that. Thank you.
The frogs in the rice fields! As a child, I grew up going to school passing rice fields. On our way to and from school, I would watch the frogs, count how many there were, and sometimes pick the ones that got lost in the road and put it back in the fields. I often lost count of time and my parents would wonder why I was being late. They were lovely creatures in my child's eye.
The recent rice shortage has shifted my way of consuming rice. I changed from buying from supermarkets to buying directly from local farmers. Your writing has made me appreciate the farmers, the land..all the effort that goes into it.
As English is my second language, the narration helped me read. Your voice is so soothing. Thank you for putting the added effort to add the voiceover. It's much appreciated.
Mai-san, thank you so much for your kind comment! What a lovely and 懐かしい memory. I'm glad that your childhood included so many precious moments observing the rice field landscape and frogs. I'm also really happy to hear that you are directly supporting farmers. I will keep trying my best with the voiceovers!
Beautiful post Kana. I was shocked to hear that modern machinery cuts up the rice stalks. I see many bundles of rice stalks around our area in the autumn and have used some myself for MAKING slippers andNew Year's wreaths. But now I have an IMMENSE appreciation for this straw, realising that it would have been cut BY HAND!
Oh my goodness! It took me alllllll day to make just ONE slipper! It's so involved! And of course, I was a novice! Then I saw them in a michnoeki for ¥3,000 a pair and I thought, No! That's too cheap!
I love how you can show up and participate in this process of caring for water, rice and each other. So much respect for the older generations who are keeping the ways to tend the place and younger ones like yourself who are offering their hands and strength. Deeply inspired.
What a lovely piece and such beautiful photos, too! Your reflections and observations always make me more attentive to the wonderful little seasonal changes unfolding all around us. Thank you for sharing!
So beautiful written, as always! Frogs have also started singing in Nagano prefecture and it's impressive to see how accurate the traditional Japanese calendar still is today.
Thank you! It's already hot actually… 27 degrees yesterday and today, which is scary so early before actual summer. But nights are cool here too and it's awesome to sleep with windows open on frogs' chants. Enjoy those in Kamikatsu as well!
As always, your writing is very therapeutic to read 😁
When I was a kid, my family lived in the countryside of Nagano surrounded by farms, so my free time was often spent with my younger brother scouring the yard for frogs and racing each other to see who could catch more. Our mother wasn’t quite too happy with us—she found them gross haha—but we would sometimes catch as many as 30 of them just to show her and get her reaction 😆
Even to this day, I still love listening to them this time of year. I’m fortunate enough to live close to some rice paddies, so I usually open my bedroom window at night and listen to them sing as I settle down for bed….
So good on ya for being able to handle them! They’re cute 😊
That's a lot of frogs!! Your poor mother haha. I'm sure a part of her was happy to see you and your brother enjoying nature. It really is the perfect background sound to fall asleep to!
this is lovely! what a thoughtful glimpse into your world. it reminded me of thoreau's essay about lovingly tending to his bean field. thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much! I haven't read Thoreau's writing on tending to his bean field, but now I'm so curious to read it. From a quick search and some quotes that popped up, it seems like he really wrote in great detail about all that went into keeping his bean field. I wonder if I should change my substack to The Rice Field hehe.
Ah I love your current substack title though! His essay about the bean field is in Walden — it's very detailed but I think you'd find it interesting! :)
What a joy to read ! On our farm it is coming into the end of autumn in the subtropics of Australia which usually would call for the end of the rainy season however we’re still bogged in mud and the rain has lasted unseasonably long. Things sure are shifting. 🥲
Things are shifting... another reader commented that in Northern Europe they haven't had any/enough rain, and on the other side of the world too much rain. Hopefully you come out of the wet season and enjoy the quieter days of late autumn.
Thank you for sharing a glimpse of your life in Japan. So different from mine in the Netherlands. Here, people are mostly mowing and I see that the maize and potatoes are already coming up. In my own vegetable garden things are not going so fast yet, it has been very dry for a period. Though fortunately it is still very green. I enjoy the flowering cow parsley.
Thank you for your lovely message! I heard that northern Europe was having a rather dry period, hope you get some rain soon. Is where you live in the Dutch countryside? ISo lovely that you have your own garden! Is cow parsley edible?! It's the one with the white tiny flowers right?!
This was such a joy to read! The narration is impeccable, with a perfect blend of informative and evocative. What a great little glimpse into the shrinking world of traditional Japanese agriculture. Thank you, from a Japanese Canadian environmentalist with a background in sustainable agriculture who now finds herself living in Japan.
Thank you so much for your kind words! It means a lot coming from someone with your background. We share a lot in common - it's a pleasure to connect, Linda! Hope you're enjoying the warmer days in Japan.
Although I have lived in Japan for some 43 years, and have written about rice farming, I never considered the need to clean the streams that feed the paddies. Thanks for sharing this knowledge, and thanks for growing rice the old way!
Thank you for sharing! You probably know a lot more than I do about the history of rice farming and cultivation, but in my village, there are maps dating back to the Edo period indicating that the largest rice fields were next to the river source. Post WWII, a lot of the fields were used as spaces for tree plantation so unfortunately, we only have a fraction of the rice fields we had in the past. Please let me know if you are able to dig through your older post about rice farming, I'm always curious to learn more and have another perspective.
You are living it, so I am sure you know an awful lot more than this concrete city boy!
Would love to see the old maps of your area. Maps tell so many stories.
A beautiful post - filled with the joy of community, the forest and frogs. There’s such a subtle underlying message of ‘cherish what we have’ and I’m grateful for that. Thank you.
Thank you so much for the kind words! It means a lot that you can sense “cherish what we have” in the writing, I definitely feel very grateful!
The frogs in the rice fields! As a child, I grew up going to school passing rice fields. On our way to and from school, I would watch the frogs, count how many there were, and sometimes pick the ones that got lost in the road and put it back in the fields. I often lost count of time and my parents would wonder why I was being late. They were lovely creatures in my child's eye.
The recent rice shortage has shifted my way of consuming rice. I changed from buying from supermarkets to buying directly from local farmers. Your writing has made me appreciate the farmers, the land..all the effort that goes into it.
As English is my second language, the narration helped me read. Your voice is so soothing. Thank you for putting the added effort to add the voiceover. It's much appreciated.
Mai-san, thank you so much for your kind comment! What a lovely and 懐かしい memory. I'm glad that your childhood included so many precious moments observing the rice field landscape and frogs. I'm also really happy to hear that you are directly supporting farmers. I will keep trying my best with the voiceovers!
Beautiful post Kana. I was shocked to hear that modern machinery cuts up the rice stalks. I see many bundles of rice stalks around our area in the autumn and have used some myself for MAKING slippers andNew Year's wreaths. But now I have an IMMENSE appreciation for this straw, realising that it would have been cut BY HAND!
Sorry, don't know how MAKING got capitalised!
Thank you so much, Debbie! If you're going to capitalize any word, making is a pretty important word to emphasize!
Yes, my mom sent me an article from NKH talking about the length of the cut rice straw. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20221118/k10013894851000.html
It's an interesting article if you can translate it with Google!
That's amazing that you can make the slippers! I tried to make a pair too and I was so shocked at how much work went into MAKING it!
Thanks for the article link, I'll check it out!
Oh my goodness! It took me alllllll day to make just ONE slipper! It's so involved! And of course, I was a novice! Then I saw them in a michnoeki for ¥3,000 a pair and I thought, No! That's too cheap!
So much respect for hand-crafted items!
I love how you can show up and participate in this process of caring for water, rice and each other. So much respect for the older generations who are keeping the ways to tend the place and younger ones like yourself who are offering their hands and strength. Deeply inspired.
Thank you for writing and sharing.
Thank you so much for the kind comment! It really is the intergeneration exchange that makes it so special.
What a lovely piece and such beautiful photos, too! Your reflections and observations always make me more attentive to the wonderful little seasonal changes unfolding all around us. Thank you for sharing!
Mana-chan! As always, thank you! I've bookmarked your last two posts and I'm so happy to read along your journey.
So beautiful written, as always! Frogs have also started singing in Nagano prefecture and it's impressive to see how accurate the traditional Japanese calendar still is today.
Oh it must be such a lovely season in Nagano! It's not too hot yet, right? Enjoy the sounds of frogs!
Thank you! It's already hot actually… 27 degrees yesterday and today, which is scary so early before actual summer. But nights are cool here too and it's awesome to sleep with windows open on frogs' chants. Enjoy those in Kamikatsu as well!
As always, your writing is very therapeutic to read 😁
When I was a kid, my family lived in the countryside of Nagano surrounded by farms, so my free time was often spent with my younger brother scouring the yard for frogs and racing each other to see who could catch more. Our mother wasn’t quite too happy with us—she found them gross haha—but we would sometimes catch as many as 30 of them just to show her and get her reaction 😆
Even to this day, I still love listening to them this time of year. I’m fortunate enough to live close to some rice paddies, so I usually open my bedroom window at night and listen to them sing as I settle down for bed….
So good on ya for being able to handle them! They’re cute 😊
That's a lot of frogs!! Your poor mother haha. I'm sure a part of her was happy to see you and your brother enjoying nature. It really is the perfect background sound to fall asleep to!
this is lovely! what a thoughtful glimpse into your world. it reminded me of thoreau's essay about lovingly tending to his bean field. thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much! I haven't read Thoreau's writing on tending to his bean field, but now I'm so curious to read it. From a quick search and some quotes that popped up, it seems like he really wrote in great detail about all that went into keeping his bean field. I wonder if I should change my substack to The Rice Field hehe.
Ah I love your current substack title though! His essay about the bean field is in Walden — it's very detailed but I think you'd find it interesting! :)
What a joy to read ! On our farm it is coming into the end of autumn in the subtropics of Australia which usually would call for the end of the rainy season however we’re still bogged in mud and the rain has lasted unseasonably long. Things sure are shifting. 🥲
Things are shifting... another reader commented that in Northern Europe they haven't had any/enough rain, and on the other side of the world too much rain. Hopefully you come out of the wet season and enjoy the quieter days of late autumn.
Thank you for sharing a glimpse of your life in Japan. So different from mine in the Netherlands. Here, people are mostly mowing and I see that the maize and potatoes are already coming up. In my own vegetable garden things are not going so fast yet, it has been very dry for a period. Though fortunately it is still very green. I enjoy the flowering cow parsley.
Thank you for your lovely message! I heard that northern Europe was having a rather dry period, hope you get some rain soon. Is where you live in the Dutch countryside? ISo lovely that you have your own garden! Is cow parsley edible?! It's the one with the white tiny flowers right?!
Yes, I live in the Dutch countryside. Actually I don't know if cow parsley is edible 😄, and yes it's the one with the tiny white flowers 😊