I joined Leigh, Ray, Steve, Claire, Ruth and Masami Yoshida for some good old fashioned rice planting this weekend. The steps are simple: roll up pants, put on a ridiculous hat, take off your shoes, stand knee deep in mud/creatures and shove some rice plants in the ground. Masami had already planted about 99% of the rice with a tractor or machine of some sort and the group of us were just filling in the holes that the machine had missed. There isn’t much more to tell, but it was one of those experiences where you stop mid-way between your task to think, “Wow I’m planting rice in Japan – it doesn’t get any zanier than that does it?” I would also stop every few minutes to think about how many tadpoles, swimming centipedes, snails and general creepy crawlies [including spiders that walk on water] were flitting around my ankles. I didn’t like it when I had those thoughts, but they were frequent. The guys got REALLY into it (along with Leigh… and even Claire for that matter!) I, on the other hand, was more of a well-wisher and enjoyed the experience without ever wanting to do it again. We finished off the evening with a feast at the Yoshidas, and I quickly fell into a food coma.
The next morning I met Yuuki and we went to the Sakura Park in Honjo/Tsutsukawa for the sports challenge day. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a bunch of kids playing baseball (Honjo won because the teams tied so they janken’d for it!), PTA games, and eventually a long walk around the Tsutsukawa area. I think it was about 8km, they said. Yuuki and I put on our number jerseys and set out with the entirety of Honjo Elementary school girls on our walking adventure! It was very very very hot. I blew through two bottles of water within the hour and a half we were outside. We also saw a million rice patties, old houses, birds, bugs, and even a snake in the grass! Eek! Afterwards Yuuki and I went to eat FAMOUS SOBA at the Urashima Shrine Park in Honjo across from my house. Good eatin’. We then were too lazy to do anything else the whole day and went home to nap for all eternity.
I joined Leigh, Ray, Steve, Claire, Ruth and Masami Yoshida for some good old fashioned rice planting this weekend. The steps are simple: roll up pants, put on a ridiculous hat, take off your shoes, stand knee deep in mud/creatures and shove some rice plants in the ground. Masami had already planted about 99% of the rice with a tractor or machine of some sort and the group of us were just filling in the holes that the machine had missed. There isn’t much more to tell, but it was one of those experiences where you stop mid-way between your task to think, “Wow I’m planting rice in Japan – it doesn’t get any zanier than that does it?” I would also stop every few minutes to think about how many tadpoles, swimming centipedes, snails and general creepy crawlies [including spiders that walk on water] were flitting around my ankles. I didn’t like it when I had those thoughts, but they were frequent. The guys got REALLY into it (along with Leigh… and even Claire for that matter!) I, on the other hand, was more of a well-wisher and enjoyed the experience without ever wanting to do it again. We finished off the evening with a feast at the Yoshidas, and I quickly fell into a food coma.
The next morning I met Yuuki and we went to the Sakura Park in Honjo/Tsutsukawa for the sports challenge day. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a bunch of kids playing baseball (Honjo won because the teams tied so they janken’d for it!), PTA games, and eventually a long walk around the Tsutsukawa area. I think it was about 8km, they said. Yuuki and I put on our number jerseys and set out with the entirety of Honjo Elementary school girls on our walking adventure! It was very very very hot. I blew through two bottles of water within the hour and a half we were outside. We also saw a million rice patties, old houses, birds, bugs, and even a snake in the grass! Eek! Afterwards Yuuki and I went to eat FAMOUS SOBA at the Urashima Shrine Park in Honjo across from my house. Good eatin’. We then were too lazy to do anything else the whole day and went home to nap for all eternity.
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SPIDER JESUS!
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