This week at the school there was an open day where we could go in and see how the children are doing. Both are still doing very well and both had the opportunity to speak in front of the class. Liam actually volunteered to go two times because we were still in Colleen's class when he went the first time. Since I have previously shown Colleen speaking I have attached Liam's this time.
Last year we worked at the Takanezawa community rice field. This year we decided since we missed a few of the activities last year we should participate again. Today was the first meeting and it was to prep the field to be filled with water.
Currently the field is dry, but freshly tilled.
The prep work consisted of weeding and cleaning the gutters that will feed water to the field.
Everyone chipped in to help. This is Colleen working the shovel and me cutting weeds and bamboo.
Liam hauled many loads of the debris to the fire for burning.
During the winter the water channels are empty and dry. About 1.5 to 2 weeks ago I started to see water in the channels as I rode to work, and about 1 week ago some of the fields started filling with water. There are plates at the sides of the fields that slide open to allow water from the main channels to fill the fields. We also had to clear out the channel in front of our field.
The green house near our field was filled with the rice starts. Everyone was given the opportunity to take a flat home to care for prior to planting. Unfortunately we will be going on vacation over golden week and the rice requires water every day. As a result we opted not to take one home. We figured it would look bad if we showed up on planting day with a brown dead flat of rice..
Our community rice field is already behind many of the local farms. As we drive around we can see that many have already been filled and some have already been planted. This gentleman is using a hand tractor to smooth the field. Many larger fields now use special tractors that are ridden.
Some of the fields go right up against the homes. When these people go to bed I bet the sound of the frogs is amazing. I have already started to hear some of them in the evening on my way home and the children found a few today during our field prep.
Kate took this film about half a mile from our home. Takanezawa has many rice fields all around and you can see that many are already flooded with water.
Today I took Kate to the mountain the children and I went to about 3 weeks ago. I have since ridden back on my bicycle for training, but Kate had not yet been.
The view from the top is amazing and this image shows how the rice fields dot the country side.
We enjoyed visiting the temple at the top. I have to do a little research to determine the age of the temple. I believe this sign shows it on the left hand side, but I am not familiar with all the Kanji. I think maybe the 10th year of the Showa period (1936)
Some of the carvings on the grounds are very elaborate.
Kate and the children stopped for a picture on the steps leading to and from the temple. We parked closer this time but there were still quite a few steps to climb to get to the top. It was a little hazy today but we found a sign at the top that said you can see Mt Fuji from this spot. We will have to go back on a clear day and check it out.
As we drove around exploring today we could see tons of the koi no bori. They are especially prominent in the farming communities. Many of the old farm houses have huge koi on display. It is nice to see them dotting the country side this time of year. Come May 6th they will all be gone as May 5th is boys day. The pictures below are just a few of the ones we saw while we were out today.
That is all for this post, have a good week..
No comments:
Post a Comment