Around a Small Town in Niigata Prefecture

Niigata Prefecture, a district in northern Japan, is known among other things for its very good rice. There are rice paddies or fields everywhere. The paddies outside town are commercial. The rice is sold all over Japan. There are paddies in town, too. That rice is grown only for the family who farms it to eat. The picture above is rice. At this point in its growing cycle it is bright yellow green. The rice was beautiful on this sunny day, but almost blinding. It was so bright!


This is the irrigation system of one of the paddies. I believe that's grass along the center.




Though we had sunny days for our visit, Japan has received more rain than usual this year. Everyone is concerned about the rice and other crops. It seemed every house here had a rice paddy or a garden or even both. This gardener is protecting her tomatoes from rain. The umbrellas are clear plastic so the tomato plants can still get the sun when its out. In April, I posted about a gardener in Tokyo who put an umbrella over her azaleas.




Walking around town we came across this scene. After the big earthquake in the area two years ago, this family put portable toilets behind their house. Can you see the man in front of the toilets emptying them with a hose attached to the truck? Having portable toilets in your back garden is not common. At one time, however, non-flush toilets were common in Japan. Someone would come along with a wagon to empty them. Nowadays, there are houses with non-flush toilets and trucks like this one come by to empty them. Let's just say that even though the process has surely improved over the centuries, it's not a pleasant job.




This rock was behind another house down the street from the toilets. This gardener planted bonsai or miniature trees on it. It was impressive how these trees could grow on a rock.