World Heritage Site: Gardens and Paddies in Ainokura

It looked like a gardener wrapped her corn in the funny papers. It was actually pages from a junk mail flyer. Yet another way of recycling.




The rice here was mighty dry. It was surprising because it has been a very wet year and farmers in Niigata are worried about their rice crop not having enough sun this year.




More pictures of rice and other crops.




This field of Chinese lanterns was near the entrance of the parking lot. Can you see the orange "lanterns" hanging on the plants?



These are some Chinese lanterns that we bought this summer and put on our windowsill. They sell stems of them at flower shops.