You Mean Rice Doesn't Grow Like This???

Home schoolers wanted to know where did rice come from? Or did not believe their parents about where rice came from. So, us parental units felt that this (Japan) was a great place, ripe with opportunity to answer, or prove this inquiry for the inquisitive or disbelieveing (or mind; thus the Rice Trip was contemplated, planned, organized, and executed. It was a learning experience...







The 24 of April the Kanto Plain Home Schoolers group set out on an ambitious trip despite the days of rain prior and the night and early morning rain on that day. Fortunately, as I dragged myself out of bed, I noted the rain had finally stopped and the wind had finally died down so the ferry would be running. Good thing; I wasn't in the mood to have the trip postponed after all the shopping and cooking for the bentos (lunches) I prepared along with snacks and fresh corn bread I baked at the last minute the night before. Everything all set and ready in the fridge and freezer, the girls and I (showers taken the night before) rolled out the racks, broke our fast, packed the car according to the check list meticulously constructed the night before, and climbed into the car with an air of excitement and Beyonce "I Am Sasha Fierce," in our ears (The Unfortunates then must-hear-every-moment album)






Glancing at the clock, we were well on our way and a bit early to meet up in Ikego Navy Family Housing, with another family we are hitching a ride with to cut down on the amount of cars in the caravan for the trip. All reloaded in another car, introductions were made, kiddies strapped in and not too much later we were in Kurihama waiting for what most military folks call the Chiba Ferry--what is really called the Tokyo-Wan Ferry




Round trip fee for passenger cars: under 4 meters - 5470 yen; under 5 meters- 6980 yen; under 6 meter - 8870 yen this price includes the driver
additional passengers are: age 12 to adult -1280; age 11 to 6 -640; under 5 free (Each adult is allowed 2 free children).
The lift in foul weather and the call of the adventure ahead had everyone all a-buzz by time we all lined up for boarding.





Once unloaded from the ferry, the caravan wound through beautiful Chiba and eventually found ourselves at the rice farm. It was a nice place that had a small indoor farmer's market and store where you could find yourself a good variety of Japanese food and snack goods, t-shirts, knick-knacks, local art pieces for sale and a little snack shop dishing up Japanese quick bites and overpriced ice cream. Beyond all this is were our group, once ready, was lead by one of the farmers--or farmhand. We tracked along through a vegetable garden, over a creek and past machine planted paddies and at last to our flooded paddy--empty of green, yet full of insects. mud, an occasional salamander or frog along the edges, and did I mention mud? Previously, just below the fated paddy, we picked our our pallets of young rice plants; setting them down along the banks, we looked--some in awe and excitement, others in dread, and a few in exasperation at our future; a blank slate (so to speak) waiting to be worked and planted with what earlier had cultivated for such an occasion.





I tell you, many forms of manual farm work is hard but in the end, when you straighten out your back, wipe your brown, dust off--well, dry off in this case--your hands and look over what you had done; a feeling of pride begins to bloom. "Look at what we did..." The accomplishment of your task is forever etched into memory... "Mommy, I'm hungry." Okay then, lets get cleaned off and eat lunch. Clean up of ourselves was fun; first we gathered around a tub in the back of one of the buildings and hosed off feet, legs, hands, arms, faces and shoes. We were then shown the area where we could have our bentos and bring life back to now very cold extremities of the body via a little onsen.





It was a good time when all was said and done. We all could say we been there and did that... so not too long after that field trip we began to make noises for coming back to harvest the fruits of our labor. Granted I did keep the thought that we might have done something wrong in the process of planting and half our paddy could have died out by then... Yes, that's harsh, but you never know...

21 August was when our wishes were made true. This time we had perfect weather, sunny and good 'n warm with a nice breeze and not too humid. The Unfortunates and I carpooled again, this time with a family living on the base, so we had to trudge our stuff out the door, across the sidewalk infront of the townhouses next to us and through the parking lot of the tower where our friends were waiting beside their van for us.



Hard, I know... This trip was pretty much the same as the last; this time round saw fewer families and some new faces, yet the excitement was just as palpable. We were also blessed with the beginnings of fall clear skies, so we were given the view of Mt. Fuji ever since dawn.





Retracing the steps to our paddy, we saw the fruits of our labor: our paddy was lush and very fruitful, and looked just like every other paddy around ready for harvest. We all gathered on the edges of our paddy, watched how to harvest rice and were all directed to the flat boxes full of scythes. Yes, to every body, a scythe approximately 20cm in length and rusty to boot. The wonderful world of home schooling and not one maiming, only a rare nicking by two or three individuals: one was the Eldest, but she's up to date on shots and was feeling fine after we put some myrrh and lavender on that nick and I assured her for the next 24 hours that she would most likely be fine with the eye I'm keeping on it...
(like Charlie Brown and his teacher) "Waah, wah, wah wah waah." "But, they said I will have teckniss if I don't get a shot at the hospital ..." Wah wah waah wah waah waaaah wah." "Really, okay... I did?" "Wah waah, wah wah waah wah waah wah, wah." "Oh tetanus, I really like the smell of lavender. Can I go play now?" Enter CrazyOne, "Is Eldest gonna die? That's what BondGirl said." "Wah! Wah wah waah waah wah waah, wah waah wah." "Okay. Come on Eldest, lets go!"





Once finished with cutting, bundling,
(forcefully arranging a meet and greet with another 10 nearly 11 year old girl with Eldest--which after the embarrassment of being blatantly introduced with, "You are? Well Ms KindredSpirit, EldestOne here is also 10 and is about to turn 11. She likes playing the Wii, DS, loves swimming, salamanders, owls, insects and animals, and is also looking for a friend her age for hanging out with who is not her sister and also to use that sacred ID card privilege with. I believe today is a great time to get to know each other and from there each of you can decide whether or not you want to get together later.")




and hanging our rice, we were treated to having our bentos inside one of the buildings that was cooled, AND thanks to the wheeling 'n dealing of Sachico-san, we got something out of it besides being able to say we did this: 2.5kg of new rice. The rice tastes great! All together it was a good time, we even saw a wild monkey sitting on the highway rail, driving back to the ferry--or at least I saw it pointing while simultaneously giving a shout of, "MONKEY," as if I had ADHD and needed my meds. Would we do it again? Yeah, most likely. Now, after doing all this, I would prefer to see how they prep the rice for selling to consumers... I'll have to ask about that.

That's it for now, I'll finally get this field trip published and on to my other posts that I have been wanting to publish. The rice was very photogenic and inspired many of the parents to spend time photographing it... Yes, I have many other rice pictures.