Rice harvest

Happy Columbus day!!  Today, we were invited to go hiking in the mountains near Towada and Oriase Gorge.  To tell the truth, I don't know exactly where we went; I just followed the van in front of me.  All I know is that it took about an hour to get there and the scenery along the way was outstanding.  Northern Japan is in the middle of its rice harvest right now, and I was able to get a couple of shots out the driver's side window along the way.  The first one here is one of my favorites.  That's a real live (not so live, I guess, unless we're talking Wizard of Oz, but we're not) scarecrow.  You can tell he's doing a good job.  Do you see any crows?  Me neither.  He's just hanging out in the middle of a rice field waiting for some company.  This field is basically in the middle of Misawa.  There's not much separation between city and country in Northern Japan.

 

On the way back from our hike, I was lucky enough to get these photos.  Remember, I took these while driving 60 kph (36 mph) on the wrong side of the road.  I like how they display differences in harvesting.

Here you can see (if you look closely) the women harvesting rice by hand.

And in this next picture a group of workers is taking advantage of new technology.  That funky looking machine to the right of center is a rice-harvester.

Finally, I should probably show a little bit of what the acutal hike was like.  It was a two-mile loop along the side of one of the mountains.  Lush greenery everywhere. 

Here's Alex and Katya near a pond shortly after we started the hike.  Note the happy expressions.

And here's a shot of them back at the village shortly after finishing the hike.  Again, note the expressions.

That's all for now.

Robert