farm life

Today I went to Yagi, a little town in northwestern Kyoto Prefecture, with the Taniguchi family to help their grandfather plant some rice. I thought we would be out in the fields digging holes, but it was nothing like that. There are several steps to planting rice - the first involves planting the seeds in trays and growing them to about four inches in height. Today we ran the little machine that drops the seeds onto the trays and then covers them with dirt. Grandpa dexterously maneuvered wheelbarrows full of trays to his garden, where we set out them out in neat rows. Next month the family will go back to help move the little plants to the water-filled fields. But I’ll be in Vietnam.