Rice planting

With the onset of the 'rainy season' (what is generally called the 'monsoon' in Asian countries), the time has come to plant rice. It's not something we normally do, but Kawabe-san of Selco Homes invited us to join him, his father, wife and daughters in planting the plot they own below our house.

We got up at an early 7:30 and hurried to get to the rice paddy for 8:30 as arranged. We were digusted to find that they hadn't arrived, and figured they had lingered in bed, so we went looking for them. We found them at their other rice field which they had already planted...
The young master joined Kawabe-san on the planting machine for the ride to the second field.

I had a turn driving the planter for one row, and it's amazingly easy. All you need to do is keep the 'whiskers' of the planter aligned with the outside row, and the busy little mechanical fingers at the back plant 4 rows of rice.


Our neighbourhood has taken on a new face, with even more water around. You wouldn't know by looking at it that conditions are actually on the dry side. The frogs are fantastically noisy, but we can't hear them with the windows closed.