Inekari in Japanese means "rice harvest" and this past weekend that's just what we did. We picked up two friends and went to Hirosaki which is about a two hour drive away. Its best known for its Cherry Blossoms in the springtime at Hirosaki Castle. But for this weekend, we went to Ikanadate which is a little ways from Hirosaki. Its a town with a size of 800, but for the rice planting and harvesting, they get about 200,000 visitors to help. So for that Sunday, we chucked rice, bundled it up, and schleped it off to the side. The most amazing part of this rice field is that every year, the planters make a design with four different kinds of rice. They spread it in such a way that as the rice grows, the different colors start to make designs in the rice field. The have created Edo period art, Samurai, and this year they did a design in the model of Hokusai's wood block tsunami. They built an observation building just to show the design. It's positively breathtaking. After the harvest, we made our way to look at Hirosaki Castle, also awesome, and made our way home. It was an amazing experience. It made me realize the hard work those hunched over baachans were doing. I felt a little bit more Japanese after that. I would gladly try that again.
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Ron and Juni McCormick
Loving life
All About the Mc Cormicks
- The Unconventional Life
- It's been both a year since we got married and a year since we've moved to Japan. These 12 months have been a constant blessing of adventure, love, friends, and family. In a year we've seen the best of Japanese festivals, learned the values of healthy eating, taken countless pictures, and enjoyed both gigantic gatherings and complete isolation. We continue to count our blessings.
Checklist for China
Now with a 4 month countdown, we need to make the most out of Japan before returning home for a month and continuing our Asian adventure to the very populated China.
1. Visit Kyushu and Okinawa- finish seeing Japan-CHECK!
2. Learn enough Chinese to not look completely ridiculous
3. Be brave enough to wear a yukata for a festival
4. Learn how to make a full 5 course Japanese meal
5. Leave an impression in Ichi-ko
6. Sell all home possessions well before July so I don't end up pulling out all my hair
1. Visit Kyushu and Okinawa- finish seeing Japan-CHECK!
2. Learn enough Chinese to not look completely ridiculous
3. Be brave enough to wear a yukata for a festival
4. Learn how to make a full 5 course Japanese meal
5. Leave an impression in Ichi-ko
6. Sell all home possessions well before July so I don't end up pulling out all my hair
Written Memories
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5 comments:
That first picture... WoWWW, is that Central California?!?! hahahaha, looks quite similar. I like those carpet designs.... they would like nice as a carpet. But in all seriousness though,.... Those Designs Are So COOOOOL. That will be my backyard one day! Mark my word!.. (and quickly discard it, awwww).
Oren
iine~~
;( I wish I could harvest rice too.
wow what a cool sight it must have been...wish i was there already...mom
Awwww. Cheer up Vlad the Impaler! Now you can! (harvest rice). With my new Patented Rice Harvesting Machine! It harvests rice out of Thin Air!! That's right! And we're not talking about Alchemy! No No, this device actually Creates Matter! As a MATTER of fact, It creates MATTER! (he he he he, sorry just wanted to be stupid...funny, hehe). And it can be yours for three EASY installments of $4.99 plus $50,000,000.00 for "Shipping and Handling" (a la most eBay listings, Grrrrrr [shaking fist]).
Call Today!
Oren
Regarding rice in the original post...
"Schleped" it off to the side?? "Schleped" it? Are you guys Jewish?
hahaha, jk.
Oren
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