Part 217 - Unique Paddy Field At JApan ... (",)

One of the best things about living in Japan was the paddies fields. Japan doesn’t seem to go in for zoning laws, so one gets to see these tranquil oases - with rows of little green stalks sitting in peaceful blue floods, interrupted by occasional muddy footprints - dotted around the place, even in the center of large towns. Almost wherever you go in Japan you will be able to see the forest-covered mountains, great and small, near and far. Despite all this green, Japan doesn’t go in for the vast grassy parks and tree-lined streets common in Europe. Thus many Westerners comment on Japan’s lack of green, but there is green to be seen all around.

As the year goes around, you can watch the rice get planted and harvested; watch the rice slowly growing and smell the amazing perfume as vast fields of it ripen at once; watch the flooding, typhoons flattening fields and fields dried up again; watch the egrets, storks and less exotic birds flocking, following the tractors and feeding; watch the old couples quietly farming their fields in their ‘coolie’ gear; watch as the drying racks are assembled and the rice is hung. If you live in Japan for long enough, you start to tell the seasons by the rice.

Here are sample of unique paddy field at Japan, he3...

Smaller works of crop art can be seen in other rice-farming areas of Japan such as this image of Doraemon and deer dancers

Napolean on horseback can be seen from the skies, created by precision planting and months of planning between villagers and farmers in Inkadate

The different varieties of rice plant grow alongside each other to create the masterpieces

Fictional warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife Osen appear in fields in the town of Yonezawa, Japan

Closer to the image, the careful placement of thousands of rice plants in the paddy fields can be seen

A Sengoku warrior on horseback has been created from hundreds of thousands of rice plants, the colours created by using different varieties, in Inakadate in Japan