Rice Farming

We all were up at 7:00 am to get ready for the rice field work day. Yasuko had to make a lunch for school today since the cafeteria people were off today, she made Evan and myself a lunch also to take to Fujita-sans house. Koby left for school at the normal time and Evan and I left at 7:50 am to walk to Fujita-sans house, when we arrived Fujita Grandpa and Grandma had already planted half of one field, so we waited until they were finished and then was explained what my job was.

My responsibilities for that day was to hand the trays of rice plant sprouts to Ji-chan (grandpa) after he made one pass in the rice field with the tractor, I also took the empty trays off of the tractor and washed the mud off of them, and then did the same thing over and over. We loaded the trays of rice sprouts on the small truck they have and then I would drive it out to the field and stage the trays on the side of the field. After about an hour and a half we took a juice and snack break, but the juice turned out to be a beer, so there I was drinking a beer in the rice fields at 9:30 am in the morning (The breakfast of Champions). haha

At lunchtime we took a break and went into the house to eat, Yasuko showed up at 12:30 pm and ate lunch while I took a short nap before we had to start again. After lunch we planted about 2.5 more fields, in total we planted about 5 fields, we finished as it was getting dusk. Oba-san (grandma) asked if I wanted to be payed in money and I declined, they have helped us so much I couldn't possibly take money from them, but they said they would give us rice instead. We usually pay $30 - $40 for 10 kilos (22 pounds) of rice, and the rice that Fujita-san grows is much better than the one you find in the store, so that will be a fine payment.

After the day was done they had ordered a Sushi dinner for all of us, I wanted to go home and take a shower first but they said no you take a shower at our house, let all of the kids take one together first and then Yasuko and myself. Yasuko started laughing because in Japan it is common to take baths together in the Hot Springs here and since Fujita-san has 2 girls ages (8) and (7) we wondered how Koby and Evan was going to react. After a little convincing that it was ok and that he needed to get used to it he agreed and all of the kids had a great time bathing together, in fact we had to make them get out because they were in there so long.

After a great meal and a relaxing bath and not to mention good company, we all were taken home by Fujita-san, the boys went to bed shortly afterwards and Yasuko and myself followed.

Temp: High - 66
　　Low - 50