in the rice paddy puddles

Our friend Tamako says, "in May, EVERYONE in Ichinomiya plants rice."

Well, we were included in that tradition this year. I couldn't miss out on the chance to take a dip in calf-deep mud! So after begging her to talk with her friend, who is an organic farmer, we arranged to meet him and his father. We did our part to make sure all the baby rice plants found their spot in the mud along with the frogs, snakes, prehistoric-looking shrimp-fish creatures, and who knows what else.

Most rice farmers, including Tamako's friend, use machines like this to speed the process along;



But we rolled up our pants to try out the traditional method









I felt all kinds of things on my feet, but luckily mud isn't clear, so I could just ignore it, thinking it's just a cute little frog. It's pretty fun, and easy. If you ever get the chance to plant rice, just make sure you use this method: hold the plant in your hand, and when you plop it down in the mud, your hand should look like a chicken pecking at the ground for feed.

Speaking of chickens, we visited the farmer's chicken coop. These little ladies provide Mike & I with with a never-ending supply of organic eggs each week. It was cool to see how happy and cute they are. Tamako and I went inside to collect eggs while Mike made friends...