Hatappi - Smarthphone Farming Game App

I think I have seen it all now. Someone next to me on the train played it, and I found out it's called Hatappi, a play on the word for farm field, "hatake" and "happy" (and maybe "app") by Tokyo-based LD Inc.

It looks like a load of fun but come on, is this what the word has come to? We are now too rich and lazy to actually do farm work, and instead enjoy the simulation on an electronic device hooked up to satellites and electricity and batteries and...

But ok, I get it. Not everyone has the opportunity to grow their own vegetables. It is a nice dream to have and I shouldn't rant about this. I really shouldn't. I mean, I want to, but...

I like how they call it a Satoyama Kurashi experience, and it is tied up with real farmers that actually can provide the produce to gamers. Also, gamers can sign up for visits to participating farms, and there are all kinds of great ideas. Yet... I mean... You know what I mean... An app for farming...?

(It reminds me of how the popular board game Monopoly was invented and introduced after the New York stock market crash in 1929, allowing everyone to pretend that they were rich enough to purchase property and bonds and whatnot...)

Top image from LD Inc.



On their Youtube Channel, they go to great lengths to introduce the very real farmers that participate in this crazy project.

In Japan, seasonal veggies are a big thing, filed under the label 旬　"shun" and many consumers love the idea to enjoy eating what is "in season." In this video, they go to visit a young carrot farmer in Miura, Kanagawa prefecture, Genki Morimori Yamamori Noen... He also does the famous local variety of Miura daikon, and cabbage.

Eating carrot sticks raw - I really can support that. I also like making carrot juice. Yamamori-san mixes a rare Okinawa carrot to make a special carrot juice, more golden yellow, packed with nutrients. Sweet! Genki morimori means filled with zest and gusto, and is also a pun on his family name, Yamamori. In this day and age, of course there is a website too, over at http://www.farm-yamamori.com/

Do enjoy this fun glimpse of real life in semi-rural Japan.






Comments

Tom O said…
Is there a Wwoof version of this game btw?

Talking of which, a farm, clear blue sky, rows of stuff growing - in NO way does this make me feel natsukashii...
11:18 pm, September 08, 2014
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