Rice fields
Rice fields here in Japan are so much part of the daily life. You drive past them, you bicycle or walk there, greeting the farmer, saying "good morning" and there is a mutual smile as you both remember long talks you had earlier this year, in the winter months, wondering about this and that.
Pandabonium sent me this photo he took last week near Kasama.
I like the way that white truck is far away in the distance. We are all having to learn how to live without cars and gasoline, now it is a time to start appreciating biodiversity and abundant water.
Comments
When farming is done well, it can indeed bring peace of mind as well as the blessing of a (mostly) full stomach. Tranquility is also priceless, but the Mitsubishi Research Institute has calculatd the "environmental externalities" of rice paddy farming around the country. According to calculation by the substitutive cost method, the total value of environmental externalities provided by paddy fields is estimated to reach 4,600 billion Yen.
http://www.maff.go.jp/soshiki/kambou/Environment/index.html
Anyway, back to work...