Midori Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
広島県美土里町
22nd September 2007
Almost 5 months since the planting season has passed and this is what the rice crop looks like!
A close up of the rice grains
The above picture shows the nifty machine that is used to harvest the rice. It is capable of cutting two rows of rice crops at once. Once each crop is cut at the base the machine then rotates it to its side on a conveyer belt as you can see below which it then somehow threshes the grains one by one placing them into a bag which holds around 25kg of the small grains.
After it bucketed down with rain and blew a gale in the afternoon causing us to briefly retire for about 30 minutes, the guy on the machine working his way in from the outside in circles all day harvested the last row of rice! Naomi and carried the last 25kg bag in a wheelbarrow up to where we stacked the other 75 or so bags and wiping off the dripping sweat on our necks the pros came to transport the harvested rice to the rice centre where each grain will be dried and the outside layer peeled off and put into bags which will supply Naomi's family with their staple food for another year! Stay tuned for a photo of the first rice!