This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
Despite all of its bright lights, technology, and manufacturing jobs, at its heart, Japan is still an agricultural society, or at least, it seems that way to me. I suppose the same could be said about any country, really. After all, we all need to eat, and food production plays a central role in many economies. What I mean when I talk about Japan, though, is that, even as young people flock to the larger cities, the family garden and the food of one’s hometown still holds a very prominent place in the lives of many Japanese people.
Beyond the countryside, which is predominantly dedicated to rice production and the growing of teas, fruits, and vegetables, Japan has many urban centers of varying size. One thing that surprised me when I first came to Japan is just how common gardens are in the smaller cities of Japan. As you walk through these urban areas, sometimes not even one kilometer from city centers, you will find empty lots dedicated to growing rice, onions, cabbages, sweet potatoes, and flowers, etc. These plots of land are sometimes sandwiched between businesses, sometimes they are squeezed between large apartment buildings, and sometimes they are just settled between houses. Regardless of where they are, they are in use practically all year round.
Even in the megalopolis of Tokyo you can find urban gardens that are shared and maintained by many families. Not only that, there are agricultural centers as well, sometimes with catchy names like ‘Agri Park’ where urbanites and school children can go to have agricultural experiences—milking cows, digging up potatoes, planting and harvesting crops of all kinds. Though I suspect that this is slowly changing, it seems to me that Japan still has a very close relationship to and appreciation of the production of its food.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.
I enjoy a lot your posts on Japan. I've been visiting the country a few years ago and I fell in love with the place (I've seen Sendai and spent a while with friends in Fukushima).
Thank you for reading my posts and commenting. I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying them.
I lived in Sendai for a little while, not far from the station on the corner of Ekimae Dori and Jozenji Dori. There was actually a small rice paddy two blocks from the apartment building where I lived that I often passed when walking to the grocery store. I kept thinking about that rice paddy when I was writing this post. I have pictures of it on film, but nothing digital, so I couldn't include them.
There are definitely a lot of great places to visit and things to do here. I also think it's an easy place to fall in love with. When I came here, I thought I'd only be here for a year. Now it's looking like I'll be here for life.
Thanks again for the support and encouragement!
It is quiet and peaceful scenery...^^
i like it and voted.
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the pictures, and thank you for voting for my post. I suppose that the pictures do look quiet and peaceful. For me, knowing where they were taken, which is actually a pretty busy place, I wouldn't have thought of them being described as such. It's nice to be able to look at these pictures from a different perspective. Thanks for commenting.
Here is one from my last trip. This rice paddy is no more than a quarter acre sandwiched between the houses of Narita behind me and the freeway
or this one in the steep valleys in the Narita Hills near Sakae. One big rain storm and goodbye rice paddy
So enjoying your eyes open scenes of Japan.
Those rice paddies get squeezed in everywhere:)
Beautiful