Inekari

The thing that's really awesome about Japanese schools is that although they're in session for much too long of the year, the kids get to do all these different awesome activities. Like rice planting in June, sports day in September, Culture Day in November, and rice harvesting in October. On Thursday I showed up at my biggest elementary school to discuss the next day's lessons. However, when I got there I was told that classes were canceled, and the kids were doing inekari - rice harvesting/cutting. I put on a sad face and was all 'Can I come too?' like that old woman on that episode of the Simpsons and luckily the school said yes. The next day I showed up in my tracks pants and long sleeved shirt and hat, not really knowing what to expect (of course, this is Japan). For some reason I assumed we'd be boarding buses and driving to a far off field to cut some rice. Not taking into consideration that the kids all walk upwards of one hour to and from school everyday, and that we live in a rural farming district.

After a twenty-odd minute walk spent listening and not understanding the one-sided conversations a bunch of eight-year olds tried to have with me, we arrived in a large clearing with hundred of dragonflies flying around. I'm not really going to bother describing it, since I uploaded a picture album that showcases better than my descriptions could. But you can't see any of the dragonflies, or the kids chasing frogs and the girls screaming 'Kimochi-warui!' which I think literally means 'Bad feeling!'. I also didn't get a picture of any of the three kids that cut themselves on their scythes in the first 10 minutes of being in the fields.

I have no idea if I was supposed to actually do anything. One of the teachers gave me a pair of gloves, and I had a water bottle, but basically I wandered around and the teachers all frantically yelled orders left and right while some of the kids half-heartedly listened to them and others just ran around trying to catch lizards. I guess the novelty of harvesting rice wears off when your parents do it all the time.

Rice Harvesting - 知覧小の稲刈り