Inekari

This was a pretty short event, but I helped out at an "inekari" or rice-cutting event. The rice patch that I had earlier watched the North Elementary School kids weed was apparently planted by the North Elementary School kids AND some school kids from Tokyo who came on an exchange program. These Tokyo kids were back, and together with the NES kids we chopped away.

Essentially, you grab each rice stack and cut it off with your hand-scythe. Then, you gather about 10 of these and tie the base with some string. Then, you shove the rice (base up) on metal poles as pictured. It's not too complicated, really. I mean, 6 year-olds were doing it.

Mostly, though, the 6 year-olds were catching the 1000s of grasshoppers that appeared. I mean they were everywhere. Grasshoppers of all shapes and sizes. Praying mantises aplenty. Spiders, too. And hundreds of dragonflies showed up to swarm around the cut grass. What do they eat, anyway?

It was fun, but hot, and I could see why your back would get sore after a while. Some guy from the local public station was here (actually, the national public tv station) and he filmed me too, but I was out of town and missed the show.