田んぼ: Rice fields

When I first visited Japan, back in the summer of 2009, I went to where everyone first thinks of visiting: Tokyo. It had always been my dream of visiting Japan, and of course I had to go to Tokyo.

I remember arriving in Narita International airport being totally dazed and confused (I had only studied Japanese for a year at that point). On top of that, I was a little sick. This was during the 2009 Swine Flu Pandemic, and I was actually pretty worried that they would throw me into quarantine and/or deport me back to Hawaii.

Miraculously, I am not stopped, I get my bags, and am ready to make my way into the gigantic metropolis of Japan, when my friend/guide tells me that we gotta ride a train to get to Tokyo. Also, it's going to be an hour or so train ride. Well, I guess I can wait an hour.

We hop on the train, travel through a bunch of tunnels, and then finally the light of day breaks through the windows. I take a peak outside, ready to see gigantic buildings, robots, Godzilla, and Ultraman, but all I see are rice fields. Well, I found out later that Narita wasn't a big city at all. It's basically just farmland and an airport. Really?! An international airport in the middle of nowhere? Whatevers~

Well, let me introduce the word of the day:

田んぼ
( たんぼ / tanbo )

If you come to Japan, be prepared to see the rice fields (tanbo) everywhere! Like I mentioned earlier, even if you do just decide to spend all your time in Tokyo, you will still see rice fields on the way there.

tanbo right next to our house

Of course if you get away from the city, you'll see this more and more. As you probably are well aware, rice is a staple in Japan. You either eat rice or noodles with every meal, and sometimes the noodles are even made out of rice! You even have some dishes that are over 90% rice: sushi, onigiri, etc.

I've been living in Japan for a few months now and I am still in awe of these rice fields. To me, they are beautiful and add such a wonderful color to the land. My meager cell phone camera don't do these fields justice; they should be at least 3 times brighter and greener!

Well, just for your viewing pleasure, I've inserted pictures of some very special rice fields in Japan. If you know where these fields can be found, let me know, and I'll add another post about it later. Until then, enjoy!
またね～