Autumn rice fields

Akita means 'autumn rice field.' Since I am living in Akita, I decided that it was very important of me to take photos of rice fields in autumn. So that is what I did on Saturday.

Not far into my walk, I ran accross this guy - Peter the Suicidal Mantis.

Peter was an old senile mantis, who was wandering around in the middle of the road oblivious to the danger. He was having trouble walking, and looked rather like he was boogie-woogying. I was concerned for his health, and after taking his picture I was standing there trying to decide whether I would intervene and usher him to the side of the road when I saw something out the corner of my eye. My head whipped around in time to see a snake snaking its way up out of the gutter a few metres away, it's eyes on me. We stared at each other for a few seconds before he (who I have decided to name Snape) retreated.

In short I didn't save Peter because I was too busy putting distance between Snape and myself.

Encounters with scary creatures could not dampen my resolve to take pictures of the fields. I quite like this picture - it's nice and orderly.


Taking this picture involve contorting myself into an awkward position, and stopping my breathing. And then waiting for the wind to quit being a pest.

The owners of this field dry their rice naturally. This the traditional rice-drying method used in this area. Further inland they use another method.

Three wise men.

I like this field. So far I have taken pictures of it in spring, summer and autumn, and said pictures are always picturesque (that statement is entirely redundant, isn't it?).

After taking a few more pictures on the way back home, I looked to the left and saw this: That time I did not jump, because in truth I was kind of expecting to encounter Snape again. He did not jump either, and I managed to take a few pictures (with zoom). But then a car went by and he did get spooked, so my snake-picture-taking was cut short.

I looked further up the road and saw a non-moving blob, and knew that the worst had happened. Peter the Suicidal Mantis had achieved his goal - he had been hit by a car. He was in a different part of the road to where I had seen him earlier, so he must have continued boogie-woogying up the road, you know, just to make sure he got hit.

As a tribute to the poor soul of Peter, here is a beautiful picture of some dead trees.

Now all I need to do is go for a walk amongst the fields in winter too, and my '4 seasons' collection will be complete.