Harvesting Rice
Every year, the rice has to get planted and harvested. The planting is time consuming but not so difficult. The harvesting is a lot less fun cause it is straight hardcore manual labor. This year was no different. I didn't have time to help with the planting and last year I did not help with the harvest. So this year I felt obligated to help out after everything that my father in law has done for me since I moved here.
We got a late start and did not get moving on picking the rice till almost 9. By that time I was rearing to go and thinking about the fact that I had to be on the train heading back to Tokyo with Eric by 17:55.
My father in law, he drives his rice cutting combine tractor, like he paid $10,000.00 for it. Slowly and carefully. That is why at about 1030 AM I was relived to see my brother in law Koji had shown up. He is my size and while he is not much for heavy lifting he does drive the tractor a little faster, like he stole it in comparison. With him behind the wheel things started to move along allot faster and by 2 pm we had finished the 2 large fields and were heading over to work on the third and forth.
I am the kinda guy who likes to optimize my processes. I could just stand there and wait for the tractor to get to the closer edge of the fields and then stop it change the bags and carry them up to the truck. But we are on a tight time line. So in the interest of making things go faster. I walked along side the tractor and changed the 30-40 KG bags with out letting the tractor stop, as many times as I could.
Eventually my father in law remembered that "this is not how we usually do things" so we had to stop the tractor and take the rice off. It was a infuriating waste of time and energy but I decided just to let it go. I tried to explain that we could move more quickly if we did it my way. My mother-in-law and brother in law just laughed as they watched from a distance me trying to explain this to my father-in-law. Futility.
During that time, with a cup given to him by my mother in law, Eric entertained himself by terrorizing the now displaced from there home in the rice field insect population. He also took time to pose for a couple of photos.
By about 4 pm I needed to think about leaving so I went and emptied the rice bags out, the second load and left Koji to start tending to the last field. When I returned. a turning error had broken the tractor and we needed some tools to get it going again. I sped home and retrieved the required items and brought them back and we got the tractor working.
Finally it was time to go, I took Eric and Miku back to the house and we all had a quick shower and got cleaned up. My mother-in-law gave me and Eric a ride to the station where we caught the train. Eric was all wound up from playing with Miku-chan and was completely out of control by the time we got on the train. It was a long train ride and I was not in the mood after a day of lifting 60-70, 30-40 kilo bags of rice to deal with him any more than I really had to.
When I got home of course Satomi was not there which further fueled my irritation. Apparently it was more important to be out with her friends then to be home to meet us. ERRRRRR!
Regardless I got Eric into bed and passed out my self as well. It was pretty interesting to note that that because I have been doing my rugby training I do not think I was quite so tired or sore when I finished the day.
Oh well next year we will see what happens.
We got a late start and did not get moving on picking the rice till almost 9. By that time I was rearing to go and thinking about the fact that I had to be on the train heading back to Tokyo with Eric by 17:55.
My father in law, he drives his rice cutting combine tractor, like he paid $10,000.00 for it. Slowly and carefully. That is why at about 1030 AM I was relived to see my brother in law Koji had shown up. He is my size and while he is not much for heavy lifting he does drive the tractor a little faster, like he stole it in comparison. With him behind the wheel things started to move along allot faster and by 2 pm we had finished the 2 large fields and were heading over to work on the third and forth.
I am the kinda guy who likes to optimize my processes. I could just stand there and wait for the tractor to get to the closer edge of the fields and then stop it change the bags and carry them up to the truck. But we are on a tight time line. So in the interest of making things go faster. I walked along side the tractor and changed the 30-40 KG bags with out letting the tractor stop, as many times as I could.
Eventually my father in law remembered that "this is not how we usually do things" so we had to stop the tractor and take the rice off. It was a infuriating waste of time and energy but I decided just to let it go. I tried to explain that we could move more quickly if we did it my way. My mother-in-law and brother in law just laughed as they watched from a distance me trying to explain this to my father-in-law. Futility.
During that time, with a cup given to him by my mother in law, Eric entertained himself by terrorizing the now displaced from there home in the rice field insect population. He also took time to pose for a couple of photos.
By about 4 pm I needed to think about leaving so I went and emptied the rice bags out, the second load and left Koji to start tending to the last field. When I returned. a turning error had broken the tractor and we needed some tools to get it going again. I sped home and retrieved the required items and brought them back and we got the tractor working.
Finally it was time to go, I took Eric and Miku back to the house and we all had a quick shower and got cleaned up. My mother-in-law gave me and Eric a ride to the station where we caught the train. Eric was all wound up from playing with Miku-chan and was completely out of control by the time we got on the train. It was a long train ride and I was not in the mood after a day of lifting 60-70, 30-40 kilo bags of rice to deal with him any more than I really had to.
When I got home of course Satomi was not there which further fueled my irritation. Apparently it was more important to be out with her friends then to be home to meet us. ERRRRRR!
Regardless I got Eric into bed and passed out my self as well. It was pretty interesting to note that that because I have been doing my rugby training I do not think I was quite so tired or sore when I finished the day.
Oh well next year we will see what happens.