Kids Web Japan

Removing weeds from the sweet potato field.

Weeding the rice field.

At the school farm near the school, the children plant various flowers and vegetables every season, an activity that supports their studies in the classroom.

The first and second graders go out to the farm for their home economics class. They begin by weeding the field. Over the summer, they will grow a variety of sweet potato known as kogane-sengan, which, among other things, is the main ingredient for Kagoshima shochu (distilled liquor). The potatoes will be harvested in November, and the children will plant onions after that.

The children next head for the rice field where they have planted mochi rice, the glutinous rice used to make rice cakes. They all take off their shoes and socks, step down into the rice field, and pull the weeds, with two or three students assigned to one furrow. At this time of year, the rice fields are still flooded with water, and their feet get all muddy. There are frogs and insects all over.

"The mud feels cool and kind of nice but also yucky!" exclaims one of the children. They walk and run along the furrows. There aren't many weeds to pull, but they learn what a rice field is like with their own feet. The rice they harvest in the fall will be used in January by the whole school to pound and make rice cakes.