We've been getting out to the field pretty early the last few days, which has made for some picturesque, if groggy, mornings. Our schedule has been to wake up at 5, head out to the field shortly thereafter (about a 5 minute drive through rice paddies), work until about 7:30, come back to the house and eat breakfast, promptly pass out on the tatami floor for an hour, then head back out and work until lunch.
Chieko's dad has been letting us off easy and allowing us to call it a day after lunch, which has been nice, as it's afforded us the afternoon to take some country drives, or otherwise lounge around the house and relax. Her parents have toned down the watermelon operation in recent years, and they are only farming a few fields, hence our comparatively easy schedule. I'm enjoying the work, as it's been a while since I've had good, physical, outside work. The fact that it hasn't been deathly hot this week makes things much easier, and the half days don't hurt either.
A lot of the watermelons we harvest are sold through a local farmers co-op, but her family also does a fair bit of private sales as well to friends, friends of friends, and I suppose anyone else who stumbles along and wants to buy a watermelon. Such was the case today when several people showed up from far off distances to buy some watermelons. They are regular customers, i.e. they buy a bunch of melons each summer. When I saw the number of melons that were set aside for these customers, I imagined someone showing up with a flatbed or box truck to pick up their order. So I was surprised to see one of the customers show up with a normal four door sedan, which was promptly filled to the gills with watermelons. First we filled the trunk, then the back seat and floor. Then we closed the back doors and fed a few more in through the open windows until it was really full. The ass end of the couple's car was nearly dragging on the ground as they drove away. I'll have to ready my camera next time one of these folks is due to show up.
One of the best aspects of harvesting watermelons is that when you do get hot, you can just hack open a watermelon and cool down. It doesn't get much fresher than this.
As I mentioned, one of the things we've been doing in the afternoon is taking drives around the area. I still can't get over how beautiful it here, regardless of the season. This is the Japan I imagined in my head before I came here, when I had no idea what the country was really like, and even for a long time after I arrived and didn't venture beyond the Tokyo metropolis. It really is a different world compared to the city. We're only about an hour from Tokyo by bullet train, but it feels like we're in a whole different country.
The other night we dragged out the tatami mats, fired up the grill, and roasted a whole mess of food over hot charcoals. It was a perfect night, sans the several thousand bugs who flocked to the lights.
And all perfect nights end with fireworks. I've mentioned that you can buy big bags of fireworks at 7-11 here, right? The kiddies were intoxicated by the combo of kiddie beer and fire!! I was intoxicated by the combo of real beer and fire!!
Chieko and I are off to the big city (Tokyo) for a few days, after which we'll be back here for a few more days of watermelon splendor. So this blog will be offline in the meantime.
A quick note, which I can't believe I forgot to mention in my previous post when I said we arrived in Niigata without incident. There actually was an incident: my first run-in with the Japanese police! I was pulled over on the highway for speeding and travelling in the passing lane constantly. I would have liked to explain to the officer that the reason I was travelling in the passing lane was because I was speeding, and it was much easier than repeatedly pulling in and out of the travelling lane, but that wouldn't have been proper, even if I were capable of doing it in Japanese. Instead, I just nodded innocently and was let off with a verbal warning. I will be a much slower driver from now on, and work on reestablishing the karma I squandered.
Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Drive safe.
3 comments:
i was caught going 81 kph in a 40 kph zone. it ended up costing me 8 man, not to mention 2 more man i had to pay for 1 day at "driving school." "driving school" was all in japanese, so i had to take my supervisor with me to act as interpreter. needless to say, it wasn't my brightest moment.
Cool pictures once again. How many acres is the watermelon farm. Can you say Condo's, Office Park and Shopping Center?
yeah i was fortunate, and a bit surprised, to get off with only a warning...will slow it down from now on
the watermelon fields are probably only 1.5, that's just a guess though...hopefully they'll be remaining watermelon fields for the foreseeable future
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