A walk in rural Japan
This morning I took a walk in the warm winter sunshine along a road in Ibaraki between Bando-shi and Noda-shi. Ibaraki is the northeastern part of the Kantō region of Japan, bounded on the north and south by Fukushima Prefecture and Chiba Prefecture. It also has borders on the southwest with Gunma Prefecture and Saitama Prefecture. The northernmost part of the prefecture is mountainous, but most of the prefecture is a flat plain with many lakes. Ibaraki's industries include energy, particularly nuclear energy production, as well as chemical and precision machining industries. The Hitachi company was founded in the Ibaraki city of the same name.
There are also many farms in Ibaraki although most of the agriculture is small-scale and limited to family-run operations. Still, it is always enjoyable to walk along the rural roads and see the fields being tended to and various produce growing at almost every time of the year. Now is the season to plant negi (green onion) and the newly planted seeds have sprouted. These vinyl covers protect the negi from frost and birds, and provide a greenhouse-like environment for them to grow in.
It is such a different feeling to be in rural Japan than in Tokyo where the pace and pressure of the city is unending. In the countryside, farmers wave to you and, if close by, will often strike up a conversation. Of course only after overcoming the shock of encountering a foreigner walking along a road in rural Japan.
