Rice Planting, Incense Making and Interacting with the Local Kids

This morning, we boarded a minivan and went to Yanagisawa Elementary School for a rice planting session with their pupils. The rice field was just across a small road in front of the school. After removing their footwear, the children were ready to go into the field. Their first steps into the rice field were accompanied by squeals as their legs sank into the mud, right up to their calves! A rope across the entire length of the field was used to mark the spots where the rice was to be planted. All the children held on to their rice and planted a few stalks at each spot. The rice had to be planted in a backward direction and every step back meant bending down to plants the rice stalks. Now we know what the song “Planting Rice is Never Fun” really meant. Indeed, every grain of rice is precious!

After lunch, we proceeded to a famous incense making factory. The children watched a video show before taking a tour of the factory, looking at the machinery and processes for making incense. Here comes the best part: we all got to make our own! Besides the smell of the incense, even the colour can be decided. The children also received gifts of incense from the company! The later part of the afternoon was spent interacting with the local kids in their day care centre.