Rice Fields and Sun Flowers

We took a fun day trip with our friends Anna and Matthew! First, we went to Yotsuya Senmaida in Shinshiro City. Senmaida translates to "1,000 rice paddies," so you will often hear this name attached to larger rice fields. This is a terraced rice field that was built over 400 years ago. This particular rice field has approximately 1,300 rice paddies. No modern farming machinery was used to put the stones in place on this field, meaning this was one very labor intensive process! Today, about 30 farmers still maintain the rice paddies, and it certainly makes for some stunning views!

We visited the field together last August and took many beautiful photos strolling through the fields. This year, when the four of us arrived, it started raining almost immediately. As soon as Tori opened the door, a huge crackling thunder sound rolled in over the hills and startled all four of us. About five mintues after that, the heavy rains came, and we since we had a lot of things we wanted to fit into the day, we were not able to stay and wait out the rains.

After the rice paddies, we stopped for a curry lunch at Coco Ichiban, and then headed over to a farm. The farm grows different fruits throughout the year, which you are able to pick. Melons are currently in season, but they were too small to be able to be picked. Instead, we were able to visit the beautiful sunflower fields. We paid approximately 7USD per person, which gave us entrance to the fields and we were also able to cut down and take home as many sunflowers as we wish. We wished we had been able to arrive a bit earlier to check out the cafe, but we still had a very nice time!