Life In Japan: Hyogo Prefecture, Breadbasket of Asia | John Rachel

Without wanting to sound like a broken record, living in an agricultural region — and this could be anywhere in the world — is still an adventure for me, with fresh epiphanies and surprises a regular occurrence. Watching the cycle of plant, grow, harvest puts life on a unique timeline. I love it!

We live in the middle of farm fields. Most of what is being grown appears to be rice and soybeans, which are called kuromame [ 黒豆 ] i.e. black beans. Tambasasayama is famous across Japan for its black beans and the streets are packed with tourists at harvest time.

Little did I know that Hyogo Prefecture — the equivalent to a state or province — is among the top producers in a host of other agricultural products. As you can see from the mapping above, the abundance is astonishing. For the record, these are at the top of the list for all of Japan:

#1 Crab 
#1 Black Soybeans 
#1 Sake Rice
#1 Shirasu, Ikanago
#2 Onions 
#2 Red Beans 
#2 Seaweed Paper
#2 Octopus

Why am I telling you this?

Darn good question!

Maybe a better question is . . .

Why are you reading this?

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Hyogo Prefecture, Breadbasket of Asia | John Rachel

Life In Japan: JA

JA stands for Japan Agriculture.

JA is a huge, sprawling organization, with hundreds of stores, facilities, and offices across the entire country. But . . .

It’s not a corporation.

It’s not a government facility, branch, or department.

It’s a cooperative — or more accurately, this from an article on Wikipedia, a “national group of 694 regional co-ops in Japan that supply members with input for production, undertake packaging, transportation, and marketing of agricultural products, and provide financial services.”

They of course have commercial outlets which make available local farm products. Here is our main store in town.

But because JA provides so many services within the hundreds of communities it serves, it also has numerous offices, some large and imposing complexes. The ‘JA’ logo adorns quite a few buildings right here in Tambasasayama.

Did I mention that JA is a cooperative? Of course I did!

Why is this important?

Because it’s set up as a cooperative, it’s not subject to government bureaucracy, political influences, or the whims and wishes of whoever is politically in power at any given time. Even more importantly, it doesn’t have to answer to a corporate board of directors, it isn’t beholden to shareholders, and doesn’t measure its success in terms of “profitability”.

JA is there exclusively to serve its members and the needs of the community.

What a concept!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]





Life In Japan: JA

Life In Japan: Tilling The Soil

I can't say that growing up in Detroit exactly gave me a strong agricultural awareness.  Though for five years my mom and dad had mobile home north of the urban sprawl and the trailer park was surrounded by undeveloped land -- literally fields and even a small forest -- none of it was farmed.  I think the first time I saw a tractor was at the State Fair and it was parked, sparkling clean, gleaming in the artificial light of an exhibition hall.

One thing I truly enjoy about living in a farming community now is that the growing cycle parallels the cycle of seasons.  Back in Detroit, it was the weather that marked the seasonal changes.  Truth is, it's more that the weather drives the growing cycle of food production.  This seems obvious now but simply never occurred to me.  When I was growing up, we got food at the grocery store.  How it got there wasn't anything we worried much about.  That's probably still true for most people.  I hear that urban kids -- at least up to a certain age, around 13 or 14 -- now are shocked to find out that Chicken McNuggets didn't magically show up at the Drive-Thru window of McDonald's, that someone raised real live animals, chopped off their heads, yanked out the feathers, carved the deceased into bite-size chunks.  This imagery is not exactly mouth-watering.

Anyway, as belated as my agricultural epiphany is, I'm finally aware of what's been going on "behind the scenes" for 20,000 years now.  Please don't laugh.  I know my ignorance is pathetic.  But better late than never.  Or is it?

I'll pretend you didn't answer that.

First stage in getting stuff to grow?  Preparing the soil!

Actually I can relate.  What boy doesn't like to play in the dirt!

Preparing the soil -- or more poetically, tilling the soil -- takes two similar but distinct paths here.
One is churning dirt in order to grow vegetables.  This looks the same as what they do in Ohio, Iowa, and Nebraska.

The second is what they do all over Asia, where rice is the main staple.  It is more about churning mud.

There you have it.  I make no apologies.  This may seem mundane, quaint, or even boring to most of you.  I've lived in farm country now for over ten years.  I find it . . .

Comforting?
Ennobling?
Spiritual?
Actualizing?
Holistic?

As a writer, words are important to me.  So I need to find that perfect word or phrase for capturing the cognitive and emotional essence of my reaction to all this plowing, turning, separating, blending, mangling and manipulation of dirt.

Ah!  I've got it.  I find all of this farming stuff . . .

Really neat!




[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]



Life In Japan: Tilling The Soil