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By the beginning of October the rice crop takes on a more golden hue and is ready for harvesting. |
| The harvest itself is, like most harvests in most countries, a rather frantic affair. The beginning of October is also typhoon season in southern Japan. Typhoons and harvests tend to make poor bed fellows. |  |
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This is the Japanese equivalent of a combine harvester. It does much the same job as it's counterpart in the wheat fields of Europe and the Americas, separating the grains of rice from the straw, the latter of which can be bound up in handy sized bundles and deposited on the ground........ |
| .........while the grains of rice are collected in bags. Nothing to it! There's enough in those bags to keep my family going for a year or two. |  |
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In years gone by, the rice straw was utilised in various ways, from straw sandals to wall insulation . Nowadays it is mostly dried on rails such as these , chopped up and put back onto the land. |