In an idle rice field along the Tenryu River in Inadani, Nagano Prefecture, white filiform agar glittered on a reed screen under the rising February sun. The temperature was minus 8 degrees.
February is the perfect time to harvest agar. Agar, a gelatinous substance made from seaweed, is frozen in the cold at night and dried under the sun during daytime. The process is repeated for more than 10 days.
Due to generally warmer temperatures, the period for exposing agar to the cold has become shorter.