Seventeen boys and girls from Furusawa Elementary School are up to their shins in mud. June is the traditional rice-planting month in the Isumi area of Chiba Prefecture and for the past three years, the local fifth-graders have tried their hands at planting rice the old-fashioned way.
Today the children are planting a fragrant long-grain rice, called koari mai, originally from India. There are other exotic "heirloom" varieties, such as a highly nutritious Chinese black rice, a red rice from Kyushu, a sweet, green variety used for making mochi and a very rare bonsai rice from Tohoku. In a small plot, there is also an ancient variety sown from seeds unearthed at a Jomon Era excavation site in Gunma Prefecture.
Joining the children in the rice-planting fun is Maggie Slaton, a Texas native, who works as an assistant language teacher in the local school district. At university, Slaton studied global food and water sustainability, issues that she has maintained an interest in during her travels in Asia observing local farming practices. Last autumn, after tasting the sweet, green rice at a local mochi party, Slaton was eager to try her hand at planting.