{"id":25897,"date":"2023-11-01T19:23:14","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T10:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/?p=25897"},"modified":"2024-11-13T12:15:01","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T03:15:01","slug":"icc-rice-harvesting-report-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/news-en\/2023\/11\/01\/25897\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvesting Memories: A day in the Tokorozawa Campus Paddies: Rice Harvesting@Tokorozawa Campus Participant Report"},"content":{"rendered":"
Peter James Roche
\nExchange Student
\nSchool of Political Science and Economics<\/h6>\n
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Photo by author<\/p><\/div>\n

To be honest, one of the last things I thought I\u2019d do when I came to study in Japan was to harvest rice from a paddy field, but that\u2019s just what I did with the ICC on this trip, and it will be one of the best memories I\u2019ll have from my time studying here in Waseda.<\/p>\n

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ICC photo<\/p><\/div>\n

On the day of, we met at Kotesashi Station. We took the bus to the Tokorozawa campus, and it was crazy how different it was to the main Waseda campus, so removed from Tokyo and put right in the middle of nature. We then went to one of the lecture halls and listened to some information by some of the people involved in the conservation of the wetlands and marshes around the area. We were told about past and future events, and still upcoming is digging for wild yams (contact the Natural Environmental Research Laboratory for more information!).<\/p>\n

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ICC photo<\/p><\/div>\n

We then set off towards the rice paddies, on the way picking up our overalls\/wellington boots. When we arrived, we put our belongings in plastic bags, and with how dirty we got later on, I\u2019m glad we did. We were then instructed how to cut the stalk of the rice plant with the sickle. One piece of advice I will give: never be afraid to sign up for an ICC event! No matter your level of Japanese or how able you think you maybe be for a certain activity, everyone involved is always so nice and accommodating. You\u2019ll feel right at home with the warm energy everyone gives.<\/p>\n

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Photo by author<\/p><\/div>\n

Coming from a farming background in Ireland, I felt right at home in the mud, even though I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve harvested rice before. It was quite hard to walk through the thick mud of the paddy field at first, but we all quickly got used to it. We harvested the rice quickly, thanks to the effort of everyone who came along and helped. Then, once the fields were clear, came the mud race.<\/p>\n

The mud race was a to get from one side of the rice field to the other first, the difficult being that it\u2019s not exactly easy to run in almost quicksand – like mud. And while I came third :\u2019) , it was a priceless and fun memory nonetheless.<\/p>\n

After the race, we headed back to the campus to wash off all the mud and clean off our gear. Once we had, we went to nearby the bus stop and had lunch and played games while waiting for our bus back. All in all, it was the most fun day I\u2019ve had in Japan yet. It was my first ICC event, and still holds the place of it being my favourite.<\/p>\n

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ICC photo<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harvesting Memories!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,97],"tags":[116,94,137,70,135],"class_list":["post-25897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","category-other-en","tag-event-report-en","tag-general-en","tag-hands-on-activities-en","tag-student-activities-en","tag-visit-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25897"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33783,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25897\/revisions\/33783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/icc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}