I farm rice because I am.

It's the peak of the rice harvest up in the mountains and a week back I was blessed enough to finally do something I've always wanted to do...cut rice.

May not sound too enthralling to the average 21st century dude, but it's something I've been meaning to do because it is such an important part of Japan. Not just rice, but the role that the cultivation of rice plays in the whole national identity and source of Japanese cultural traits that have been developed for ages.

There are lots of things about Japanese culture that can be explained by one important point, and that is the emphasis placed on social harmony and a group mentality. Half the things that used to drive me crazy in this country make a lot more sense to me now that I realize they are done so as not to upset other people or the social balance of harmony and group interdependence. That's why people stay at work till 9 p.m. (not cuz there's lots to do, but cuz there are other people still there), that's why people show emotional restraint instead of saying or doing something brash, that's why people stay silent instead of expressing themselves as individuals, that's why my students won't answer a question unless they have a conference about it with friends first. And ultimately, this group consciousness goes back to the time when people worked together and really depended on each other to put out a good harvest. Cultivating rice and cultivating it well as a group is often what has made Japan Japan. Everything is done as a group, for the group.

So that's why I wanted to do it. I wanted to check out the roots of the culture. And I was lucky that my good old friend/Japanese mama Haruno Sato and her husband invited me for a harvest, along with my 9 old Nonaka students (this is the school that shut down last year after 130 years or so of being open).

So this is how it went down...I met the kids at the Sato's 250-year-old Edo period home, which at one point housed a family of 20 people 100 years ago but has dwindled down to the old couple and a 92-year old Grandma. This family and this home was one of the very original Niigata mountain families, and that house and their bloodline in the area is as old as the hills. I was told I am the first foreigner to have stepped foot in that house or those rice fields in hundreds of years.

They took me way up a dirt road into the hills and a clear, beautiful fall day. Even way up into the reaches of these little valleys, every tract of flat land is used for rice farming. To my right were a bunch of rice fields that had been freshly cut, and to the left were a bunch that were ripe for harvest. These were the Sato's rice fields. I asked them how long they had had any of the given rice fields, and I was told as long as the family has been in the area...they have been passed down to each generation for 250 years.

I was given a pair of gloves and a freshly sharpened sickle, as were a bunch of hyper elementary kids. I was told to start in the corners and start cutting each clump of rice stalks by hand, the traditional way. The kids got interested when they saw me doing it and they all pitched in, swinging sickles and evacuating frogs from the mud along the way.

Soon after, technology took over and Sato-san drove the Combine harvesting machine in. This essentially did the work of 100 people in no time, cutting the whole field with precision within about 15 minutes.

And of course because I was the guest, and perhaps because he didn't know better, he invited me up onto the very expensive machine and taught me how to drive it. I put my hat on, sneered a little, and got to work on the big rice zamboni.

Before long I had cleared the rest of the field, the rough grains were poured into a truck, and it was time to eat. They ended up building a fire in the middle of a cleared field and cooked a huge barbecue feast out in the open as we enjoyed the sunlight. I played with the kids between cooking sessions, and we feasted on meat and veggies and fresh miso soup until we almost popped. Then we played rice field tag and rice field baseball. It was an awesome day.

I learned that what we had harvested will most likely be kept for their own consumption, given to neighbors, and then the rest sold to Japan Agriculture as the famed Koshihikari brand, the most famous, delicious and expensive rice in Japan that only comes from this part of the country. Rice of this quality is prestigious and is no doubt what has bouyed this family and whole community over so many centuries.

Here's pics!