For the Love of Rice

Rice is a beautiful food, and a beautiful crop. Who would have thought? I noticed it when I first arrived, when the rice plants were at their peak and ready to be harvested. The endless fields of light brown and bright green blowing in the breeze stands out in my mind as one of the loveliest sights of the Japanese summer.

And now it is time to plant the rice, creating scenery that is equally beautiful, but in a completely different way. I took these pictures tonight while walking through the fields behind my neighborhood.

Rice planting is done during the rainy season, when the fields are flooded and the ground is soft. When the wind dies down the reflection of the clouds and houses is quite a sight, but in my area the wind rarely goes away, and the flooded fields usually look more like rippled lakes. In the mornings on the way to school I pass farmers slogging through the fields with their boots or their tractors, preparing the muddy soil for the planting. My favorite sight though, is the crows wading through the fields searching for food, gingerly pulling their feet from the mud with every step. I think the crows must resent the rice planting time, when their grocery stores get flooded.

Rice Sprouts

The rice is sprouted in green houses, then put into the ground once it is a few inches high. The farmers here have these incredible machines that plant the rice, but I haven't been able to get a picture of them yet. After all the sprouts are planted by machine, the farmers go in and removed the failed plants by hand, inserting new healthy sprouts in their place.

Rice waiting to be planted.

Growing up in the US, rice was something that came in a box and was eaten about once a month. We had to read the directions on the package every time we made it, carefully measuring out the rice, water and butter, before setting the timer for 20 minutes. The rice that resulted from those boxes was nothing like the stuff we got from the Chinese takeout places, which had a mysterious way of sticking together. Our home cooked rice wasn't sticky at all, but instead it was slightly slippery and had to be eaten with a spoon. My favorite way to eat rice was with butter, soy sauce, salt and pepper. The thought of eating plain white rice, with no sauce of any sort, was really gross to me. Why would anyone eat something so bland all by itself?

When I tell my Asian friends about our American rice habits, they laugh like crazy.


My first exposure to the way Asian people cook rice was through my college roommate Lucia. Lucia was Korean-American, and she taught me how to properly wash rice and how to use a rice cooker. Lucia thought it was really weird that my family got rice out of a box, and ate it with butter. When Lucia made rice, I remember being amazed at the fact that she didn't have to measure anything. I thought this was because the rice cooker was just really "smart," and adjusted the time and temperature enough to account for inaccuracies in amounts, but now I know that when you make rice enough times, you instinctually know exactly how much water is needed.

My rice cooker, full of newly make おかゆ - okayu (rice porridge).

Sea of rice

Now, I make rice for myself almost everyday. I don't need to measure anything, and it turns out perfect every time. I can even do it without a rice cooker. My rice turns out sticky just like the restaurants, and given the proper tools I can even make rice that is sticky enough to be eating with the fingers, Southeast Asian style. I also know how to make fried rice, which I used to think was the exclusive domain of Chinese people. I can make rice porridge, mochi rice, and any number of rice based dishes. It is only now that I realize just how valuable and versatile a food rice can be, if only you know what to do with it.

White and brown rice, bought by the kilo, are now the cornerstone of my diet.

Recently, I learned how to make proper sushi rice. Before coming to Japan, I though the rice used in sushi was just the same as the rice served in the bowl, but it's not. The preparation of REAL proper sushi rice is such an art form that sushi chefs-in-training spend a full year doing nothing but making the rice in the back of the restaurant. My sushi rice doesn't come close to theirs of course, but it does the job.

The tools of sushi rice - a はんぎり - hangiri (wooden tub), rice paddles, sushi vinegar, and a fan.

Living in Asia has also entirely transformed the way I treat rice as a food source. No longer is it the thing I eat once a month when Mom makes Broccoli Beef. These days, I eat rice every day, often with every meal. At first, when I was living in Korea and realized how often I found myself eating rice, I thought it was strange. I actually made an effort to not eat rice so often, because it felt like a cop-out in some strange way. But then it struck me - my aversion to eating rice everyday was a product of my Western upbringing, where rice is regarded as something bland and boring that should not be eaten all that often. It's funny now when I think about that, because rice is THE staple food for millions of people on this planet, people who eat it every day with every meal, as their ancestors have done for centuries. It is what bread is to Europeans. (And the lack of decent bread where I live is enough to drive anyone to learn to love rice!)


In the traditional way of eating in Japan, food is not technically considered a meal unless it includes rice. (Unless it is a noodle dish, then it is ok to forego the rice.) In fact, the general word for "meal" in Japanese - gohan - is the same word used for cooked white rice. If a man goes to the pub after work, he will have a full meal's worth of food and alcohol, but when he goes home and his wife asks, "Have you eaten dinner?" he will say no. He has not eaten dinner because he has not had rice.

The kanji used for uncooked rice - 米 (pronounced kome) - coincidentally, is also the kanji used for the USA. I have no idea why!

No longer do I think of rice as bland and boring. A full bowl of hot white rice, eaten completely plain, is absolutely delicious. The trick, what we didn't know back in the US when I was a kid, is starting with good quality rice. The stuff I was eating back then was the rice-equivalent to cheap white bread.

I think the crows got him :(

These pictures made me realize that I often fail to appreciate the beauty of where I am living right now. It may not be the sort of place that draws tourists from abroad, or even tourists from Japan for that matter, but this place really is quite beautiful. I only need to take the time to look.