Planting rice is no easy task. It requires patience, sturdy legs and, preferably, a change of clothes. I had, however, neglected to make note of this final detail before embarking on the Karasuyama Taiken (www.karasuyama-taiken.jp) rice-planting excursion, organized by Shimazaki Shuzo sake brewery, in Tochigi Prefecture. Soon, I found myself knee-deep in mud, praying that I wouldn't soil my only pair of jeans or tumble into the murky water.
Although I'd visited rice fields before, I'd only witnessed planting from a distance. These perfunctory observations hadn't prepared me for the heat, already intense in mid-May, or the ticklish feeling of tadpoles and beetles swimming around my toes. But the chance to experience sake-rice production from quite literally the ground up was precisely why I'd joined the event.