Harvesting Rice

The end of october, the end of the month of farmwork...

These four weeks, we harvested six middle-sized rice fields.

It's been three years since Jiyujin has started rice farming in Minami Uonuma.
Year by year, we made new attempts to grow organic and delicious Koshihikari rice with little agrichemicals. We've been trying traditional harvesting style of "Hazagake." Reaping rice, making sheaves and drying them naturally under the sun.

Of course, sundried rice tastes better than machine-dried rice.



Some of our Koshihikari rice (precisely, the rice which we helped for sundrying) is on sale at Jiyujin Club (Japanese only).

To begin with

I guess not many people (or maybe none?) outside Japan know this small Japanese town.

Uonuma, among Japanese, is famous for the rice farming of "Koshihikari" brand, but thought to be that's all. Even the Japanese don't really know about the beauty of the pastral landscape and the unique country lifestyle in this region.

Uonuma has a lot more. Seasonal country landscape, fresh air, organic food, lots of green, lots of snow...

Little by little, I would like to introduce big and small excitments in this town.


Uonuma is located in the middle of Honshu island (the biggest one) , in the southeastern area of Niigata prefecture. This area is known for the heavy snow fall, which is accumulated up to three meters in winter!

Obviously, it is a place of great fan for skiers and snowborders (and for us!)