Tanbo

Starting about April 28, 2012, the beginning of Golden Week rice farmers began planting rice seedlings on their tanbo or rice fields. The trays of rice seedlings are so densely packed and the roots so intertwined in a white mat that a batch of rice seedlings removed from the plastic tray hangs together very securely. The rice planter whose small engine is started with a pull cord automates the process of planting rice by chopping plugs of seedlings from the mats which oscillate slowly from side to side until the mat is almost empty when an alarm sounds and more mats of rice seedlings are applied. The machine displayed is an older machine, but I found it to be quite impressive. Okano-san planted his seedlings on his three tanbo May 11th for most of the day and the on the 12th for a couple of hours. The frogs were temporarily disturbed, but will soon be busy romancing their ladies again.