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| 2 Tanbo no Gakkou (school in rice field) |
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This time is not about India but about Japan. June 4 there was an event of Tanbo no Gakkou in rice terrace of Sannouji in Unnan city, Shimane prefecture. In Japanese tanbo means paddy field and gakkou means school. You may think why paddy becomes a school. But recently this kind of movement is extending all over Japan gradually.
Hundred years ago, most Japanese were farmers. Even after developed many industries, people who have farm lands continued cultivation on Saturday and Sunday. But nowadays the situation is changing rapidly. Because holiday farmers got old and their sons who have another work in city donft take over the farm lands. Thatfs the reason why farm land is getting go wild. Namely they can not preserve their farm lands any more only by themselves. This tendency is remarkable in mountainous region and deep rural area because of its bad productivity.
On the other hands not a few urban people are realizing the importance of rural environment such as rice terrace. As for children, chances that they can play outside are decreasing. As for their parents, they think they make their kids touch and feel the nature like paddy. And they hope kids learn something from the experience in nature.
In this Tanbo no Gakkou 80 people (including local farmers and staff) took part in the event. They experienced transplanting on sunny day. Some kids were catching creatures in paddy with using scoop net. A farmer said he was happy to hear lively kidfs voice after a long time. That was impressive for me because I knew school kid was only one in this area. This event seems to give a good interaction between local farmers and urban people.
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