I found myself looking out the window of the express train at rice paddies filled with water

Rice paddies in Java — Mountains and rice paddies seen from the car window

I thought there were only fields that looked like they had fallen into disrepair, but before I knew it, I couldn't find any fields at all and instead saw paddy fields outside the car window of the express train. Every rice field was filled with water and green rice plants. It was the end of January when I took this photo. In Japan, the rice planting season is generally from April to June, but here in Java, Indonesia, the rice planting season seems to be in January. Even though it's January, it's still warm in this country near the equator.

I remembered that in northern Laos, where I also visited in January, rice paddies were filled with water and rice planting was going on. I guess January is the rice planting season in warm Southeast Asia. Unlike Japan, it is not uncommon to harvest rice in two cropping seasons in Southeast Asia, and I have even heard that in Luzon, Philippines, it is possible to harvest rice in three cropping seasons.

It is sometimes said that the Japanese are collectivist because they are an agrarian people who do a lot of communal work, but looking at the rice fields in Southeast Asia where rice is harvested in two or three cropping seasons, it is hard to believe that just because they are agrarian people, they are collectivist.

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