Ripening rice

... and its wonderful golden-green color all over the landscape.

See here how it will be harvested.

More new houses

I will never understand why they are built so very close to each other. And it's a pity that little by little, so many rice paddies in Kitakami are eaten up by those new housing areas.

Old mountains and new plastic houses

Close to Kitakami, Iwate.

Scary!

Meanwhile, rice harvest is almost over in Northern Japan, but on our recent trip it just had started, so in many rice paddies, we saw scarecrows - but modern ones like these are quite rare.

Red spider lilly (Lycoris radiata)

This flower, higanbana in japanese, in autumn is omnipresent in Japan.

Tatami room

... where we had the pleasure to stay during our September trip to Iwate.

Army of water striders

... in the Kitakami Poem Park.

Susuki in the morning mist

More susuki grass

Autumn grass (Miscanthus sinensis)