Japan · Sayama HillsSummer Fields
In a valley of the hills west of Tokyo, a channel runs past the rice and cicadas sing all summer.
What you’ll hear
- Stream
- Field breeze
- Cicadas
In the 3D scene you can change the time, season and weather, or follow the local time.
About this place
The Sayama Hills straddle the border of Tokyo and Saitama, about 11 km east to west and 4 km north to south, 194 m at their highest, with two reservoirs that supply Tokyo in their midst. Their small valleys, called yato, are farmed as spring-fed rice paddies edged with oak coppice. The hills were one of the models for the landscape of My Neighbor Totoro, and since 1990 donations have bought the woods plot by plot as “Totoro’s Forest”.
A wooden farmhouse sits under a big zelkova, with an irrigation channel running past it to the terraced paddies. In spring the flooded fields mirror the sky; in summer the rice stands waist-high, cicadas sing from dawn to dusk and fireflies blink over the paddies at night. Around the autumn equinox red spider lilies line the banks and the cut rice is hung on racks to dry. Egrets wait by the channel, swallows skim the rice and line up on the wires in late summer, and in autumn red dragonflies come back down from the hills.
Through the year
A rough guide from published sources, not monthly measurements.
Month by month
- JanuaryBare fields; the zelkova is all twigs
- FebruaryBush warblers start singing early in the month
- MarchSwallows start arriving mid-month
- AprilPaddies are flooded for planting
- MaySeedlings go in; the paddies mirror the sky
- JuneRains begin; the first cicadas by month’s end
- JulyRains end mid-month; the big cicadas start
- AugustRice heads out; late-summer cicadas join in
- SeptemberSpider lilies at the equinox; harvest late in the month
- OctoberRice dries on racks; red dragonflies return
- NovemberStraw stacks stand in the cut fields
- DecemberEmpty fields; far hills sharp on clear days
Four seasons
Mid-May · Planting
The paddies are freshly planted and mirror sky and cloud, with the channel running fast.
Early August · High summer
Waist-high rice, thunderheads behind the hills, and cicadas from dawn to dusk.
Late September · Harvest
Spider lilies draw red lines along the banks as the rice is cut plot by plot and hung on racks.
January · Winter fallow
Only stubble and straw stacks in the fields, the zelkova bare, and the far hills sharp.
Best moments
Summer thunderheads
Aug 10 · 11:50 · Clear
August noon: the rice is waist-high, thunderheads pile up behind the hills, and the cicadas are at full volume.
Planting season
May 15 · 11:40 · Clear
In May the paddies are freshly planted, mirroring the sky, with the channel running fast.
Summer dusk
Aug 10 · 18:20 · Clear
After six the clouds turn pink, smoke rises from the farmhouse and a breeze crosses the rice.
Fireflies
Aug 10 · 23:30 · Clear
A summer night by the fields: fireflies blink among the rice and only water sounds under the lamp.
Spider lilies
Sep 25 · 11:35 · Clear
Late September: red spider lilies line the path and half the rice is already cut.
Harvest evening
Sep 25 · 17:20 · Clear
Low autumn sun on the harvested fields as the farmhouse lamp comes on.
Winter fallow
Jan 18 · 11:55 · Clear
In January the fields lie empty, the big tree is bare, and the far hills are sharp in the clear air.
The shaded farmhouse
Aug 10 · 11:50 · Clear · Shaded cottage
Up at the farmhouse under the big tree, half the yard in shade and the channel running past.
Summer rain
Aug 10 · 11:50 · Rain
A midsummer shower on the rice and the channel, taking the edge off the heat.
An artistic re-creation of the Sayama Hills countryside rather than surveyed terrain or a real farmstead; birds and insects are drawn larger than life, the swallow and sparrow calls are the same species recorded elsewhere, and part of the night frog chorus was recorded in Wakayama.
In the 3D scene you can change the time, season and weather, or follow the local time.
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