Sunday, May 4, 2025, Associate Professor HIGGINBOTHAM George and 14 EUH students volunteered to help the farmers in Ini with the rice planting. Mr. MATSUMOTO and Professor KURIHARA, two Hiroshima volunteers who regularly visit Ini, joined us. We had an early start so arrived before 9 a.m. in the beautiful Ini valley, which is about an hour drive from EUH. It was a nice sunny day, so after a brief explanation on how to plant we got our feet wet and got busy.

Ini is a small village in the north of Hiroshima near the town of Akiota and due to a shrinking (and aging) population relies on the help of volunteers at the busy times of the year. Under the supervision of farmer KONO, we planted the fields in the traditional way. Dipping our bare feet into the cool mud of the rice paddies (swarming with tadpoles and other living creatures) and planting the rice by hand at 20 cm intervals. As there were a lot of us, after about an hour of planting, we had planted 3 of the fields in the valley. In the group picture Mr. KONO (75 years young) is in the centre sitting with EUH students. He has lived his whole life in this village, and has a lot of common-sense wisdom to teach us about how to treat our environment.  

After the rice planting, we went to a nearby temple for lunch. We shared our food and met Mr.OE the priest. Some of the students enjoyed ringing the big bell and seeing the temple, which in contrast to the village of Ini is quite big. From the temple there is a marvellous view of the valley and the numerous small paddy fields.

In the afternoon Mr.OE led us on a short hike in the forests near to Ini. We walked along a small path through the trees, some of them were over 200 years old and so big that we could not put our arms around them. It was refreshing to walk amongst the trees and breathe in the clean air, quite different to our regular city life. We also got to walk outside the fence that separates the village from the forest and animals that inhabit it (Mr. OE told us that there are bears, monkeys and wild boar). Outside of the fence we could see former fields, which as the village population has gotten smaller (at its peak there were around 200 families but now there are fewer than 50 residents) are no longer used and have returned to the forest. In the group picture Mr.OE the priest (78 years young but probably the fittest amongst us) is on the left and Professor KURIHARA is on the right.

Before we returned some of us stopped for coffee and cake at Ini-Mini-Mo, a café with (arguably) the prettiest view in the whole of Hiroshima. After a long, yet fulfilling and enjoyable day, we returned to Eikei around 6 p.m.

In the words of YAMAMOTO Tomoya (last picture with Nick) “I was able to learn about the various efforts being made to actually maintain the beauty of the area. I believe that learning about the issues involved in maintaining this beauty and making the most of it will not only help