On my last trip to Japan one of the points on my things to do list was making a walk trough the rice fields, so on the beautiful day that was Tuesday June 2 I decided to take the Shinkansen to the 1st station outside Greater Tokyo. On Google Maps I had already seen that around Oyama in Tochigi prefecture there should be rice-fields. So after a short ride on the MAX I was standing on the station square of Oyama.

1.
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2. The mainstreet

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3.
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4. The Omoigawa river

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10 Church, always good for some touristy pictures.

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12. The first fields weren't rice fields but grain fields.

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13. But luckily the first rice fields soon appeared.

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16. Riding a bike through the rice fields, if it was a schoolgirl it would have been more pittoresque but this was already a good scene for a nice picture.

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18. Burning the fields that have been harvested down.

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19. Straight roads with fields and little water streams, I almost looked like home in the Dutch Polders.

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23. The small burial places just randomly placed in the rice fields give a strange sight.

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27. Farmers house, with a big garden that only farms and temples have in this part of Japan.

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33. Don't drown.

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34. Yay, a train :)

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51. I had never seen cows in Japan before, since you don't see them in the fields (maybe only in Hokkaido?)

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55. The first village I came across was Omoigawa.

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56. Looking back into the fields.

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57. Bicycle shop.

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58. It was really quit in town

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60. But the station has a good bicycle parking. :)

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63. When I was at the station the first train would leave just in a few minutes and since I had walked enough for that day I took it straight away.

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64. I took the Ryomo line train to Takasaki on the other end of the line to take the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

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It quite an interesting landscape, almost surreal. But it was fun to see it for real and not just in films or from the train window. Next time when I'm in Tokyo I want to see more of these kind of landscapes on the fringes of the metro area. It's a good non tourist escape from the bustle of the city, especially if you like to make long walks.

You should go to mount takao if you want to see nice areas on the outskirts of tokyo (well technically its still in tokyo).

Nice pictures, it's similar to wakayama.

Sugoi! I love the japan's Inaka. Beautiful pictures Momo!

hey momo, thanks.
btw
Tichigi- ben is really interesting

Fantastic trip! So peaceful.

rural in Tochigi prefecture....

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