Summer Vacation Memories from Childhood

As I mentioned before, the rice used for Yahata Sushi’s shari is specially grown by relatives in Ibaraki exclusively for Yahata Sushi.

When the fifth-generation owner was a child, he would be sent to stay with those relatives in the countryside for the entire month of August during summer vacation, where he was able to spend each day freely and happily.

He and cousins of the same age would get up early to catch rhinoceros beetles in the woods behind the house—really just a small copse—or fish for crayfish in a nearby stream. Sometimes they would carve wooden swords with pocketknives and cut down the scallions growing in the fields with them (for which they were severely scolded). They enjoyed the kind of boisterous play one might see in a Ghibli film.

The family in the countryside cultivated shiitake mushrooms on a large scale, so during spring vacation he was enlisted to help inoculate logs with shiitake spawn. In summer, however, perhaps because the work centered on rice and field crops, he does not recall doing much to help.

Farm households had a custom of taking afternoon naps in summer. After an early lunch, everyone would go to their own rooms and nap for about two hours.

But for children at the height of their playful years, nap time was unbearably tedious.

He was too young to understand how demanding farm work was, so he would get up midway through the nap and ride his bicycle about two kilometers to a little candy shop to buy sweets.

What a spoiled child he was.

Then, at around 2:00 in the afternoon, everyone would wake up and head back out to work in the fields.

Whether in the rice paddies or the fields, the work was done under the blazing sun with no shade at all. They took naps during the hottest part of the day to preserve their strength.

It was only later in life that he came to understand the hardships farmers face, but he feels nothing but gratitude toward the farmers who grow our rice and vegetables.

At this year’s Koshien tournament, games were scheduled in the morning and evening rather than during the hottest hours of the day, and the change has been well received.

Seeing that improvement at Koshien suddenly brought back memories of summers at his relatives’ home in the countryside.

Thank you for indulging this humble recollection.