A few days ago we went on our 2nd Annual Family Bike Ride Through the Lotus Fields. Our part of Japan, and our small city in particular, is known for its lotus fields. Lotus root is a popular ingredient in Japanese cooking--pickled, deep-fried, or stewed--and lotus motifs (the flower, leaves, and sliced roots) are somewhat popular in Japanese design. The lotus flower has enduring symbolism because of its ability to push up and out of the sloppiest, boggiest of circumstances to become a true thing of beauty.
The leaves aren't too shabby, either. They grow to be quite large, as you can see from our photos.
It's just about harvest time now, so it won't be long before the stems are hacked down and the roots pulled up--thus, for our bike ride, time was of the essence. We enjoy watching the herons, frogs, crawfish, and other creatures who stalk the fields in search of smaller prey (right now, we're seeing crows perching atop telephone wires, lying in wait for just the right juicy crawfish to emerge). Yeah, it's pretty cool.
