May 30, Accion Hotel, Tateyama - We all woke up excitedly (as always) for our second day in Tateyama City. We got to have the chance to explore more of the daily life of the locals since we are going to experience rice planting and to visit a research institute in the city. Since it is our first time to do rice planting, we were enthusiastic that day to do it. When we arrived at the farm, we were all surprised to see a big plain rice field. I was expecting a little rice field since most of us are not used to it but we were given a big rice field. (Take note: the rice field has frogs, spiders, and insects all over) The farmers expected us to finished it by three hours, but we finished it just for one and half hours since we were all enjoying the experience even we are under the scourging heat of the sun.
Since we have more time as planned, we went around the farm after we have finished planted the whole rice field. They showed us their strawberries, figs, watermelons, and some other produce there. After the tiring tour in the farm, we have our lunch just near the farm just like as the locals do. Bento box for all our hard work. Yey! Some of us seated on the floors, some inside the local's home, and some inside the bus.
Since we still have free time, we went to the Boshi Uchiwa Museum after having lunch. We have seen different Boshu Uchiwa (Japanese style hand fan) and also how it is made.
After the short visit to the museum, we went directly to Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (TUMSAT). We were welcomed by Prof. Yutaka Takeuchi, an associate professor in TUMSAT and Mr. Satoshi Kojima from NEC Solution Innovators. Ltd. They briefly discussed to us some of the ongoing research topics in TUMSAT such as surrogate mother technology in fishes, TUMSAT's International projects, and joint research with NEC. Then they showed us around the research station and let us did microscopic observation on some of the research they have. After the brief lectures and tour around the research station, they served us local fisherman's snacks. Our respective buses picked us up for our own minshuku after our visit in TUMSAT. We were divided to four different minshukus: two all girl group, and two all boy group. I was part of the Seifu-so minshuku.
We got to have free time in Seifu-so minshuku before dinner so we, together with my friend from Malaysia and Laos, decided to walk around and explore the area around our inn. We met a Japanese guy who offered some few drinks. He is an owner of a Japanese style inn in the area and also love travelling and meeting people. After our short chat with him, we hurriedly got back to the minshuku just time for our dinner. After we had our dinner, we got to have another surprise from our group. We went to watch a firefly show. We saw not only fireflies but also umihotaru during the show. After our long tiring day, we all went to have a hot relaxing shower in the onsen in our minshuku before going to sleep. This day was really a tiring yet a memorable day for all of us. What happened in Tateyama will always stays in Tateyama.
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