Countryside

Countryside

This picture, taken in July 2009, shows orange fields in rural Arida-City, Wakayama Prefecture.  It provides a good illustration of terraced fields, or fields dug into the side of a mountain.  This type of farming is quite common in Japan, and allows for the intensive use of limited, mountainous land for agriculture.  Some questions you might ask your students include:
Why might farmers carve out mountains in this manner?
How does having a field laid out like this affect actual farmwork?  How easy or difficult would it be to use mechanized farm equipment on this field?