Akatombo (red dragonfly, Leucorrhinia rabicunda)

Dragonfly (tombo) is associated in Japan with courage and even national spirit. The image of a dragonfly can be seen on a boy's clothes and other belongings. Such attitude towards dragonfly comes from deep ages when Japan was called "the land of dragonfly". There are many species of dragonfly in Japan, but the most popular one is red dragonfly - akatombo, there is even a child song "Red dragonfly". The Japanese often say that when akatombo appears the autumn comes. In this time there are so many red dragonflies in the air, that they often fly around people and it is possible to catch them.

Tambo (rice field). Niigata prefecture

The growth of rice has been the main principle of life in Japan for ages.
In spring, before rice is planted, the fields are watered and the bogs are dug with tractors. Before being planted rice is couched in greenhouses on a sheet of foam, then a planting machine puts the sheets with rice into the soil, into shoaling water to be more precise, strictly in straight lines. After rice is planted, the fields soon become bright-green. Nevertheless, it is not rice bushes, but water weed. Only when they are removed by a special machine the rice grows in straight lines. In summer a lot of insect-eating birds fly to the rice fields and find here food, helping the farmers to fight against pests. At Kochinetsu the most tasty and the most popular rice in Japan, called sasanishiki is grown.

Local dishes:

• Oyaki - rice patties with vegetables
• Kurika-no ko - sweets with chestnuts

In Kochinetsu region, in Nagano and Yamanasi prefectures, where there are many mountains, the gather of rice is quite small. That's why the cereal dishes (wheat, buckwheat) are popular here. Among them the most well-known are oyaki and otsumeri. The original pickled local dishes and miso are also popular.

Earlier in Yamanasi hocho (noodles) was eaten instead of rice. It was filled with pumpkin to make the taste of the food softer.

Nagano is known with its delicious buckwheat noodles. The pickled vegetables nozawana-zuke are well know in all Japan. The prefecture Nagano is famous as a habitat of the tastiest ringo (apples).

Niigata is famous with its high-quality rice, and the products moti, sake, miso and others.

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