Potato digging

On Thursday Arno's class had a field trip (literally) to dig Japanese sweet potatoes at a farm in Tokyo. His teacher, Miss Makiko, said many Tokyo schools take young children to do this because they rarely touch real dirt in this concrete city.

We rode in a big bus for more than an hour on city streets to Chofu city in western Tokyo. The sign says something like "Welcome to the sweet potato farm."




The farmer at Nagano farm:



We had a snack and went digging. The farmer roped off three rows of potatoes. The vines were wilted but still intact and, fortunately, the ground was not muddy. This is the "before" shot, before the farmer pulled the vines away:





The kids dug in. I found a shiny, sharp spade for Arno at a "100 yen store," where everything actually costs 105 yen - about 95 cents.

Boy finds sweet potato, brandishes sweet potato.




Arno's three lovely teachers: Miss Makiko, Miss Sharee and Miss Natsumi.




Each kid was allowed to extract a massive daikon radish for 100 yen apiece.



The kids washed their hands without using soap. The farmers laid out four basins, designated for hands that were successively less dirty. The first basin was mud-cloudy, but the water in the fourth basin looked almost drinkable.



Arno poked a caterpillar, had lunch, checked out the farmer's guinea pigs, marched on the fields, dug dirt, squished dirt, threw dirt and fell asleep on my lap as we drove back to school.

It was a relaxing way to parent: no responsibility to make the day a success, no tantrums, no stress, nice chats with other moms.

That night, we steamed the starchy potatoes with butter, and sliced the radish (white strips) into a Japanese stew.