Good-bye rice fields, hello residential buildings in Echizen city, Fukui prefecture

Adjacent rice paddies have been covered in a gravel suitable to support and drain the poured cement foundations of single-family houses. But this section includes a deep pit and since houses in Japan do not include subsurface storage basements, perhaps this project will mirror the ones on the horizon: multi-story blocks of apartments or condominiums ('manshon').

Watching the operator of this heavy equipment scoop the subsurface mix of water and gravel, then swirl the mix to rinse away the smaller particles, it is easy to see how deftly his touch is. By the end of the clip the mechanical shovel tips the washed gravel into the pile off to the right.