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.

traveling Fukui-ken by rail early Saturday past factories and rice paddies toward the mountains

A minute or so after leaving J.R. Takefu station and heading to Kyoto for the national holiday of Culture Day (bunka-no-hi) the view changes from backs of houses and gardens to more open spaces where land is still farmed and the views to the horizon are not blocked. The morning light casts long shadows that exaggerate the shapes.

In the distance on the mountainside is a lower and darker slope where the large Shinto shrine stands, Oshio Hachiman Jingu. In the festival season it fills with neighborhood residents (ujiko) and visitors from surrounding towns and prefectures.