Volunteering in Kameoka

Last weekend I joined Rob Mangold and his IDRO crew on a relief trip to Kameoka, which was hit hard by the last typhoon to sweep through Kansai. After linking up with some regular volunteers at Kameoka’s Volunteer Center, we drove out into golden fields where a landslide caused by heavy rain had filled up the drainage ditches. Our job was to dig them out. Here are some pictures from the day: a mix of standard shots and 360 spherical images from the Ricoh Theta. If you click on the spheres you can view the images in a perfectly immersive 360 degrees.

Here we are in the morning: ready for action in our nice clean orange bibs!

And here’s one of the two ditches that we had to dig out. It looks like a path but actually water should be flowing through there for the rice paddy.

The work begins:

Teamwork:

Job done!

Our gang at the end of the day: tired, muddy but happy.

And a standard group shot.

Kameoka is very beautiful this time of year with the beautiful red Higanbana (Cluster Amaryllis) lining the sides of the rice fields. Apparently the bulbs of this flower give off a toxin that deters mice and other pests from entering the fields, which is why the farmers use them on the borders.

There was a lot of wildlife  in evidence about the ditch though: frogs were leaping all over, and there were butterflies, dragon flies and even a snake (not a mamushi this time) I saw swimming through the freshly freed waterway. Though it was a hot day, hard work and we were all sore and covered in mud at the end, it was still a great way to spend the day. Many thanks to Rob Mangold  and the Kameoka volunteer center for getting things organized. If you would like to know more about IDRO Japan’s disaster relief activities please check the links below.

See also:
http://www.idrojapan.org/
IDRO Japan on Facebook
Flood Relief in Arashiyama