After working 3 years in central Tokyo, I moved to Tochikubo village, Minami-Uonuma city in Niigata Prefecture. Located in southern part of Niigata, Minami-Uonuma city is famous for its brand rice called “Koshihikari“.

A short 15 minutes ride from Echigo-Yuzawa Shinkansen station brings you to the small mountanious village, Tochikubo. In winter, over 4 meters snow falls in this area. In the rest of the year,people face toward the soil and produce rice and vegetables.

Tochikubo has about 60 families (200 residents) and most of them are over 60 years old. It is known as a “de-populated” village in Japanese because the population is shrinking.

The big cities in Japan are known for their many conveniences such as vending machines and convenience store but you will not find anything like that here. This is REAL nature here.

I would like to introduce what happenes in my village and how people live in the Japanese countryside.