Rice is an integral part of Japanese and many Asian cultures, in fact, in Japan the word for rice and meals are synonymous with some variation on the time of day.
The majority of farmers grow short grain rice that has been engineered over the years to give good yield and please Japanese palates, they have quite specific tastes when it comes to rice.There are a few exceptions like mochi rice (rice cake) and sake rice. Iwate being a little more traditional in known for growing some of these lesser known varieties of rice, this is just one example. Most people in Europe or North America would know Japanese rice as sushi rice. In Japan it's simply rice, fortunately a few farmers are still growing some more traditional types of rice like this Heritage Black Rice. If you go to farmers markets across Japan you can probably see this kind and other varieties of rice for sale. Because of their low volume they are pricier than regular rice about 3 to 5 times the price. I consider them to be well worth the price. They are also much more nutritious than standard white rice.
