Under the Bright Sun

Summer views of Kinchakuda

By Sherilyn Siy

Community writer

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Catch these lotus flowers open in the early morning. They're still beautiful even when closed.

Visitors can pick and eat as many blueberries as they want at Kato-san's blueberry patch right on Kinchakuda for a fee.

The sweetest blueberries are the most plump ones.

Sesame plants flower this season, pods filled with the valuable seeds.

View from under the Ai Ai Bridge, where people enjoy swimming and jumping off the rocks.

The gurgling stream waters the rice paddies in a scene that seems to be straight out of Totoro.

The riverbank is dotted with tents during the weekends when people troop here to cool off at the river and enjoy barbecue.

Kinchakuda in Hidaka, Saitama, is a popular destination in September when the higanbana (spider lily flower) covers the riverbank in a majestic red carpet. Summer, however, brings different reasons to enjoy the purse-shaped fields. The Koma River that circles the field is the perfect place to cool off with a swim and to enjoy barbecue. A stroll around the fields will reveal lotus flowers in bloom, bright green rice paddies, and blueberry bushes heavy with fruit.