Work along the Nakagawa River

 This sort of trash burner is not common in Japan. I think it is because neighbors complain about the smell. Mostly the only open fires that you see are when they burn off the extra straw from the rice paddies.

 The flooding last summer, before we got here, was the impetus for a major construction project along a many kilometer stretch of Nakagawa River. (That is interesting gawa means river in Japanese, so in reality I just wrote 'Naka River River'.) Here they are widening the riverbed. The large stones have been moved out into the river while they work. It will be interesting to see what they do with them when they finish.

A major part of the work is removing the sand that appears to have been deposited by the flooding. I did not seen the river before the flooding so I am not sure, but that appears to be at least part of what they are doing.