July in Ezo land is warm and bright, almost the best season of the year, with hopes of verdancy and vitality everywhere.
In the southernmost Wa-jin Land, meandering irrigation channels slowly lead the cold mountain streams, warmed by sunlight, to irrigate the emerging rice fields. Rice is the staple food of the Wa People and the most valued "Rice God." Under the careful care of Wa People farmers, these fields in the warm narrow strips at the southern islands, painstakingly cultivated, are the hope most cherished by all Wa People. As long as they are not affected by the cold currents moving southward before the autumn harvest, they can achieve an "astonishing" yield of one hundred and thirty to fifty jin per mu, nearly three times that of millet fields!
"Bodhisattva bless! This year it must be warmer, with more rain… If an acre can yield one hundred and fifty jin, enough for one person to eat, that would be a true good year! We will definitely offer incense and tribute to you…"
