July 30, 2013 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nankichi Niimi. Niimi was born in Handa, in Aichi Prefecture, now about an hour's drive from Nagoya. He is very famous in the Aichi region so they are having all sorts of Nankichi Niimi festivals. One group even designed their rice field with different colors of rice so when it grew it turned into a portrait of Niimi!! How amazing is that? (That's the picture on the left. You can see a couple of foxes in there too.) Of course it took hundreds of people to actually plant it. That's real dedication for you.