Summer clouds, soft focus (an affect of large-sensor image making), blue sky between those puffs, blue tarp covering farm machinery just outside of Tanabe proper; looking closely, huh, fallow rice field to the right, well past taue planting period, perhaps intentionally left unsown to replenish earth or perhaps owner died (as so many have), no next generation in wing, no youngster to step up (understandable; hard work, bad pay), some fields out there erased by quick onset of weeds, others gutted and filled with solar panels, humming with new kind of life, transmuting sunlight not into little carb nuggets but into Potential, held within lithium ion battery packs or pushed to grid and sent outward powering TV of retiree a few miles away, the same talking head (sans high-definition wrinkles) you would have seen ten, twenty, maybe thirty years ago, back when these towns were vibrant and the farmers still young and strong (the entertainment industry of Japan seemingly frozen in 1994); middle distance split in two: sudden “forest” plot to left and gaggle of homes to right, overall an image of pleasing ratios, halves and thirds and fifths if you look closely; summer clouds dark edges — the coming of rain.