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The world is full of borders. Knowing what lies beyond one is also a way of knowing this side anew.

The shifting boundary, captured by photographer Mayumi Okada

The change I saw in Hong Kong, and the quiet change underway in rural Japan. Why I left finance, came to Higashikawa, and am making a magazine now.

Cutting begins Monday; new rice is cooked on Sunday. Seven days in Mr. Sato's paddies.

The full story of Mr. Sato, the man in the fields at five. In his own words.

A record by a Tokyo member who comes to help with the harvest.

Ginsendai, Akadake, Asahidake. Walking Japan's earliest autumn colors, starting mid-September, step by step.

Why hand-dried rice survives in the age of machine drying.

One of the first places Higashikawa's new rice arrives is the school lunch kitchen.

There's a set-meal diner that hangs a "free rice refills" sign only in October.

From 5 to 6 a.m. In the fields, before the bakery oven, at the trailhead, in front of Michikusakan's shelves — we recorded the hour the town wakes in four places at once.

The baker's story, in his own words.

Roadside station Michikusakan. Before opening, the day's fields of the town gather on its shelves.

An introduction to sunrise hiking. Guide Yukinori Otsuka teaches the mountain etiquette that begins by headlamp.

In September before harvest, Higashikawa's mornings are wrapped in the deepest mist.

The culture of "morning service" lives in this town too. From the counter of a coffee shop that opens at seven.

From snow falling on Daisetsuzan to water from your tap. Tracing water's decades.

From puddling to harvest. A sketch of the rice paddy as a way of using water.

The sound of thaw, of paddies, of the tap. A small essay on the sounds of water flowing through town.

Dashi made only from kelp and Higashikawa water. We visited the town diner behind the first issue's recipe.

The host of the Handcraft Club on what "making" gives to everyday life.

In the week of the longest days, the townspeople stay up a little later, wanting to remember the color of the rice paddies at seven in the evening.