Early morning work

Farmers are early raisers everywhere in the world. Especially in the summer, it is too hot to work in the daytime out in the field. Traditionally, Japanese farmers would wake up before the sunrise, set out in the paddies and gardens in the dim light of the dawn, work two or three hours before the breakfast. They would work outside after that, maybe work inside the barn, and after the lunch, take his long nap. Then they would start his evening work at three or four, until the sundown. Very hard workers. Almost twelve hours or more of hard labor was the standard.
Now, the time has been changed. People work nine to five, or six, in the office even in the rural area in Japan. The descendant of the old time farmers are now workers in offices and factories.
But in the rural area, many of them still hold their paddies and gardens of ancestors. They harvest rice and vegetables to sell. Some stopped to sell, but they still plow for their own consumption. Those farmers are called 'kengyo-noka,' a part-time farmers, in Japan. Actually, almost 90 % of Japanese farmers are part-time, as in the statistics.
They don't regard their farming as their occupation. If you ask them "What is your job?" they will answer their daytime jobs, like office worker, teacher, driver, and manager. They never tell you they are part-time farmers unless necessary. They think farming as their household job, like repairing pipes, cleaning rooms, cooking, or annual ceremony for their ancestors. Farming is more of ritual than earning for them.
And they keep their tradition as an early raiser. They wake up early morning to cut grass in the field, or water their paddy. Only an hour, for they now cannot take their nap, but they still are the hard workers. Light jobs before going to work, they will call it "Asameshi-mae," an easy task.
"Asameshi" is a breakfast and "mae" is "before" in Japanese. So, literally, this word means "before the breakfast." They will farm before breakfast easily to keep Japanese agriculture intact.