Aragijima

The Arida river makes a tight loop around a spur of land at Shimizu, and the terraces cut into that spur have the shape of the meander — a fan of paddies wrapping a curve, with the river on three sides. It is not an island, despite the name; it is a peninsula that reads as one from the viewpoint opposite.

Seventeenth-century in origin, on Japan's hundred best rice terraces list, and designated a national Important Cultural Landscape in 2013. What makes it unusual among terrace sites is that there is one correct place to stand and it is a three-minute walk from a car park, so it costs nothing and takes no effort. Flooded paddies in May and the gold of late September are the two peaks, and the site is lit for a short period in winter.