The canal water is replaced during the night, and by morning it is most pristine. In the past, Yanagawa residents would wake up in the morning and head out to draw water. Although young girls also participated from time to time, drawing water was a task generally handled by boys. They’d be smacked awake at 5 in the morning by parents ready with their morning orders. Buckets in hand, they’d march to the canal, drawing as many as 15 buckets for the family tank. Tired and cold from the winter, their arms limp as wet noodles, they’d crawl back to bed for a quick nap before school. Canal water would come out the bottom of the water tank, ready to drink thanks to a basic filtration system in the tank.

Nevertheless, one could never be too sure. Most ancient people, barring those living in the mountains, boiled their water before drinking it; an inconvenience that perhaps kept the locals from developing a closer kinship with their water source.