On our morning walks, Tetsu and I meet quite a lot of people although we start out at a little before 6:00 am. Recently it is barely getting light when we start out and almost every morning Tetsu tries to convince me that we should wait until later (knowing full well we need to be back home by 7:00) or if it is drizzling he'll put up an argument for forgetting about it all together and going back to sleep. I'm one of those people who decide if I've made a committment to something I'm going to do it come hell or high water! You know who Choco sides with. So off on our walks we go no matter what the sky looks like.
Of course the farmers must be up since before dawn and during the summer we would be awakend by the sound of tractors, but even now they are out in the fields putting up hot houses or working in them, burning leaves etc. Most every morning we meet the same people on our walks. The elderly people out to get their exercise ambling along with canes and radios so that they can listen to the news as they walk. Couples (like us) out for a brisk stroll (all around our age... starting to worry about cholesterol probably.) High school kids who have to bike about 20 minutes to the station or jr. high kids in their gym clothes bicycling to school for early morning sport practice.
Here are some of the friendly people that we meet daily.
Leek farmers working in the hot house. Leeks (known in Japan as nira) are a local product in our area and these farmers have rows and rows of hot houses. Occasionally they'll just hand me a bunch that they've just cut from the ground and within 15 minutes I'll have fresh leeks in my miso soup.
A woodcutter who often stops to lean over and give Choco a pet on the head. On this day we asked him if he would cut down a stump on the side of the road that Tetsu ran the car into the other day (blew two tires!)
Two grandmas who wish us well every morning. And two of my neighbors and friends who have a few minutes of free time after making lunches and driving their kids to catch an early morning train.
"Ohayou gozaimasu!" "Good morning! And have a good day!"
4 comments:
I need to have a friend like you to take walks with - I'm much more like Tetsu. you and Choco look so cute in teh pics. The sky is lighter than I would have expected. That's nice you don't have a lot of traffic along that road - much nicer walk that way.
It looks a lovely place to walk even if it is raining - I always call that drizzling weather 'Sherbert Rain' as it feels like sherbert tingling on your tongue when you lift your face up to meet it - my kids laugh at me walking along leaning my head back and putting my face to the sky to feel that refreshing sherbert rain!
Hi Tanya
I've got behind in my blog reading. Just caught up with your recent posts. Loved the post about bowing, especially the signs. I would never have known that was what the little character was doing. Thanks for your posts about daily life. They are so educational (and entertaining!)
I knwo a teeny tiny bit of Japanese... (part of an expirament in a Psychology class - something about learning...)
Ohio Gozayamus. Funny how we "translate" it differently...
(Does -masu & -mus change the meaning or gender any?)
The class was on hearing - not spelling. Apparently, I learned Ohio Gozayamus because the teacher said it every day. Some of the other phrases that were not said often, were not learned.
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