meeting the neighbours

On our way

"Let's do the rounds."

My homestay mother picks up the phone and announces to her neigbours - who all seem to be listening on the same line - "Everyone! We're on our way!"

Hana is excited. She doesn't bark but she criss-crosses us as we walk, stopping to stand in the ditch, letting her nose glide along the grasses. The sun is out and I can see Youtei-San looming over the valley, striped in green shadows. Clouds catch on the summit as they drift pass.

Big Carrots

The neighbours have a huge vegetable patch - what I'd call a farm - that has 'grown' out of all control. It spreads across two acres with greenhouses and tea-houses and picking-gardens. They're a retired couple living the good life. The wife - her skin dark and wrinkled form the sun - pushes a wheelbarrow along the furrows, a broad straw sun-hat hiding her face.

"We have eight types of potato. And three types of sweet potato," the husband explains. His eyes moving between me and my homestay mother, not sure how much I can understand. He takes us to the drying shed and shows us boxes upon boxes of this precious root vegetable. He even snaps a sweet potato open, showing off the bright purple flesh.

Pumpkins Everywhere

"Do you want a box? Please take some!"

"No, no, I already have plenty at home," my homestay mother replies, embarrassed.

"Go on! You'll take a box, won't you?"

"On the way back," she says. "We're just off on the rounds." But we don't go back.

Greenhouse

Carrots dry on the ground. A family from Alaska have built a green wooden dome which resembles a camouflaged observatory, watching the crossroads. A huge German shepherd lies langorously on the veranda.

As we walk we come across...

"Hana is scared of her," explains my homestay mother as she tugs at Hana's lead. Hana digs her paws in the soil and whines. "We'd better go home."

When we arrive home, a box of potatoes have been left outside the door. A bunch of spring onions trail from the garden wall. My homestay mother stops in her tracks.

"Oh, dear me," she says.