I had asked her back in April which plants were weeds and which ones weren't as I couldn't always tell but also just to make sure that I didn't pull out the wrong thing! After she showed me, I went out and bought a gardening hat and gloves, but then with all of the illnesses in May, I wasn't able to. But then with all of the rain in June, the weeds just grew and grew and grew!!!
Of course, as soon as I realized what she was doing, I started apologizing and told her that I'd work with her. By the time I came back out with my hat and gloves, the grandpa (our landlord) was there weeding with her. Before I started, I just had to take a picture. :)
While we were weeding, I had fun chatting with our landlady. I learned a few interesting facts. Our landlord is NINETYTHREE and she's EIGHTYTWO!!! I never would have guesses that they were so old! They got married when she was 20 and they lived in our house from when she was 32 for 30 years, which is when they built and moved into the big two-story house they're currently living in, kinda next to our house. Our house is 50 years old. I told her it was my first time weeding a garden and she told me that she started when she moved to this area after getting married. Our landlord's family owns all of the land from their house to the house that his younger brother, wife, son, daughter-in-law, and their two sons live in. Our house is in the middle and there are fields and burial sites around us. For Japan, even for Hiroshima, that'a a lot of land! As they've lived in this area for so long, I guess it's not too surprising that they know all of our neighbors, but for someone like me who's moved around so much (Japan is the 5th country I've lived in), it's just absolutely amazing.
She asked me a lot of personal questions too so it was nice to be able to share and get closer. I'd shared some of it before, a long time ago, but my Japanese is better now so I was able to explain things better. For example, the fact that Peter is studying full-time right now at the YMCA downtown and that from next year, we'll be planting a church with an English/Japanese bilingual service in our area, that we're planning on living in Hiroshima for a very long time, and that we're working together with Japanese pastors.
When Peter turned the corner of our brick wall into the garden, he jumped at the sight of me crouched down on the ground as there usually isn't anyone there. :) He was even more surprised when he saw that our elderly landlord/lady were there too! He went in, put his bag down, took this picture, and then helped us weed.
At one point towards the end of our hour, hour and a half or so of weeding, I commented that our garden is no longer a "jungle" (you can kind of see the improvement in the 2nd pic). The grandpa chuckled. :) I also had to stand up for a bit 'cause my legs were killing me so I asked them if their legs were hurting and they said they were OK 'cause they're used to it. They thought it was funny that my legs (the legs of a 31 year old!) were hurting. :)
Weeding the garden was a huge item on my to-do list so I was so glad we got it done - phew! I felt bad that they had to come do it, but we had a great time chatting so I'm very happy that we were able to do it together. I also didn't have to worry about pulling out the wrong stuff! The only downside was that all of the squatting strained my right foot, so it wasn't very happy that evening. :(
When I told Susan this story, she said (jokingly - I think) that maybe they came and did it 'cause they were afraid that I'd pull out the wrong stuff after I asked her! :) Maybe... The reason that our landlady gave was the rain making the weeds grow quickly. Whatever the reason, I thank God for allowing us to spend time together and for our beautiful Japanese garden not being a jungle anymore. :)
neat story of interaction. :)
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