Farming With Friends - Teddy McCormick

We've been having a lot of fun hanging out with some of my friends that I taught English to last time we were here, Miyuki-san and Tomoko-san.

(I don't have a ton of pictures because Japan doesn't have America's culture of implicit permission to post pictures online. If you want to post a picture you've taken of someone else, you're expected to ask them, first. Isn't that great?)

So a bit of backstory - last time we were in Japan, our friend Florence had some friends that were interested in improving their English, and she asked if I'd help them out, so I did! Once a week or so, we met and just did very simple, very conversational English lessons.

When Cassie and I got back, some of my students reached out and invited us to lunch, and of course we said yes. We had a lovely lunch, and then - as we're starting to realize might be normal for Japanese social plans - it just kept going! Miyuki wanted us to see a park that she enjoys and hikes a couple times a week, so we went there and walked around for a bit!

One of the few pictures we remembered to ask for permission to post!

After the hike, we drove to the other side of the park for a particularly scenic view of the city.

That still wasn't enough, though; after that, they took us to a nearby college (Hokkaido Future University) just because they'd never been there and wanted to see what it was like.

When we finally separated, they invited us to their friend's farm, where they do some light gardening every week. So a couple weeks later, we took them up on it! We don't have any pictures of the farm because it was basically just a guy's big front yard and that felt intrusive, but it was really fun! The guy who owns the place, Taku-san, speaks great English, as do some of their other friends that garden with them, so we had a great day helping them all practice English and chatting about differences between Japan and America.

But ah, like I said, Japanese social plans don't stop! So after lunch, we went from the farm to a nearby Trappist convent, where Tomoko volunteers caring for their massive, massive hydrangea gardens!

When we finally got home, they sent us with a ton of potatoes, blueberries, and cucumbers - so much so that we had to give a bunch away to friends!