More on Japan.  Fumiko has another secret weapon in her language lessons – her parents-in-law.  Mr. and Mrs. Fujikawa live near Fumiko’s school and have a huge garden and a big workshop, as Mr. Fujikawa is a retired 6^th generation Japanese carpenter.  They welcome Fumiko and her students for lots of special hands-on activities: planting, harvesting, creating, and even finding crayfish and frogs.  They remind me of my grandparents - so knowledgeable and wanting to share old, important knowledge with the new generation.

On my first visit to their home this year, we made wooden key-holder plaques, and then had traditional-style Japanese noodles. 

      The noodle eating involves guests sitting alongside a long bamboo trough and trying to catch the noodles with chopsticks (ohashi).  Luckily for me, my ohashi skills have improved tremendously.  In previous visits, I would have gone hungry.  Fumiko’s students got to learn English through the crafts and then again while we eat.  Research tells us that more parts of the brain light up when doing something,  the deeper the learning during these types of activities.  Sitting still, and just listening does not light up much of a brain.  Even my old jet-lagged brain learned some of the colours I used to paint and some vocabulary around our meal.  

      The other wonderful thing about the Fujikawas is that they take me for a vigorous walk after the sun goes down.  Mr. Fujikawa finds frogs for me along the rice paddies, exotic (to me) fruit in trees, and huge carp in the river. Mrs. Fujikawa  only speaks Japanese but I can understand her all the same. We see stars, the moon, and bats.  We smell grass, exhaust, night flowers, smoke, and laundry.  We use sign language and seem to understand each other, through the warm, sweet night air.