Dinner with Iwasawa Sensei

It didn’t snow overnight and the temperature got down to 6.2 degrees F.  I think I’d rather have it snow and only get to 15 F.

Yesterday evening Iwasawa Sensei took us to dinner at a restaurant called Gonji in downtown Iwamizawa in her car. She teaches the history of dance and art culture classes in the Art and Music Department. She lived in California for a while and her English is very good.  As it turned out, one of Ted’s Outdoor Life students works there and waited on us.

The menu was in Japanese, with the only English on it being the word “Menu” on the cover. Iwasawa Sensei chose a variety of dishes and we shared them.

We enjoyed the dinner and the company.

Yesterday afternoon when Ted was at work, one of our neighbors came to our door. She doesn’t speak English and my Japanese isn’t much more than hello, please, and thank you. I did understand the words curuma (car) and yuki (snow).  She was touching Ted’s skis and making motions like she was crying.  I finally figured out she was the woman whose car was stuck in the snow the day before and Ted helped push her out.  She brought him this bag of little desserts. He is rewarded for being such a nice guy.