In the Neighborhood

Last night our family, Rebecca, and Yuki (a college student who is helping us learn Japanese) went to a restaurant a short walk from our home.  Its owned by the couple pictured in the left.  Michiko-san frequently sits outside and we have greeted her as we walk home.

When we went to eat, Michiko-san quickly took Ben from my arms and talked to him.  She also told me he must be cold 🙂  I agreed (it was quite breezy in the evening).  I informed (through much hand gesturing) that Ben was sick but she assured me (through hand gestures as well) that it was ok.

The couple’s restaurant is very typical of locally owned eateries….it seated 6 people at capacity in a bar style in which we look on as the food is cooked.  The place in which the couple was standing was the amount of room between our seats and the wall.  (as with everything in Japan, space is limited)

The couple actually had to rearrange some things to make chairs for our party but did so quickly.  They served us some appetizers of pickled vegetables and a sort of potato/apple salad…both very tasty!  Once we received our entrees, David and I began dishing out some into Mattie’s bowl.  When Michiko-san observed this, she quickly helped us by using chopsticks to take some of our food and adding it to Mattie’s bowl as well.  She also came over and told Ben to go to sleep, after about 5 minutes or so he did!  (I wish she could come over at bedtime every night)

After we finished eating, we got to see a picture of the couple’s granddaughter and a picture of Michiko-san in traditional Japanese dress from many years ago.  They have actually owned their restaurant, Fujita, at this location for the last 25 years.  They had several pictures/items signed by famous people on display.  It was really fun getting to know just a bit of their story.

We live in a very urban setting but our neighborhood does feel like there are pockets of ‘small-town’.  I was really thankful for this experience of feeling some connection with a local family!  Please pray we could have more connections like this one and that there would be opportunities to share the gospel.

-Danielle