Where do I start? This is Ryuko, my host mother from a summer immersion program when I studied Japanese in Hakodate, a city in the south of the northernmost island of Japan, Hokkaido. I haven't seen her for 13 years, so I was excited to take a quick trip to my old stomping grounds. She recently turned 80 and you'd never know it from her energy and spirit. She never married or had children, pretty rare. She is a teacher, though not formerly, an artisan, gardener, philosopher, and humanitarian. I learned more from her in our nightly dinner conversations that summer than I did in my daily classes. She currently has a massive garden with three hot houses filled with every vegetable and herb imaginable. She plants and maintains them and gives the produce to local charities. In addition, there are grapes, kiwi, peach, plum, apple, I'm sure I'm missing some of the fruit trees. She spearheaded and coordinates a house for people with developmental disabilities (called "Yasuragi no ie," a "house of comfort and leisure"), and since my being there in 2001, she has since bought a different house and placed it in front of her own house, and helps people with developmental disabilities find local jobs, she has them help in her gardens, recycle found objects and make them into something of nicer values, and generally makes them feel like they have a place and a purpose in life. She's pretty special, and I'm glad I have been a part of her life.
