A Little Walk

 I went for a little walk to clear my mind, but came back with more problems!

One problem is that all the land we own is overgrown. Having it overgrown on the land is bad; it looks bad, but on one piece of land that I walked past, the bushes and weeds are over the road. The road is narrow; two cars can just pass, so having to swerve to miss the bushes is really dangerous. The big problem is that there's only David, Christopher and me to cut them down. I don't like to ask David and Christopher, as they are exhausted by work, which leaves me, and I know I can't do that much. And of course there's no money to hire anyone!

The other problem is to do with the people who are renting our storage place. It's some kind of recyle business. They were told that they can store stuff in the shed, but they've left stuff in the field.

This is not good

The land is zoned as farmland; we could get a hefty fine if this is reported.

I don't think people from City Hall come and check, but the locals are rather spiteful toward our family.

The story I've been told started when my husband was in junior high school, so in the mid-1970s. My mother-in-law bought a very expensive spray machine; it cost about 30,0000yen, about 600000 yen, £3000 in today's money. The next-door neighbours took it; they just walked into the storage and took the machine. My mother-in-law wanted to call the police, but the neighbourhood association said not to, as it would cause a lot of problems. So she just left things alone. Until 1989, the city offered to buy land from the people in this area; if the city bought it, then there would be no tax, and the city always paid the best price. The catch was that everyone in this area had to agree to sell. My mother-in-law refused to sell, so everyone missed out! I don't know what her motive was; maybe pay back. But because of these two incidents, and maybe others that I have no idea about, the neighbours are still a bit spiteful. I try to greet them, but my Japanese isn't good enough, and the dialect here is rather strange; even my kids have a hard time understanding them, especially the older people.

So seeing the things left like that is a bit worrying!

I'll ask David to call the owner of the business and explain the situation.

Other than those two things, I enjoyed my walk. The weather is just right; going is hard, uphill, but coming back is nice.

I took a little video.

And some very pretty flowers; I want pretty flowers in my garden!