strawberry fields...oh, I'm in heaven!

The first picture is some sake from my student, Yumiko Kodama, a delightful and charming housewife. She is generous with her time, often volunteering at physically disabled persons homes or going in to check on seniors around her neighborhood. It came as a surprise to me that her late father-in-law was the owner of a well-known sake brewery! It just so happens that her husband is also well-known to some extent. He was the main author of some textbooks that Hirotsugu studied in university, wow - what are the chances?! When Hiro heard that my student's husband was the esteemed Kodama, one of the leading researchers in sustainable architecture, and that we were going to their place for dinner, he almost fainted. ^_^ What a small world.

The other pic is a box of strawberries from Mitsu Ote, a lovely woman and at almost 70, she's my oldest student. She often laments about how she can't remember new words, but hey, for her age, she's doing pretty well in class. She's a wonderful woman with a great heart. (and surprisingly a Christian, a rare breed in Japan) Her husband was diagnosed with cancer awhile back so she makes concentrated vegetable juice (more than 10 organic veggies) each morning for him. They often go to therapeutic hot springs known to cure various ailments, in the hope of giving their health a boost.

I made strawberry jam out of one box of strawberries; the other box is for consumption as is. A pint of strawberries will cost anything between 4-8 dollars...it's really pricey! Usually they pack the big strawberries on top and the bottom is, as you may have guessed, full of the little runts. What a total gimmick, and in the produce section, of all places! Mitsu gave me two big boxes of organic strawberries - eeks, that's way too generous. I'll have to give her some more interesting health products. She loves health foods and the like so I often give her some to try.