Wouldn't You Like To Be My Neighbor?

So if you happen to follow Chad on Facebook, you may remember that awhile back he posted about an older Japanese lady coming to our door and trying to tell us something.  Something that we didn't understand.  We thought she might be a new neighbor, mostly because she gave us a present of a box of tissues. (Tissues are popular giveaways and small gifts here.)

Well a few days later, one of our other neighbors came by and I answered the door.  This neighbor is a wife, about my age, with two adorable little children.  She, bless her heart, had written down in English exactly what she wanted to say and she read it off to me.  Turns out that the older neighbor lady was having some construction done on her yard and driveway and wanted us all to know that there would be some neighborhood disruption.  The tissues were offered as part of an apology.  I guess she had asked her younger next-door-neighbor to please go down there and try to explain to the Americans what was going on.  Sometimes I think our neighbors probably draw straws to see whose turn it is to come deal with us.

Anyway, I summoned up enough Japanese to tell her that it wasn't a problem.  I asked what times of day and if we would still be able to drive our car through and she said we would. 

A few days later, she came back with the actual construction foreman so he could bow and make his apologies and bring us a whole package of tissue boxes.  At this point I was starting to wonder if this construction really was going to be that disruptive.

They started on the 10th.

on the way to our house, going by the construction

leaving from out house, on the way out

the construction worker was behind the truck so I was
trying to not be seen

There has been a little bit of jackhammering, but this is three houses down from us so unless my windows are open I can't really hear it.  Sometimes we have to wait a minute for him to pull the truck back in so we can get our car through.  Chad and I keep joking that it's so annoying we are going to stop and ask for more tissues.  We are being completely facetious, of course.  Can you imagine getting elaborate bows, apologies and six boxes of tissues from an American neighbor or construction crew?