curiosity and generosity

It was another nice evening so I headed out after work to draw an old sake shop in my neighbourhood. Just when I was finishing, a wee woman who lives beside the shop came out to take a peek at my drawing. Suddenly a small gathering of elderly housewives swarmed me from out of nowhere and a typical conversation ensued while I towered over them. How long did it take? Just pen? How long have you lived here for? Do you have a big sketchbook as well? To the last question I answered 'no I didn't' as I kind of stumbled over the difficult word which I didn't really understand. Soon enough she was off into her house and came back out a few minutes later with a lovely, unused sketch book for me. A thousand apologies later I headed home, a wad of paper the richer and the new talk of the steamie.

(Interestingly I decided to leave the denchu (telegraph poles) out of my drawing for a change. It's amazing the difference it makes. With the trees in the background you could almost imagine it's not Osaka).