Guided Tour 5

　　The public transportation service wasn't well provided on Prince Edward Island. I thought it would be due to the sparse population apart from the capital city of Charlottetown. We could have chosen a rental car for sightseeing, but we joined in a tour planned by PEI Select Tours, which was conducted by both Canadian and Japanese persons. Our guide was a Japanese lady and the driver was Canadian. My daughter wanted to chat with Canadian people in English, and I had been looking for a Canadian guide, but my travel agent in Japan didn't tie up any other tour company on the island. That was how we had chosen this tour.
　　My daughter was keen to brush up her English skills and frequently spoke to the driver in a positive manner. There stood a neat, clean and well-decorated house in front of the parking lot of the birthplace, which I wrote about in the previous entry. While I was looking around in the gift shop, she, the driver and a tour member disappeared. I found that they were wandering around the house in the picture. Were they evaluating the property?
　　The guide had long been living on the island and noticed a variety of differences between the lifestyle of Japan and that of the island. In other words, she knew what would be interesting to us. Her guidance was good fun. I'll write about a waste box in the next entry.

(Vocabulary)
sparse まばらな, 少ない,〈髪が〉薄い
a sparsely populated area  人口のまばらな地域