The Big One!

Few things can rip me out of my futon in the middle of the night and send me racing to the door. 

1. A cloverfield monster attack

2. zombies

3. The phone ringing and I think there's an emergency at home, but in reality someone forgot about the little time change.

4. fear of my house collapsing on me in an earthquake.

Like I always say, when I'm awake and there's an earthquake, it's not so scary, but when they pull me from sleep, it makes me panic just a little bit.  And last nights earthquake might be the biggest one I've ever felt.  The epicenter was just off the coast of Ibaraki, and Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures were hit the hardest. I live near the border of both these prefs so people in my area could really feel it.  I believe it registered a 6.7 on the Richter scale.  Right now only a few injuries have been reported and I don't think any buildings have collapsed yet.

Sometimes I do think about my house collapsing on me, so every time I feel even the slightest tremor, I go to the door.  It's my safety training.  So when I opened my eyes, the first thing that hit me was, get to the door and open it.

It wasn't a very long quake, but it was strong.  I tried to go back to sleep, but I was pretty awake, so I turned on the tv and watched the channel one news coverage.  They were listing all the cities and towns around, even mine.  Then they showed a map and the effects of the quake could be felt all over Honshu, the main island.

After a while of listening to the repetitive newscast, I finally went back to sleep. 

Now, to continue my blog:  The first week of school, the week after spring break, was pretty mild, I didn't have any classes, but I did have a bunch of speeches to translate and finish up the final preparations for the Colo High School Exchange trip.  They came on Sunday, April 13 and stayed until the 20^th.  It was fun for them to visit, but I was super busy, the admins kept handing me stuff to translate, and I didn't have time, plus I had to plan my regular lessons while accompanying them on all their trips.

One night I enlisted Mami's help for a speech, and then another night, Benny helped me quickly.

It was a good experience and I picked up some Japanese, plus I got to translate between everyone.  I really enjoyed doing that. And at the Sayonara Party on that Friday, they listed me as a translator on the program.  I felt like a party of the system. 

There were 2 teachers and 12 students from Colo h.s. in Australia.  They are usually a charming and well behaved group, and this year was no exception.  We visited Nikko, picked strawberries, visited 3 local factories, did zazen meditation, made udon noodles and sushi, and a bunch of other stuff.  The week was packed, but I thought it was the best of the 3 Colo trips I have experienced.  They even let me try on Haori Hakama while all the students were in kimono and hakama.  During the Nikko trip, I was able to talk to the Mayor as he accompanied us there.  He's very smart and knows a lot about history, so it was good getting to know him.  I couldn't understand every word he said, but I could get the gist of it. 

During the evenings, the 2 teachers always had plans while the students went back to their homestay familes.  We went to Hanyu aeon once, and I bought a new hoodie that zips all the way up so that it can completely enclose your face.  It's quite comical!

Things have been kind of quiet since they left. 

Althought Alex did come to visit. He was a Jet in Tatebayashi my first year and we hung out a lot.  It was good to see him again and we tried to go to as many of the old places as we could.  He was here for a few days, then he spent one week in Shikoku with his sister, then came back on Sunday, and left yesterday (May 7). 

I always love it when the old guys come back and visit.  Wendy was also here, her and alex's trip overlapped. We all went out for Mami's Birthday dinner at Dai Dai, this really good Italian restaurant that we used to go to. 

Mami's birthday we a lot of fun.  Me and Emily bought her a face steamer!?!?!  It was something she said she wanted.  Mami never hints about what she wants and she'll never say directly what she wants either, so you have to pay attention throughout the year.  I was going to follow up on a gift idea she dropped a couple years ago, but someone else had beat me to the punch.  But she cried when she got her gifts, that's how you know when girls are happy with their presents, they cry.  Am I right or am I right?

Since her birthday fell on a weekday, we just went to dinner and when Saturday rolled around, we all went for an all night Karaoke session with about 12 people, all locals!

Yesterday, I came home and felt like doing something active, so I played Dance Dance Revolution for an hour. On May 22, Guitar hero comes out for Wii in Japan, so I'm going to buy it.

tags: earthquakes  mami  alex  wendy  colo  wii