I have not been able to post on the blog for a while since I have had a wonderful guest at my apartment all week. That plus the fact that I’m the source of internet for a few people and by the time they’re done I’m in bed . . .
It’s been great fun talking with the teachers and learning more about the Japanese, their educational system, and the like. I was paid the compliment of appearing to be a 2nd or 3rd year ALT. The reason for this was that I looked confident, my English was clear (haha!), and I had many creative ideas.
So, back to Monday (15th). I slept in again (I’m doing my best to catch up on sleep) and ran around 10am. It was very, very hot this time, but it still felt great. I’m so glad none of my previous injuries are cropping up.
I did some more cleaning, which included hanging my futon out to air and vacuuming my tatami mat bedroom then wiping it down with a mixture of water and vinegar (Niko told me the proper way to do those things). Kasia came by in the afternoon and prepared to stay with me all week since she lives quite far away from the SETY location and we also wanted time to jam together. I was a poor hostess right away and left her alone while I went out to yakitory again with Chuck, Mark, Josh and his girlfriend and Karen. Yum, that stuff is so good.
Nothing really special happened during the day on Tuesday, that I can remember. Hm, that’s what happens when you’re day is swallowed up by tasks that other people have planned for you. Well, that is, besides the earthquake. It was actually a bit scary. I didn’t feel the first tremors, but one of the JTEs did and said “earthquake.” We were all sitting down and it was a slow movement, but quite large. The scary part was that it went on for so long. It was at least 1min and I think it was 2min, though it felt like 5min. It kept getting bigger, and I wasn’t scared until the JTEs started getting scared. Some said it was the worst one they’d been in! Thanks for your prayers, but as you know, the center was quite far from me, and all is well in my little bubble of a world.
In the evening Kasia and I made a great dinner of pasta with
tomatoes, zucchini, and avocado, plus Japanese fish role things with cucumber
in them. We then had a bit of time to
jam before it got too late. I taught her
Star of the
Today (Wednesday), I ran at 6am, which was lovely since it was still cool and it woke me up. It felt great again and I had plenty of time for breakfast. The morning wasn’t too interesting, but in the afternoon the JTEs presented on various aspects of Japanese culture, which was very, very interesting. I finally learned how to use an abacus! I’ve always wanted to learn, so that was very neat. I also learned how to write my name in katakana with a calligraphy brush. My name is very complicated, oddly enough. That’s why my hanko (my signature seal stamp) is JANET and not in kana. Even though one kana character usually represents two roman letters, Janet in katakana is 5 characters long! It’s “sh” with two dots to alter it to the “J” sound, then “a,” then “ne” plus the little “shorten the sound” symbol, then “toh.” Anyway, after the seminar Kasia and I had a quick dinner of ramen then we jammed for a long while. We worked on the Parceval piece, then I got out my oboe because I couldn’t stand being away from it any longer. I’ve not really practiced since I left school, and the time was ripe. I managed to find an old read the worked well enough and Kasia and I decided to just improvise. Neither of us is (it’s is, not are, right?) very skilled, but we had fun trying, laughing at our mistakes, and enjoying our successes. It was a very thrilling experience. If we keep practicing we’ll get there someday! After sharing music we shared our thoughts and we talked about many things. It is a very great blessing to have a friend here who enjoys deep and thoughtful conversation. Of course, I miss you all, and I love you very much!
I didn't realize about the "and only two" part, though I do usually use "none" with more than two. But what does that say about the correctness of the Post Office's "Neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night...."? (Leaving aside questions of its accuracy.)
