Good day all,
Well it seems I haven`t written for almost two months – I’ve actually had quite a bit to say but just never gotten around to writing it down – maybe it`s a lack of motivation. Anyway, I`ll try to make this entry interesting to re-ignite some passion.
First thing to comment on was the recent earthquake we had here in Japan about a month ago. It was pretty scary even though Tokyo is about 250km of the epicenter. I was having dinner in an 8th floor restaurant with my girlfriend when the light shade suddenly started swaying and then the whole room started to sway. This lasted for about two to three minutes and was very surreal. It`s hard to describe the feeling but it feels like you are in a trance or vacuum and things are moving so slowly and everything is blurry – it`s kind of like being on a boat on the sea that’s rocking slightly.
Anyway, we were safe, although the earthquake actually did some serious damage where it struck in Niigata prefecture. There was one amazing story of a very small boy being pulled out alive of a car buried under a pile of rubble after about four days or so but sadly his mother and sister were already dead. Also, for the first time ever, a Shinkansen (bullet) train was derailed and considering it was travelling at over 200kph at the time with quite a few people on board and the fact that no one was killed is quite a miracle. The series of aftershocks were also pretty strong and did further damage but I think things have settled down now. Question is, “when is the next one coming?”!
I am going back to the UK on December 16th for the Christmas and New Year holiday, to have a rest and most importantly to visit my family and friends. I am going to come back to Tokyo in January and continue working here for the time being. The longer I stay here the more friends and contacts I can make, and the more I learn about Japan and Japanese culture. Also, my Japanese is improving day by day but not as fast as I would like it to. Having a job as an English instructor doesn`t give me so much opportunity to speak Japanese although socially I do try to speak whenever I can.
I am trying to think of a recent funny experience to tell you about but I can`t think of anything. Maybe for once I don`t have anything out of the ordinary to say. Oh there was one thing! It happened a couple of weeks ago when I was in Shibuya waiting for a friend at a very popular meeting place. I noticed a woman crouched down next to a kiosk or temporary stand used for selling newpapers etc and she seemed to be trying to catch the attention of something under the structure., maybe a small dog or something like that. Anyway, the she proceeds to get down on her hands and knees and start to crawl underneath, totlaly oblivious ot the 100 or so people who are now watching her.
Unfortunately, she wasn`t successful and came crawling out only to be helped by a Japanese man who saw it in his heart to offer the woman a kind of pepporoni sausage to use to try to entice out whatever it was she was trying to find from under the kiosk. This didn`t work so about ten people came ot her aid, got down on their hands and knees and started crawling around calling and whistling and trying to look underneath the kiosk for the missing animal (?) . It was all very strange, and unfortunately I had to leave before the final scene so I can`t tell you what happened. One thing I did not from all the melee was that when confronted with a situation in which they have no idea what is happening, people can be very generous (I wasn`t so on this situation but if I hadn`t been wearing my best trousers I would have been first in!). Or in actual fact, maybe the woman was simply crazy - there are plenty of them around - but I doubt I will ever know.
Another strange thing I saw recently was in a coffee shop - the salad bagel (no meat) was selling for 260 yen and the chicken bagel (salad included) for 250 yen. It made me think a little bit and I came to the conclusion that it costs more for a piece of lettuce than a piece of chicken here in Japan. Actually, fruit and vegetables are very expensive here although I thought that was stretching it a little bit. What also caught my eye was that the salad bagel seems ot have everything the chicken bagel has on it except for the chicken so another thought that hit me was that maybe you get the chicken for free and an extra 10 yen discount if you choose the chicken one. Weird to think about I know - maybe it`s me that is slowly going crazy and not the woman looking for her dog!
Finally, I have to write about this one. In my class the other day we were doing a lesson about returning from vacation and talking about what we did and how the weather was etc when I aksed one student "so, where did you go?" and got the reply "I went to London". Great I thought, and proceeded to talk about the weather, hotel, sightseeing etc, when I decided to ask him if he had brought any souvenirs back from his trip to London. Well, his answer was an absolute classic and I can tell you that after two years as an English teacher I have some good ones, but this one is the best so far. He said, and I quote, "Yeah, Kevin, you know I had such a great time, and I brought you back a framed photograph of the Eiffel Tower. I hope you like it!". I`ll let you think about it for a moment, and then you can laugh!
Got it yet!!! I thought to myself "what did he just say" and I had to pinch myself and stop myself from laughing - (this was very difficult as he was grinning and beaming with pride at having thought of such a great gift idea) so I kindly told him that the Eiffel Tower was in Paris and that he had in fact been to London and maybe he should have bought a key chain of Big Ben or something like that. It wasn`t the fact it was such a big mistake that I thought was so funny, but the fact that he said it with such conviction and confidence that I just couldn`t stop laughing. Teaching is sometimes great fun and I have to say I have had heard some absolute classic comments whilst in the classroom. You can guarantee if I laugh at something very funny the students will start to laugh and it makes the whole experience more enjoyable for everyone. I even make mistakes too. Last week, I somehow managed to trip over the leg of the whiteboard - not once but twice - to the delight of the students.
Anyway, I will leave it there for today and bid you good day. Have a good one whatever you are doing,
Until next time,
Kevin
