That was a serious typhoon! It was consistently windy and rainy for a long time, and a lot of stuff was damaged around my neighborhood. It’s not exactly a war zone out there, but pretty messy by Japanese standards.
I’ve been on a new routine where I wake up an hour early to have some time to myself, instead of rushing out to catch the train. I hardly miss the sleep, and it’s nice to wander around my place with tons of time to spare. This morning I made a nice big egg sandwich for breakfast, had a cup of tea in the living room, and did some stretching to loosen up my muscles for the day. Uh oh, break out the granola and the meditation books!
The students were back at their exams, and I enjoyed a few hours of studying in the teacher’s office. We decided to go over to visit Mr. Harada in the hospital. He’s recovering little by little, and so Mr. Hayashi arranged a visit for us. Japanese tradition is to give somebody an envelope of money when you visit them in the hospital apparently, and I contributed what everyone else did, 2500 yen (around $25).
Mr. Harada was looking really good, actually. He’s off smoking and salty foods – two of his favorite things. Really simple decision about smoking – the doctors said that if he smokes again, he’ll die. The way it was translated to me made it sound like the first puff and his heart would explode. I’m not sure it would be that serious, but I’m no doctor.
Mr. Harada was really happy to see everyone and spent a little time talking to each person. He even talked to me a bit, half in Japanese and half in English. What a nice guy – we didn’t talk very much at school, but he always had a big smile on his face. He’s about my age, but looks about ten years older. Maybe the cessation of smoking will help.
Afterwards I came home, and on the way through Ito Yokado found a steak at a low low price, so I had that and fried up some potatoes that Kuniko’s mom had sent over a couple of weeks ago. It was delicious. She also sent some yams, but I have no idea what to do with those. I’m not a big yam fan.
When I had finished dinner Jane knocked on my door and invited me over to Ito Yokado for dinner. I went along and got a dessert and watched her eat some pepper rice and steak – it looked great. After dinner we bumped into two other new ALTs, and they had me do some translation with the clerk about delivering some merchandise. They are a quirky Canadian couple – they always seem to share a little too much information about their private lives. Tonight they complained that the boyfriend was so weak from a recent sickness that he can’t pick her up and take her to the bedroom anymore. Oh, thanks for the info.
To wrap up the evening I went along with Jane as she shopped for supplies, and even had a free sample or two of the food from the friendly vendors. Then we headed back and I’ve been cleaning up a little for Kuniko’s visit this weekend. It’s also the Futami matsuri on Sunday, so I’m looking forward to that. This week has flown by!
