I woke up this morning bright and early and was immediately relieved that I hadn’t spent half the night tossing and turning. I had a little trouble getting up, though. My knee (actually, the muscles just above it) looks a little like Stallone’s face at the end of Rocky, but after some stretches and more ice, it could support weight. The more I walked around the house, the better it felt.
Kuniko called me from her work, and I gave her a status report. She was a little worried after last night. I decided that I was going to go to work, so I got organized and headed out the door.
The first challange was the steps. I can’t believe how many steps I climb up and down in a day. I felt every one of them. When I was on flat ground, I had no problem, but up and down were a challenge.
I made it to school limping noticeably, but nobody made any comment at school. I explained to my classes that I was a bit sore from carrying mikoshi, and they seemed to understand. The classes went really well, and in between I did lots of stretches and downed aspirin that I brought along.
Finally, my last class came, and we had a guest speaker from an English college near Himeji. He talked about communication to our students, who tried hard not to fall asleep but were clearly bored with the lecture. I was bored too, since it was only in Japanese and on the dry side. The principal and vice-principal were sitting in on the lecture though, so I stayed awake.
After the lecture we had a cup of coffee with the guest speaker. Most of the conversation was in Japanese but I figured since the guy is an English professor I should make him work a little. We spoke in English for a while, and he did fairly well.
At five o’clock I headed across the street to Tsuji-san’s place to practice my Japanese conversation. We chatted for about an hour in both English and Japanese, and caught up with each other’s escapades. Even though I was sitting on the floor my knee was doing just fine, and I walked home with a much smaller limp.
Now I’m back home and my knee is feeling pretty good. I bought some disinfectant type medicine to put on the scratches and the swelling is way down. I’m thinking that by tomorrow it will be black and blue but I should be able to move it more comfortably.
