The end of this week got a little exciting at school. On Thursday during one of my classes I saw the vice principal running as fast as he could towards one of the classrooms, and later I heard the sound of sirens. I knew something was up, but I couldn’t do anything to satisfy my curiousity until after my class.
The story was that the shop teacher was cutting wood with an axe (how could that have been a good idea?) and missed the wood and put the axe into his leg. I guess there was a lot of blood and the guy lost consciousness. The students sent someone to the office, and he was whisked off to the hospital.
I heard all this at lunchtime, and so you can imagine my surprise when the axe-man himself came hobbling into the the office unsteadily on crutches. He was wearing bloody pants with a jagged cut in them – not just from the axe but from the medics cutting away the fabric. Everybody was asking if he was OK, and if he could walk all right, and he waved off their concern and settled into his desk to take care of paperwork. They had even saved his lunch for him so he powered that down.
Later, I told this story to Kuniko and she said that it was Japanese style to come back to work.
I couldn’t believe it. I still don’t believe it. He was up and walking around on a stitched up leg, just hours after he had buried an axe in it. I think that if anything should earn you an afternoon off, it’s a self-inflicted axe wound. The thing that really surprised me was the reaction from other teachers – they were impressed that he kept up with his work. Sometimes the culture here really has me shaking my head.
Friday he came in, wearing a proper set of clothes, but he’s still unsteady on the crutches. He hasn’t had time to get used to walking yet, so he occasionally falls over or bumps into walls or students. I’d say that he could take the weekend to practice but he’s probably coming in to work to cheer on the students playing sports or something.
I’ll put it in on record right now – any axe wounds I sustain will keep me out of work a minimum of one week. I’m not coming back into work prematurely to go crashing into walls, no thanks.
Thursday night we went over to Kuniko’s parents’ to pick up the official “attending a wedding” dress, and we had a sukiyaki dinner. We haven’t had sukiyaki since we brought over my family just before the wedding – and that was more than a year ago! The sukiyaki was great, and we ate way too much before heading home with armloads of vegetables.
Friday night Kuniko had a work party (only the women from work), so I took my time coming home. I stopped at Kobe station to do a little bit of shopping and looking around. I realized after I stopped that the Luminarie has started – the place was pretty busy with people out to see the lights.
Bypassing the mess of people, I went into Harborland and had dinner at Panda Express – the only Panda Express I’ve ever seen in Japan. Sometimes I get a craving for cheap, fast Chinese food. It’s pretty greasy there, but it is good.
Afterwards I walked through the Hankyu Department Store on my way back. It was decorated really nicely for Christmas. They have a huge canal walkway with lights hanging from the soaring glass ceiling, and they looked like stars. They had arranged some into a big constellation of Orion, and at the end, surrounded by water canals and bridges was a huge Christmas tree.
Kuniko got home around 11:30 after a kind of surreal ride home on the train with her coworkers. Some guy was trying to rub his body against Kuniko’s friend, and they had to move to get away from them. The guy was hanging around still, so Kuniko started talking about the time she called the police and had a guy that was perverting one of her students arrested.
Now it’s Saturday morning, and Kuniko is about ready to take off for a Rotary Club dinner for her international students. I’ll be heading to Denya for an end-of-the-year party tonight, and I’m looking forward to seeing everybody there.
