We had a nice party the other night with the neighbors. It was nice to invite some of the people over who have invited us to their place before and return the favor. The party turned out to be fairly wild, with the older kids of Yamaji-san attending and drinking with a sense of adventure. We had our hands full with delivering food and drinks to everyone on time, but in the end it was a pretty successful party. I’d really like to get into some kind of routine or schedule hanging out with them – they are all fun to hang out with.
After working through the first few days of this week on a normal schedule today’s students were all abuzz about the incoming typhoon. It has been a long time since a typhoon has hit Japan, and the one coming on is a strong one. While it has been rainy here today, we could see the approaching storm on the web, and the company started to prepare in case of a work stoppage. By lunchtime they had decided to have all the factory workers stay home tomorrow, and by two in the afternoon I was also excused from coming in tomorrow. Good news for me – a typhoon day off. I haven’t had one of those in a long time – not since the days of working at a high school.
My students weren’t so lucky. They aren’t factory workers but managers and executives, and they were sent a memo by the HR guy saying that each person should weigh the risks and decide for themselves whether to come in or not. That’s a pretty ambiguous directive, and while I’m sure most people would play it safe in the USA and take the chance to stay home, my students didn’t want to be the one guy who stays at home, and there was a lot of feeling out of the situation going on around me when I left work. It will probably end up being nearly a normal day for them, with the exception of no factory workers to direct and no English classes to attend.
I’m off to batten down the hatches of the new house. It is our new home’s first typhoon – I hope it holds up.
