September!

Well, I'm back again. Sorry about the lack of updates; I'm half too-busy, half too-boring-to-talk-about!

Anyway, I guess you could say I've been saving up things to post...well, here goes:

Yesterday was full of firsts:
I worked at a different branch for the first time since training ended; it was in Kurokawa, another eastern suburb of Nagoya, about 20 minutes by subway away. Nice place, nice staff, small school.
I taught my first group Kids class - and survived! Five kids x 6-9 years old x 40 minutes = miraculous survival. But the kids were really good, and the only troublemaker was kept in check by his older sister. I might just be able to handle this.
I found out that September 1st is Japanese National Disaster Prevention Day. I don't know what that means, or what to do, or when, but it's nice to know that we had one. I feel safer already.
Researching (or trying to) NDPD, I came across a website by a woman named Sara Ursin who was in Japan about two years ago. Here's her entry about earthquakes:

Monday, August 25, 2003
The Earthquake. Every 150 years there is a major earthquake in Shizuoka Prefecture. Right now we're in year 147 since the last major one. People in Shizuoka don't talk about what will happen 'if' there's an earthquake, they talk about 'when' then earthquake happens. 'When' the earthquake strikes in Shizuoka there will be a huge tsunami that will wipe out the entire coast and the Izu Penninsula. 'When' the earthquake strikes Mt. Fuji will probably errupt. 'When' the earthquake strikes the nuclear powerplant 25 miles down the road will probably blow up. 'When' the earthquake strikes my house will fall down. Etc. It freaks the foreigners out but the Japanese seem to be fine with their major earthquake destiny. We're having earthquake safety day on September 1st. This past weekend when we made 2 trips to the beach in one day we kept commenting on how we were testing the earthquake Gods.

My students keep telling me the same thing about Nagoya - it's not IF we'll get an earthquake, it's WHEN. But, as I've repeatedly told my mother, Japan is on the forefront of earthquake response and technology: they design their buildings with them in mind, they have drills, they even make their children wear brightly colored hats to school so they are readily visible in case on an earthquake. So c'mon, a nation that makes its children wear fire-retardant hoods must know something about geological seismic activity, right?

Oh yeah, and I found out this week that NOVA has an almost one hundred percent brand recognition in Japan. Translation: literally EVERYONE knows NOVA, we are everywhere. I think that also makes me the new Coke. Rock on.



In other news, I'm sick. Yeah, I've somehow managed to make it through three months in Japan without any major illness/injury, and now I'm feeling like Death's nuked leftovers. I spent all day trying not to cough too hard at my students, who all expressed sympathy and concern for me - probably for their own health as well. There have been a few instructors who've been sick recently, so maybe it's just the flu du jour. The late-night going-away party for a co-worker held in a smoky basement bar combined with walking in the rain the next day probably didn't help either. Either way, I'm probably calling in sick tomorrow; no need to share this with the kids.

So it's probably good I didn't try to tackle Fuji-san (Mt. Fuji): my friends spent Tuesday night and Wednesday in pouring rain and cold wind climbing the cultural landmark. According to my friend Francis, it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences - he'll never do it again. There's a famous Japanese proverb that says, "A wise man climbs Fuji once in his life. A fool climbs it twice." Francis has stories of his group sneaking into shelters on the mountain, and trying to wring out their clothes before they could be discovered and charged to use the shelter; trying to sleep in the only cave on the mountain; sharing said cave with Swedish tourists; and paying 1500yen ($15) for a walking stick which, according to him, was actually the thing that got him to the top. I'm still up for it eventually, but maybe when the weather is a little better!

I had to say goodbye to a friend and coworker earlier this week; Kasey, one of the first people that I got to know at work, transferred to Tokyo on Tuesday. It's strange to have been here for almost three months and already be watching friends go. While Nova is a good program, it's constantly turning over staff, and chances are the friends you make now are going to be gone in six months. It makes it kind of tough to make close friends; but it does give you time to form what Anne Lamott calls "those strange families we make from those who are around." Kasey was the crazy sister in the family, and now she's in Tokyo. Sad.

Okay kids, that's it for now; check back soon for stories and pictures from the World Expo and other random musings from an insomniac expatriate. Good times.