Current Events

All the news that's fit to print.
And remember: everyone's innocent until proven guilty. Or exposed to media scrutiny.

Okay, this'll be kinda brief 'cause I'm really tired. Here's (some of) what's happened since I last wrote:

Christmas Eve: Earthquake. Almost died.

Hahaha, no, kiddin'. Not about the earthquake, we did have one of those - between 3.0 and 4.8 according to various second- and third-hand sources - and I did feel it. In fact, I was sitting in my second class of the day when it happened! At first I thought it was just a big truck driving by (we're located next to a busy street), but the shaking just got stronger and stronger. It lasted all of ten seconds - long enough for students' eyes to get to about dinner plate size - before fading away. The guy I was teaching, yeah, he's cool as a cucumber: the shaking stops, he looks around, says, "Not so bad. I think a level 3. What did you say before?" and we go on with the lesson.

That night, I went to Christmas Eve mass with Alwyn. It was in Japanese. I didn't get it and I didn't get it. Nice service though; we sang "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" - me in English, everyone else in Japanese. At least, I think we were singing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"... that's what I was singing...


Christmas Day: Worked 10 - 5:30, then went home and cooked Christmas dinner for ten people.

Me. Who can't cook for myself. Christmas dinner. Yeah.

It was a huge success, too; all but in the totally-forgetting-to-take-any-sort-of-pictures department. I am the amateur.

The menu included Brazilian chicken (my new favorite food), cranberry stuffing, mashed potatos and gravy, carrots, boiled cabbage (because Francis said so), and cream puffs and candy canes for dessert, provided by the lovely and talented ladies of Temma-cho. A fine time was had by all. Either that, or everyone faked it.


Today: Got up early and went to Kyoto! FINALLY! Kyoto was a total blast, and freakin' COLD, too. Visited 5 different temples/shrines, bought "delicious foods" (their words, not mine), and walked about 37.5 million miles. Roughly.

Kyoto is one of the cultural highlights of Japan; I'd highly recommend going if you get the chance, and your train doesn't get stuck in chest-high snow for 25 minutes. TRT: 18 hours. Now that's a day-trip!

And I finally got to see Kana and Andy too! We got to meet up for dinner in downtown Kyoto and catch up a bit. It's always nice to see friendly faces, and especially when you haven't seen them in quite a while; I think we're going to make this more than an annual event. And again with the being photographically-challenged: I forgot to take pictures with them, too. I guess the Bethel Focus (c) will just have to wait for a Japan "Alumni News" article.


Oh, and PS - I DID take lots of pictures; I'm just too lazy to down/up-load them tonight. So pbbt.

Love you,
thom