Sorry? What’s going on?

As usual the week has been different and full of surprises. Surprising weather, surprising amounts of work and surprising last minute invites. It was the end of my first three months in Japan and in many ways I’m still as confused as when I arrived here.

The weekend of 23rd October was my first weekend alone in Katsuyama. Most people were doing something for the weekend and due to dance practice on the Friday I wasn’t able to get to the city that night. So I opted for entertaining myself. Bad choice.

On Saturday I woke up unreasonably early (8:30, which in my book is obscene for a day off) and caught a train to Tsuyama, the nearest city to mine- although trade descriptions could be brought in here to investigate. If Tsuyama’s a city then Ilford is a country. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was nice and not sooo small,but the shopping area was more like an old fashioned town, with local shops and local cafes. Where were the chain stores? Now, yes it is a great thing that many small enterprises have survived blah, blah, blah, but when you know the only place you can get a decent cup of coffee is Starbucks, you are sure to be disappointed. Anyway, despite the lack of quality shopping I forged ahead and did my best to help boost Japan’s economy (I like to help where I can). I also found a nice café/ restaurant which was replete with old fashioned gas lamps and union jack cushions. I say I found it, but a café’s hardly lost when it’s sat on the main street and called ‘Madonna’, is it?

I also did the culture thing by visiting two parks, both of which showed evidence of typhoon destruction. The first park was actually the site of Tsuyama castle, although the castle isn't there. I couldn’t figure out where it was, but I have the feeling tinkers may be selling bits of it door to door in the nearest town. The grounds still have the stone walls that acted as foundations (though they’ll be stripped and sold within the week I’m sure) and are lined with trees and random displays (including a tent-like fabric shrine covered in potatoes. Rice I might have understood, but potatoes?) There is also a mini zoo that holds peacocks and birds with funny beaks and a couple of raccoons who are desperate for freedom. I too would be desperate for freedom if my house was falling down around me and I’d been locked in. Grim is an understatement.

The next park was called Shirakoen and was more a traditional Japanese landscaped garden. Again, it showed much typhoon damage with large areas being off limits to the public. This park was really beautiful and featured many Japanese maples, a big lake, some traditional Japanese huts and lots of ornamental (ie pretty, but fairly unstable) bridges. I scared away most of the other sight-seers by looking slightly maniacal with my camera and my mobile phone camera. And the fact that I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts seemed to be a shocker too. It was a mild day, and I was very comfortable. As, obviously, were the people pointing from the bus windows who looked like they thought shorts in late October were hilarious. A word of warning to those people- don’t ever go to Australia. November will kill you.

Anyway, when I got back home I turned on the telly to see lots of pictures of a train station and aerial views of a shinkansen bullet train. And it was on every channel. I first thought, “Has Princess Diana died again, this time on a train?” and then I received a phone call from my Mum telling me about the earthquake. The earthquake in Niigata is still causing problems. After an initial tremor of 6.8 there have been over 200 aftershocks, including one measuring 6 on the richter scale. Many people have been killed, thousands are still without power or water and thousands are still not in their homes. The TV pictures didn’t bring home the gravity of what had happened though- much time was spent showing branches of Lawson’s where bottles of coke had fallen out of fridges and bookshops where books had fallen off the shelves. Occasionally you’d catch pictures of highways that were ripped into 3 or more pieces as if this was an afterthought.

Sunday was a quiet day of preparation for school. At least that’s what I like to think. I basically stayed in bed for hours and hours and then at 3:30 left my flat to go for lunch somewhere. I eventually figured out what to do in my lessons at about, oh, 10:30pm…

And thus started the craziest week yet. The social life got put away and the previous month’s frivolity were forgotten. Everyday at elementary school I taught 4 or five lessons until 4pm. On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I went to Junior high at 4pm to help the students rehearse for speech contest. On Wednesday I was stuck in school in the mountains with no means of escape (I should have paid more attention to McGyver). At 6 o’clock on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday I had dance practice from 6 to 7 pm and on Tuesday from 7:30 till 9 I had English Conversation class. The only break I had was on Tuesday night when I watched a Japanese cartoon film (English title: “Castles in the Sky”) which was excellent. Except that the Castle in the sky was called Laputa which is Spanish for “whore”.

Well, on Friday I was lucky enough to cadge an early lift home and got the bus to Okayama for a wild night with Johanna and Fiona. Except by the time we got there we were a) very annoyed for being told off on the bus for being too noisy (we were told at the end of the journey by which time there was nothing we could do) and b) we were stupidly tired. So we went to a nice, new bar and had a few drinks and went home to watch a DVD.

On Saturday I met Chad and we went to see Mr Miyoshi, the crazy dentist in Chad’s old Hiroshima town. It was a great night. Mrs Miyoshi is an excellent cook and Mr Miyoshi loves booze, and loves even more giving booze to people. We started drinking at 5pm. By seven thirty, having drunk 5 types of alcohol, I was in a very bad way. By 9:30 I was laughing at nothing and struggling to stay upright. By 10:30 we were in bed. Fortunately (and surprisingly) I was hangover free on Sunday and managed to continue to assist in aiding Japan’s financial recovery by actioning a massive surge in spending in Okayama city. I wasn’t doing it for me, I was doing it for the people of Japan.

Well, yesterday was my first day back in Junior high. Back to lesson free days- almost. Speech contest is on Wednesday, so all free time is taken up practicing for that, and then practicing for the dance on Sunday. And then the social whirl had better restart or this is going to get rather dry...