I won't run when the sky turns to flame and I sure won't budge when the earth does shake. -Anya Marina "All the Same to Me"

What a crazy day! The morning started with a frenzy of packing, trying to get ready for the movers, who were scheduled to come at 2pm. Since Ally, Christine and I have to be in Kumamoto on the 24^th, we planned to take a 10 day trip through the Kansai region of Japan. Although we aren't leaving until Sunday, we could get a better deal with the movers if they picked our stuff up today. What's another couple of days living out of a suitcase when you're ready planning on 10 of them? The movers arrived (early, I might add...how often do you think that happens in the States?) and had our things moved out of all three of our apartments in about 30 minutes. Cindy came out to translate for us and since she came from work, she hadn't had lunch yet. We left the apartments about 2:45 so she could get some food and on the walk to the restaurant, the ground started to shake. We get tremors in Tokyo frequently and with all the earthquakes off the coast a few days ago, we thought we were getting an aftershock. But things started to shake harder and people began running out of their homes. At the time, we were standing under a large group of power lines and a pole with a small transformer on it.  We moved to a safer location and several people from nearby houses came and huddled with us in the middle of a neighborhood street until things calmed down. The experience left us shaken (no pun intended, really), but we were soon back on our way to the restaurant, unaware of the extent of what had just happened. While there, we experienced several aftershocks. One of them was enough to warrant a precautionary trip under a table. There have been aftershocks off and on all day.

As a last hurrah of sorts, I was planning on going to Tokyo Disney Sea tomorrow with a big group of friends. That plan has been scrapped, but left Ally, Christine, and me in a tricky situation. In anticipation of being at Disney Sea all day tomorrow and leaving for our trip Sunday, we had packed and shipped literally EVERYTHING in our apartments, except the clothes we were bringing with us. We had also cleaned out fridges and had no food in our apartments. We went to our neighborhood grocery store to stock up on a few things, but apparently the store had sustained so much damage in the quake that they were closed. We then went to a nearby convenience store and joined the throngs of people trying to stock up on food for the next few days. The only problem was that all the food that required no prep work had been purchased already and since we have no dishes/utensils we were really limited in what we could buy. But thanks to Cindy (who got stranded and is spending the night in Saitama with us) and her quick thinking, we should be set for the rest of the weekend.

Reports are saying the magnitude of the earthquake was 8.9 with aftershocks reaching a magnitude of 6.4 in some cases. So far, more than 100 people have died in the quake and resulting tsunami and numbers are still coming in. Because trains, subways and the shinkansen shut down almost immediately, millions of people have been stranded at their jobs or in whatever random station their mode of transport stopped in when the quake happened. Tsunamis are expected many other places and it sounds like the repercussions of this earthquake will be felt world-wide.

I consider myself incredibly fortunate that I am safely home with friends and that no one I know has suffered anything worse than being stuck at work. If you are a religious person, please take a moment to pray for those who have been effected by today's events and for those who will be effected in the future. If you aren't a religious person, send some positive vibes toward Japan. There are a lot of people in need of them right now.

Lessons learned (this one is for you, mom):

• the Japanese word for “earthquake” (It's jishin, for anyone interested)
  
  
  
  
  
  

EDIT: Out of respect, I decided to take down the picture previously posted on this blog.

Feel like a tourist in the big city. -Julian Casablancas "Tourist"

Wow. It's been a long time since my last update. Things have been busy but I've been suffering from laziness/lack of inspiration to write about any of it. It would seem that my blogging muse left, but a lot has happened since Christmas so let me see if I can summarize before getting to the BIG news:

Ally and I spent 9 days over New Years in Hokkaido, the northern-most island of Japan. Highlights from the trip included:

The Ishiya Chocolate Factory

Sapporo Factory (which was closed)

Cape Soya - the northern-most point of Japan

The "Penguin Walk" at the Asahiyama Zoo

Toyoura - the middle of nowhere town where Ally and I got stranded for a few hours

The trip was fantastic but my best memories are of the people we met along the way:

Okada sensei - the amazingly generous pastor who agreed to let Ally and I stay at her house in Sapporo before she had even met us.

Kamada san - The owner of our hostel in Wakkanai.  I think we were the only guests he had at the time and he was really excited we were there.  He took us out to dinner the night we arrived, paid for us, and then drove us to Cape Soya the next morning (about 30-40km away) and back to the train station.

The Toyoura 3 - Purple Boots, the Shy One, and B.A. - The day Ally and I got stranded in Toyoura on the way to Hakodate, these people waited with us at the station and made sure we were at the right place on the platform to catch the train we needed.  We never learned their names but they kept us entertained for a while.

Boy on ferry - This little boy from Sri Lanka and his parents were on the ferry we took from Hakodate to Aomori.  He brought his Hot Wheels over and played with us for a couple of hours.  He spoke enough British English to tell us that he had a Porsche, BMW, and Benz. 

We ended up taking 2 overnight buses, 1 overnight train, a ferry, a few city buses, 1 express train and more local trains than I ever want to think about again, but it was an amazing trip and I've been itching to travel more ever since.

At the end of January I got to see my first sumo match and Kabuki play. Miyazawa sensei, one of my Japanese teachers, took our class to see both. We were in the nosebleed section for sumo, but I'd much rather be there than ringside, where more than a few people had to dodge 300lb men falling out of the ring.

You can watch videos of some of the matches on my youtube page.

Kabuki was beautiful, but I would have had no idea what was going on without the English translation headsets they were kind enough to make available to the non-native speakers. Kabuki involves a very stylized way of speaking which is very hard to understand. Even Miyazawa sensei said she only understood 80% of what was going on.

AND NOW FOR THE SUPER BIG NEWS!!!!

I've finally received my teaching assignment. In April, I will begin teaching in Kumamoto. Obviously this is going to involve a pretty big move and the next week is going to be insane with a capital I.

When I first came to Japan, Ally, Christine, and I were told that one of us would be staying in Tokyo and two of us would be moving to Kumamoto in April. For reasons that I still don't entirely understand and am not completely comfortable with, the decision was made to send us all to Kumamoto. The entire process has been bittersweet. Leaving Tokyo is going to be very difficult. I've met so many wonderful people here and the idea of moving in a week is still a little surreal. It's also hard because, despite trying to remain objective and unbiased upon arrival in Japan, I absolutely fell in love with the Hongo Center (the place I would have been working had I stayed in Tokyo.) I wanted to work there more than I originally realized and kind of feel like I was robbed of a chance that was never really given to me to begin with. I know I would have been a good fit with their program and it's hard to accept the fact that I won't ever get the chance to show them that.

On the other hand, I'm very excited to begin teaching. The people I will be working with in Kumamoto are AMAZING and I am so fortunate to get to spend the next two years with them. It's also fantastic that Ally and Christine and I get to stay together. While Christine will be working at a different school than Ally and I, we will all be living in the same apartment building. And speaking of apartments, my new apartment is probably four or five times bigger than what I have now. :-) I will have a full kitchen (including counter space and an oven), and more than one room!!! VERY exciting!!! I'm definitely looking forward to getting settled. The past six-ish months have been more than I ever could have hoped for, but I've known since I arrived that I would have to move when language training was over. Even if I stayed in Tokyo, I would have been moving to a different apartment and it's hard to get settled anywhere when you know you won't be there long. You feel like more of a guest than a resident, which is inhibiting after a while. It will be nice to feel like I LIVE in Japan, as opposed to the touristy, just-here-for-a-little-while experience I've had thus far.

This has turned into a very long-winded somewhat rambling/ranty update, so if you're still with me at this point, thank you. :-) 

Ally, myself and Christine the day we recieved our teaching assigments.

And finally, as per Maggie's request, here is a map of Japan with little pink dots on the places I've been so far:

Lessons learned recently:

• Paper towels are sometimes sold in boxes that look like Kleenex boxes.  Hence, it is very easy to buy paper towels when you really want Kleenex.
• Milk tea, when forgotten and left to its own devices on the stove, will literally explode out of the teapot when it reaches its boiling point.
• Heated toilet seats have turned me into a toilet snob. I definitely notice when I go places that don't have them. Coming back to the States will be hard.
• Watching a double feature of 127 Hour and Black Swan before going to be inspires strange dreams.
• Eating kimchi before bed also inspires strange dreams.
• Japan's #1 electrical expense is keeping vending machines up and running 24/7.
• ALWAYS READ LABELS ON YOUR SNACKS BEFORE BUYING THEM. That delicious danish-looking pastry might just turn out to be mayo bread. Literally mayonnaise and bread. That's it. Not a pleasant surprise when one is expecting a delicious cream cheese danish.