Enjoy the Moment

Ian and I lost our house key about six months after we got here.  That’s right.  For the past year and a half our house has been unlocked, and not once were we worried about that.  (Yay, Japan!)  What I was more concerned with was telling my supervisor.  I had heard horror stories about how other ALTs who had lost their keys had to pay hundreds of dollars for a lock change and was really, really afraid of that.  Since we’re leaving in less than a month, I finally bit the bullet and told her that we had lost them.  She immediately asked if Ian was at home so that she could go try a spare key that was at the BOE.  He was, so she went.  That key didn’t work, so she said that she’d be right back.  I’m not sure where she went, but when she returned, she had another key, and that one worked.  Hurray!  She said that she would go make a copy for us, but that we’d have to pay for that.  Not a problem.  I asked Ian how much a spare key costs to have made, and he said that it was only a few bucks in the States.  Certainly not the hundreds of dollars I was expecting for a lock change!  When my supervisor returned about an hour later with the key, we thanked her again and again.  Bonus: she didn’t make us pay for the key!  She said that it was a present.  Have I mentioned how cool my supervisor is….?

While rainy season is mostly over, last week we had a couple of storms.  It NEVER storms over here, so to see the skies get black, hear the thunder rolling across the mountains, and seeing the lightning flashing across the sky reminded me SO.  MUCH.  of home.  The storm blew up late in the afternoon as the kids were getting ready to leave school.  All of the teachers were freaking out with the thunder and lightning and confused as to why the crazy foreigner was standing by the window and creepily smiling.  The kids always practice sports after school, and just like normal I saw a few of the baseball kids walk out to the diamond…… AS IT WAS LIGHTNING.  It didn’t take long before one of the teachers got on the PA system and basically said, “Hey, idiots.  Get off the dang field and back inside!!!”  For the next thirty minutes as the storm passed, it was basically like a tornado drill at home.  (Not that going into the hallway would help much during a tornado.  The hallways are basically all windows, and Japanese school buildings would crumble in a heartbeat.)  All of the kids had to wait in the hall while the teachers stood around guarding the doorways so that no one would leave.  I was really crossing my fingers that the storm would pass before I left because I was going to feel really awkward walking outside while all of the kids watched me from their spots on the floor.  Luckily it quit storming about five minutes before I left, and the teachers decided to release some of the kids.

Since last Thursday was the 4th, Ian and I decided to celebrate by having big, fat, American foods.  On Wednesday I made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and peas.  On Thursday, Ian took Krista’s mom back to the airport in Fukuoka and stopped at Costco for supplies for our farewell party.  Since he was there, he decided to get a whole Costco size pizza and bring that home for dinner.  Therefore, we celebrated the 4th with Krista by stuffing giant pepperoni pizza slices into our mouths.  Happy birthday, America!

 

Since our time is running thin in Japan, I’ve decided to take a new approach.  Enjoy the moment.  If that means staying out an extra hour at night to hang out with friends, losing some sleep to go star gazing, eating an extra piece of mochi, or driving out of our way to see something interesting that we’ve always wanted to see, then so be it.  We’ll do it!  We know that once we leave Japan, we probably won’t come back to Japan.  As much as we love it, there are other places in the world that we want to see and visit.  Ian and I both agree that it doesn’t feel like we’re leaving.  Instead it feels like we’re going on a long vacation and that we’ll be back in a few weeks.  *sigh*  Not so…… 

This has been the first week in a while that isn’t calling for rain.  The forecast Monday-Friday is sun, sun, and SUN.  It’s been great!  I think I can safely say that rainy season is over.  Woo hoo!  However, when one bad season ends, another begins.  I think the rain and cloud cover was maintaining the temperatures.  Now instead of it just being muggy, it’s sunny, hot, and muggy.  UGH!  While I enjoy the sunshine, I don’t enjoy drinking four liters of water every day just to replenish what I sweat out.  Ian and I are still keeping to the not-turning-on-the-AC pact, but our fan has been running like crazy!  Yesterday I came home from school drenched in sweat, so I changed into a tank top and shorts.  I had to run to the post office, and I have never felt so scandalized as I did in that tank top.  I feel like I might as well have worn no shirt considering some of the looks and double takes I got.  Come on, everyone!  Cut me some slack!  It’s HOT!

I’ll stop here for now.  Woo-hoo!  Two blogs in one day!  I haven’t done that in a while.  Can you tell who had a full free afternoon?  Hint: IT WAS ME!