IN A NUTSHELL: Adventures in Sakugi
Come ON, Post Office Guy I was wiped today after only getting
about 4 hours sleep, which did not help when Tomomi called on me to do a last minute
activity that we never ended up using. We did, though, use the fun activity where everyone got
in groups and figured out who was "tallest," had the "longest fingers" and so forth.
I also finished up my Book 2 test for my Japanese Language Correspondence course
(that one is due Wednesday.) I am all about "sunawachi" ("in other words") now. Anyway, I went to
the post office to send in my Hokkaido money (and mail my test.) I wanted to send a message with my postal
transfer
because I figure if I am going to transfer $800, I want the recipient to know what it is for! And I
just had a feeling I should anyway. Yuji-san,
who is a sweet guy and always comes to my eikaiwa classes, told me it was cheaper to use the ATM machine and
even offered to walk me through it. I said, "but I want to send a message." He said the machine lets you.
I believed him, though I never recalled ever being able to do such a thing. So he goes through it step by step.
He did give me one important piece of info - that since the postal machine takes from my account, I have to
DEPOSIT the money first, which was very important since I did not have that much money already in my account.
So I deposited it and moved along. He even did it in English and... no message. Sigh. He was super apologetic,
obviously feeling pretty stupid, but I told him not to worry and will just hope that the recipient knows what
it's for.
Random Other Stuff I Did Today I snuck a read in of the Asahi Shimbun (one
of four English newspapers in Japan - the vice principal reads it regularly and said a long time ago that
I was free to read if I wanted.) Oddly, just today I was thinking about how long it had been since I had
read Dave Barry (and imagined all the funny stuff I had missed) and lo and behold, there was Dave Barry!
In Asahi Shimbun! Cool! Tomomi went snowboarding again, it turns out, and is sore again, silly boy.
Almost all the 7th graders got a perfect on the quiz. I said that he was a "Good Teacher" and he laughed.
I think the five minutes of study time he gave them beforehand might have been the cause of high grades, too.
When I walked out to my
car, I saw that someone had put my windshield wipers up for me since I had not! It had not been necessary, but it
was cute.
Can't Find UFO I drove right to Miyoshi after school so I could squeeze in
a UFO shopping spree before Japanese class. Only I could not find UFO and ended up turning onto a street
FAR too narrow for two cars, so of course another car came along. We both nearly ended up in the gutter.
I would not have had this problem if I could tell my left from my right and knew which side of the road UFO was on.
I finally found it (it's PAST the Karaoke place) and had a relatively successful spree! Even found
some mini-snow boots for $10 and a nice scraper. I ran into Kate (she has Japanese class before me) and
even she is using "Honma" so I made definite sure to get that confirmed. Turns out, I was right. My tutor
confirmed that it means "Honto" ("really") and is not only Hiroshima, but also Osaka dialect (and the whole Kansai area,
apparently.) Ever since that one night, I hear "honma" ALL the time. I can't believe it isn't in the dictionary.
Messages from God After class, I went food shopping at Fresta (the only food store
open past 8pm.)
I had not been shopping in so long that my bill came to over $100. The biggest purchases on my
receipt? Disposable Camera, Imported Canadian Maple Syrup, and my Five Boxes of Cereal. All worth it.
Really. No syrup comments allowed. I was driving out of Miyoshi when I saw that, on the mountain ahead in
lights, it said "I Love You" (the "Love" actually being a heart.) It was odd because I could only see the
top half of the letters and wondered if the letter shapes were a coincidence. I looked up a second time
and that heart HAD to be a heart - no coincidence. But when I looked up a third time at the traffic light,
the entire message was gone as if it had not been there. I did not see it again. Hmm.
When I got home, I looked up at the sky and the clouds had parted just enough to reveal my favorite
constellation, Orion, above. Second message? Happy me! However, I'm getting ahead of myself.
The most interesting thing
of the night happened between those two messages during my drive home...
Adventures in Sakugi Just before the turnoff toward the tunnel that leads to
Sakugi, I noticed a dark bulge ahead of me in the road. Unable to make out what it was, I slowed.
Then my headlights hit it.
A car had overturned on its side! I immediately pulled over, since it seemed no one else had yet.
Well, I attempted to
pull over. There's really no place to, especially with snow banked on either side of the road, so
I just stopped in the middle of the lane, as I accuse oh-so-many people of doing too much, and put on my
blinkers. Leaving my headlights on and car running, I got out, kind of wondering how much help a bumbling
foreigner could possibly be. But my rampant
curios... err, sense of duty would not allow me to leave without checking at least. There were about 5 people
standing around outside in the cold, but it appeared no one was hurt at all, even though it looked like
getting out of the sideways van would have been quite the chore.
Three older people, a younger man and
a younger woman about my age were there.
I thought I had arrived before the police, but apparently
they had not called anyone, not even a tow truck. The girl was on the phone with a friend.
After a little while, the guy asked if I could help in the attempt to push the narrow small
van-car back upright. I said OK, despite that if it had been me, I would have waited for professionals.
We tried, but I wasn't coordinating with the hurried "Sei no"s and
we could barely budge it (though it could not have been that heavy - it isn't a full sized car.)
So instead we hung out and waited. I talked to the
older lady who, it turns out, also lives in Sakugi (and graduated at Sakugi Jr. High which was apparently
in the same building as today and this woman had to be in her late 60s.) She was very nice and surprised
to hear that I was Sakugi's English teacher. As we stood around chatting, I seemed to be shivering the
most although I was the most
bundled up of anyone. Hmm. Finally a car stopped,
perhaps the acquaintance they called? The five of us (not including the older woman)
heaved and hoed and managed to push the van
back upright without having it tip over in the other direction, which it nearly did.
Then, they put in the key and it actually started! Some metal panel above the bumper was about to fall off,
but they just rammed it back in. Then, they got in, turned around, and went on their merry way! They did not go
toward Sakugi, but
the older couple, who had just stopped to help, did go that way. Hmm. I'm not sure I'd trust myself driving
a car that had just spent some time sideways. But I was glad I could do my part for bumbling foreigners.
Bad Battery Karma? I was starving when I made it back home and actually
felt kind of sick when I finally did eat. Bleah. To distract myself, I read the news and immediately started
doing a "President Dean, President Clark, President Kerry" mantra so at least ONE of them would make it.
So I tried out my new flashlight. I put in the batteries as directed. Nothing. I double and triple
checked the placement, the size, how tightly I was closing it, etc, etc. Nothing. No light from this
brand new flashlight. I now have two flashlights that don't work when I put new batteries in them. Huh?
Am I missing something?