Week 11

To start this week's post let me state that I'm fine and Osaka was largely un-effected by last Friday's 9.0 quake in Northern Japan. (THank you all for your concern!) We only really felt the main quake and the first aftershock a half an hour later (each registering about a 3 on the richter scale by the time they got to Osaka.) My heart goes out to those actually in the North of Japan who had to deal with the largest quake in Japanese history followed by tsunami waves up to 30 feet high, and now the threat of a nuclear meltdown.

But before we get all dark here, let's back up and look at last week. As I said last Monday I had a bit of a "situation", with my girlfriend being pissed at me. Fortunately it turns out it was all a big misunderstanding and things were rectified by Monday night.

Tuesday I took my first long distance bike ride down to the Yamatogawa (a large river in South Osaka.) The weather wasn't all that bad but there was a wicked wind blowing along the river banks.

Wednesday I got up early and got all dressed up for my high-school class's graduation ceremony. I went to last year's ceremony as well and this year wasn't much different. It started in one banquet hall were the principal some of the senior staff made speeches, handed out diplomas, and awards, and had a few students make speeches. After that we all went to another banquet hall one floor up for a buffet-style lunch, pictures, and some more speeches (as well as an impromptu "rock concert" put on by some of the staff, which was a bit funny.) After the festivities were over the other "native" teacher and I waited around and wend out for a celebratory dinner with the other staff members.

Thursday a was pretty standard work day. Though, as usual, it was a late shift. I ended up sleeping in a bit Friday morning as, instead of my usual high-school shift I had a "substitute-day" where I went and taught someone else's classes while they're on vacation. My shift started at 2:50 and, as I like to do, I showed up 15 minutes early. I was just preparing to teach my first class when the building began to shake. The "Hankyu Office Tower" was completed last year and in the modern design style is designed to sway with an earthquake instead of being rigid. The nasty side effect being that the building ends up swaying like a boat for several minutes after the actual quake subsides. After things settled down I began to teach and was interrupted partway through class by the first, big, aftershock. The rest of the day went on without much concern as we had no TV access at the office. When I got home at 9:00 I turned on the TV and was glues to the screen long past my usual bed-time.

Saturday's kid's classes went normally and quickly and soon I was out for Chinese food with my girlfriend (who is also perfectly fine.)

Yesterday's (Sunday's) "Web" classes were a bit odd in that I only ended up teaching five out of twelve classes (and my schedule's been full lately.) I'm not sure if people were watching the news instead of what (most of my Sunday student's like in Kanagawa, south of Tokyo.) Whatever the case, I do home they're all okay.

It seem's that this-morning the 24-hour news cycle is giving way to more standard morning-talk-show programing, but the topics are still very much last Friday's disasters.