I almost died in a thunderstorm and other unbelievably true tales

because I haven't posted in forever I will give you all some short little snippits of what I have been up to...

I went to a hi matsuri ("fire festival") at the base of mount Fuji in the city of Fujioshida. As far as the eye could see there stretched great bonfires down the main street. In the side streets families gathered to build small towers of flame in front of their homes. Sparks flew, chanting was heard, people danced, drums were beaten, and there was magic in the air.

I went for a walk near my house and the most awesome thunderstorm struck over head. I had to duck under a neighbors carport. The thunder moved at a frightening speed from behind the mountains (from all sides) and until it was directly over my head. The thunder was deafening and the rain came down torrents. I was actually screaming with fright (I called up a friend in Kyoto, to tell her "if you don't hear from me again, I may have been struck by lightening").

I got stuck in Tokyo when a powerful Typhoon hit. All the buses, trains, and roads back to Yamanashi-ken were shut down. I hid inside my girlfriend's house. We had to pull metal shutters over the windows (in case something flew at the window and broke it), but we heard outside all the raging winds and ocassional crashing of things flying through the sky. The next morning we found laundry someone had hung to dry transported to the top of the hedges and some minor damage to the houses around the neighborhood. But the sky was surprisingly clear and the sun was bright (as if nature was fickle and had so soon forgot the angry storm that had raged the night before).


I went to a massive hanabi (fireworks) display in the town of Isawa (about 10 minutes by train from my city of Kofu). It is the same town that had the samurai battle along a river last spring. Now the river was lined with people - men & ladies in yukata (summer kimono) and children running about acting adorable. Many people had laid tarps by the river (I was scolded by an old Japanese man for not taking my shoes off before I walked across one of these...oops). The fireworks display was massive. The river was right near where I and my friends were sitting so I almost felt like I could reach out and touch the great colorful bursts of light that exploded above (the word hanabi ...literally means "fire flower").

I am back at teaching now at my 7 junior & senior highschools...after teaching many lessons on "how was my summer vacation" (the students made posters or drew pictures for me and then presented in front of the class) I am now moving on to more wacky lessons, like having an "alien invasion" in the class, writing up the diologue for a children's story book, having "sentence races", and playing "hungry shark". I love my kids :)

And I have also just been spending a lot of time in Tokyo hanging out with my girlfriend, going out to eat Thai food with my friends, exploring new neighborhoods (like the bohemian "Kichijoji" area where you can buy gelato, watch artists paint people's pet dogs, listen to bands play, watch lovers paddling boats on a lake, and go vintage clothes shopping) and dancing all night...

life is good
grace