Kyle's World

This update will serve as a lead in to an update that I'll do in a couple days. But for now...

The other day, Sunday March 20, a strong earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale rocked the Kyushu area where I live at 10:53AM. Apparently this earthquake was the largest to hit Kyushu in some 110 years. It was caused by a previously unknows underwater fault extending into Hakata Bay and the Sea of Japan.

I was on my way to Fukuoka when the earthquake struck, though I didn't feel anything. They announced that the expressway would be closed, so I wondered how we'd get to Fukuoka but actually we could keep driving till our destination. But the Urban expressway was closed, and all train, shinkansen and subway service was stopped. You can imagine the gridlock of Fukuoka that day...

The day turned into a damage tour for us; we eventually saw piles of bricks and other rubble that had come off walls and buildings, ruptured water pipes, and huge cracks in streets and sidewalks. Our ears were filled with the constant drone of helicopters overhead and non-stop emergency vehicle sirens.

What a day I tell you. Some of my other friends have had other earthquake experiences in Japan or Taiwan, but this was my first significant one. Craziness. Next up is typhoon season...what kind of dangerous country am I living in?

I had the 1-year anniversary of owning my first ever car on March 8. In honour of that momentus occasion, and to pay tribute to the beast that drives me around, here is a pic of it.

I awoke from a nap this evening to see the first huge spider (think a bit bigger than a golf ball) gracing my wall sitting in the shadows. Last year I seemed to have a real problem with spiders, but as Japanese people tried to convince me of, spiders are good so having them around isn't really a problem. But I've yet to find the symbiotic happy medium where I can co-exist with spiders in my cramped little apartment. So the spiders I find usually become clean bits of garbage as I empty entire bottles of household cleaners to drown them. Just call me the Lemon scent spider hunter. I think having huge spiders around, even though I absolutely hate them, is much better than either cockroaches or mukade, the Japanese psychotic centipedes. With cockroaches, your apartment must be dirty, and with mukade, well that's just wrong. Since there's no reason that spiders enter my apartment, and since they are a little beneficial, I can live with seeing huge ones every so often. 2005 spider score: Kyle 1 Spiders 0.

I guess you hear about it on the news and stuff, but Japan has had a rash of crimes in recent years, many taking place at schools. By our standards, Japan is still a very safe country. But still, we bristle at the thought of violence in schools, so necessary training was needed.

The other day at me school, we had 不審者 training. A 不審者is loosely translated as a suspicious person, ie. someone that might come into a school to commit a crime. This 不審者 training was something else. We had a staff meeting after school, complete with a demonstration. We played janken to see who would become the 不審者 actor. I lost, but then I jankened with Shimazaki sensei, and ended up beating her. So I thought that she would be the 不審者 but then I was called out to demonstate suspicious activities in front of the whole school. Sure, pick on the gaijin since I'm the most likely to be suspicious.

I was told to attack my vice principal as he tried to defend himself with a plastic pole. Sure, seemed easy enough. I attacked him, threw his plastic pole aside, and started punching him, much to the delight of the other teachers.

But then he told me to attack him again, but this time he'd use defense techniques. I tried, but he ended up winning. He pushed me hard with the pole to my sternum, perhaps revenge for my punching him. Then he tried to pin my knees with it.

The next volunteer has to attack vice-principal with a paint brush. I know it wasa simulation, but c'mon, a plastic pole? A paint brush?

If a 不審者 comes to out school, one of several things will happen. We'll all be screwed. Or we'll all run away. Or we won't remember what we learned in the simulation because it was too far from reality. Or the plastic pole and paint brush combination will work wonders and we'll run the 不審者 off. Give me my aluminum baseball bat any day of the week, and I'll run the 不審者off myself.

Today I turned 25. Wow, it seems like such a milestone. Well it is, only it's tough to say it. I guess I'm getting older. But I was never before able to say that I'm one-quarter century old. I've also calculated that I've spent 12% of my birthdays in Japan. But birthdays are definitely losing their lustre. I had a great day, hanging out in Sendai with friends, doing the tourist thing, but despite phonecalls from back home on my keitai and mails from my friends, it still seemed like a regualr, just-your-average day. Chalk it up to age...well here's to the next 25 years. I'm looking forward to the day I can say "I'm a half century old".