The HORROR!

It's hard to type while curled up in the fetal position!  I have to stop trembling in fear and disappointment to explain.  I have been living in Japan now for more than a month and each time I go shopping for food, I noticed something missing.  The local supermarket is just a short walk away and we go there often for day to day needs.  For the first week I just learned the layout and tried new things, and then I went looking for BACON.  I found the closest  thing to BACON, a type of ham cut to look like BACON.  I cooked it up and made an omelet with some American cheese (another item of scarcity in Japan) and to my dismay, it had none of the deep rich mouthwatering savor that I am accustomed to.  I started feeling a little anxiety, but figured that another store would have the real deal.  So then began the hunt; York Mart, Takashimaya, Lawson, Family Mart, Big A, even Seven Eleven with none of them satisfying my need.  Then I learned about Costco.  Surely an American style warehouse market will have American style BACON!  So after begging Ryoko (I have to do the dishes for the entire month of October. . .) we went today and found - - -  the same limp ham.  The same lack of savory goodness.  My soul has withered and now whimpers from somewhere near my left kidney (who would have thought that a kidney could be the souls safe room?).

The real scare is that I still have 10 more months to go. . . . . .  WITHOUT BACON!

Chop Stick Rubber Band Gun!

Last weekend, Yuta was bored and asked if we could make a few rubber band guns from chop sticks and have a battle around the house.  We looked up how to build them and made a few, we are still finding rubber bands all around the house (at least I am).  The activity was a success, which led Yuta to take pictures of his collection of weapons (at that point he had 2 pistols and a rifle/shotgun he had invented) and show them at school.  Yuta's fourth grade teacher was very impressed with the idea and asked if Yuta could bring them in the next day.  Upon seeing the rubber band shooters, the teacher then asked the class to bring in the materials to make one for themselves the very next day.  Yuta led the class and each student made a rubber band pistol.  They then broke into two teams and had a battle!  I am very happy with this teacher, he is so much cooler than I am!  Yuta is now a bit of a hero in the class, the students had quite a bit of fun. . .

Typhoon Man-yi

     Today we survived typhoon Man-yi!  The rain started last night and the wind picked up as well, until this morning when the real event started.  The wind blew over a tall flowering plant on the far side of the driveway from the house and kinked over a few of the potatoes and eggplants, but that appears to be all the damage we incurred.  We were lucky to be on the eastern side of the center and so did not receive the full brunt of the storm.

     On another note, I have started jogging!  On one of my early morning excursions, I was running past the nearby middle school and witnessed the baseball team greeting the coach.  The team was on the field practicing and the first player to see the coach called out.  All the players stopped what they were doing, faced the coach, and when one of them called out, they bowed.  The coach bowed back and then instructed the boys to continue.  I was impressed and happy to see a fellow teacher receive that much respect.  I can only assume that the same situation applies to classroom teachers.  No wonder the Japanese students we see in America do so well, they have such a profound respect for themselves, their teachers, and the institution of education.
     For my next post I plan on interviewing my son to see how cleaning the school on a daily basis affects his educational outlook. . .