Bugging Out

I've decided to abbreviate my final term at Yamasa and take a flight to Hokkaido tomorrow morning. While I'm there I'll watch developments at a more comfortable distance and be with Megumi and old friends until my flight back to the States in late April(returning in April has been the plan for several months now).

I don't think that I am in any mortal danger here in Nagoya. We have yet to experience any effects of the disaster and are comfortably outside of the range of any radiation that could be caused by the reactor in Fukushima.

Just for perspective. I am 150 miles Southwest of Tokyo, 250 miles Southwest of the Fukushima reactor, and roughly 100 miles south of the Fukui reactor. When I fly to Hokkaido I will be 500 miles away from all of this nonsense.

In wake of all of the disasters here, there has been so much conflicting information and "credible" misinformation that i've found it impossible think clearly, but there are some facts that have caused me enough concern to buy a last minute plane ticket.

-the government is handing out iodine tablets to protect against thyroid problems caused by radiation.

-the local news is airing instructional videos on how to protect oneself against fallout radiation.

-People in Fukushima (maybe Fukui as well) have been instructed not to drink tap water, use their air-conditioners, or go outside with their skin exposed. There has been no such instruction here, but the bottled water is sold out at all of the super markets (don't worry! there's still plenty of beer!).

-they are already rationing electricity in Tokyo where they are experiencing halts in public transit.

-There are close to a million homeless people, in addition to those who are trying to leave Tokyo, who are looking for a near and safe place to stay.

-the French embassy has instructed any French to leave Tokyo, a tall order in light of the public transit issue.

-A family friend and accomplished physicist has been in contact with me and is convinced that the Japanese government is not being forthcoming with important information and that I should leave the country as soon as possible.

So there it is. The good news is that, while international flights are becoming difficult to reserve on short notice, domestic flights are still very easy to come by and it looks like I will have no problems making it to Hokkaido on Wednesday morningt. The area I am in now is still completely unaffected by all of this. And between trains, buses and friends with cars I am sure that getting to the airport will not be a problem. Until then I will be drinking bottled water and beer with friends before I fly to Hokkaido to stay with my girlfriend and her sister in a town where everyone will be happy to see me.

Life could be worse.

Safe and Sound,

Chris

大阪・京都

先週の水木曜日関西へ行った。水曜日は幼なじみの家族と大阪であって、数時間を過ごした。みんなは忙しくて、３時間しかあえなかったけどとてもたのしかった。日本の観覧車に初めて乗って、後でトルコ料理を食べに行った。しばらくトルコ料理を食べてなかったので、懐かしかった。

木曜日は二人の北海道の友達と会った。二人は、先週まで、アメリカを車で旅行していた。北海道行きへ帰る途中のついでに京都で観光した。京都に住んでいる友達の知り合いが案内してくれて、とてもよかった。今までで一番美味しいお好み焼きを食べて、清水寺も見た。

風強い

今日はかなり暖かくなったが風もとても強くなった。授業中壁が揺れたし、寮へ帰るとき一直線に進めなかったし、大変だった。

週末になってよかった。よい一週間だったけどとても疲れた。これから友達のところに行って、フライドポテトパーティーをするつもりだ。アメリカ人ぽいね。

皆さん良い週末を、

面白いこと

今日は頭が疲れている。９時から３:３０までずっと授業で、３：３０から先週失敗したテストをもう一度受けなければならなかった。参った。

面白いことに、先週その中級のヤマサテストに失敗したのに、去年受けた日本語能力の二級(上級）テストに合格した。ヤマサの先生によると、私の初級日本語はまだちょっと問題があるそうだ。


言語以外に、上級ができるが初級のに上手にできないことがあるかな...

毎日の日記

今日は担任の先生と自分の日本語力について話して、弱点は長くて簡潔的に話せないことだと言われました。「やった」と思った「やっと、自分の日本語力は、自分の英語力とよく似てるようになった!」

とにかく、それを直すために、毎日日記を書いたほうがいいと言われました。今まで毎日はもちろん、毎月ブログを更新することができなかった。今まで英語で書いていてその調子だったので日本語で日記を書くことが無理かもしれないけど頑張ります。

それに、私の生活の日々はきっと面白くないです。単調な学生生活だけです。でも読んでくれたらうれしいです。

宜しくお願いします。

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while. Hope you are all well.

I talked with my supervisor today about the state of my Japanese and she said that my weak point is speaking in long, coherent sentences. I told her I was thrilled that my Japanese had finally reached the same level as my English.

At any rate, in order to work on this she suggested that I keep a daily journal in Japanese. And it occurred to me that this would be a good way to revive this dusty old blog.

So, I'll be blogging in Japanese from now on. If not every day, at least much more frequently than I have been lately. I'm not sure how much of it I will translate, but I will be sure to write posts in English from time to time. And I'll use lots of pictures!

Chris

Boston

I have had a busy couple of weeks. Jon and Ashley came up to spend a weekend on the lake, Tom got married, and I spent a week in Boston with Kyle, Rhiannon and a few other friends that have moved there since I have been living in Japan.

Boston is a great city and I got to do some exceptionally cool things there. There is path through the historical areas called the "Freedom Walk," maybe a four or five mile circiut through old houses, graves, battlefields, etc... It's a nice way to spend an afternoon and it's easy because the entire walk is marked by a line of red bricks that winds through the most attractive roads and alleys to take you from point A to B. No juggling maps and guidebooks or crossing polluted freeways to get where you want, just follow the red bricks. They also have a similar Black Heritage walk west of downtown.

My uncle worked on the Big Dig project and showed me the city control center which was fracking awesome. Every traffic camera in Boston is networked to this room and it's where they manage the traffic flow for the entire city. They also have control of 5 or 6 enormous vents that they use to direct the airflow in the tunnels whenever there is an accident.

Maybe the highlight of the trip was on Saturday when Lars took me sailing on the Charles river. He is a member of a boatclub and has unlimited access to all of their boats. Anyone in Boston can join, and it's only 250 dollars a year.

We used a Cape Cod Mercury, a boat that I had never seen or heard of but is not terribly different from the Sunfish that I was raised on. It comfortably fit 3 of us and had a jib, which added a suprising ammount of speed and responsiveness once Lars taught us how to use it. The number of other boats on the river and bizarre wind currents created by the sky scrappers were some dynamics that I had never experienced before. It was in the mid 70s, windy and sunny.

In other news my visa has finally been confirmed, so now it is official that I will be leaving the country again on the 3rd. I was never really concerned that it would not go through, but I had been putting off lots of preparation until it was all official. So it's not that I am relieved but that my brain is changing gears.

Back Home Again

I have been in The States since early August and will return to Japan on October 3rd where I will enroll in language school to polish up my Japanese. I ended my contract with Shimizu in July, which has left me with some conflicting feelings but also a lot of confidence that I made the right decision to leave when I did.

I have had a great time since. I just got back from a trip around the midwest, where I saw lots of family and old friends. I essentially did a lap around Lake Michigan.

I went to Chicago with my sister, where we had hoped to see one of our favorite folk musicians perform live. Unfortunately his show was postponed at the last second. But his replacement was good, and we also had a few drinks with Jared and Elizabeth.

After that Sarah and I took off to Minneapolis, via Milwakee where we had lunch with Greg, a couple of weeks before he took of to China.

In Minneapolis we spent 5 nights with Thomas and Jessi. The highlight of the trip was a lazy, 3 hour ride down a river on inter tubes. Twice. The company we rented the tubes from met us at the bottom and drove us back to our car. There was a special tube for the beer cooler.

Finally, I took off to the upper penninsula of Michigan with my Sister, Father, and Mother, where we spent 5 nights between our two family cabins.

I'm now looking forward to 2 weeks of relaxing by the lake in Hillsdale.

Gin+tonic+book+lake=Michigan Summer