When the rumbling began, my first thought was that it was the train. I turned to one of my Japanese dining companions, and said, jokingly, “Earthquake?” She smiled, and nodded, “Yes, earthquake.” Around the restaurant, people continued talking and eating, as though nothing were happening, and a few seconds later the rumbling died down, and the dishes stopped their rattling on the table. We placed our orders fortonkatsu (Japanese traditional chicken-fried steak). But then, about five minutes later, the rumbling began again. It’s not like I would expect people to run screaming for the doorways, but, as I glanced nervously at the heavy beams over my head, the other diners seemed not to even notice the quake. Their sang-froid left me stunned. Once again, the rumbling died down, until about five minutes later, when – once again – a quake hit.
For the sake of my pride, I’ll skip forward past the embarrassing number of times this episode repeated before I realized that this was just another one I could chalk up to the language barrier. I’d been right the first time – it was just the train.
Besides the disappointing absence of seismic activity, I’ve been having a good time in Japan. I went to Kamakura and Enoshima with the other Americans. The whole school went to Nikko (of speak/see/hear-no-evil monkeys fame), then to an all-you-can-eat strawberry farm, both of which were fun despite the torrential rains, and my own failure to bring an umbrella. My host mom has continued to serve amazingly elaborate Japanese meals, complete with a dozen different dishes, served in bowls and saucers of varying shapes, colors, and sizes. I went with her to go hiking at Takao-san, then on the way back we stopped at an American-style deli/bakery, where I got a chicken sandwich. It was a slab of chicken and a piece of lettuce on plain white bread, slathered with mayonnaise – and was the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. I’m looking forward to eating American food again.
I took my final exams yesterday – they were difficult, but I think I did okay. One of the students in our class, who skipped class twice a week through the first half of the quarter, and moved up to skipping four days a week in the second half, also didn’t come to the final: I found out from one of the guys in his dorm that he’s been staying up all night to play online computer games with people in the United States, and has been sleeping all day instead of going to class.
Earth is doomed.
In other news, three of the Korean students, returning late from Kabuki-cho a few weeks back, were surrounded and devoured by a roving pack of feral Hello Kitties.
The school threw a small party for the American students last night, which was fun. I’m still extremely far from being fluent in Japanese, but I can understand and speak a little, at least, which was the goal. I may come back to Japan in a couple of years to learn some more (through probably not to Tokyo, which has reinforced my belief that humans are really not evolved to live in cities). Tomorrow I return to America. My flights are scheduled to take about 14 hours (including time in the Vancouver airport), which I’m pretty sure is shorter than my daily train commute to school. I’m looking forward to living in a small village like Portland again. Despite the commute, though, I did have a great time in Japan, saw some very cool places, and learned a lot.
I hope you’re all doing well.
- Nathan
P.S. I sent another e-mail in mid-February with a photo attached, but I think some people may not have gotten it, because of the size of the attachment. If you didn’t get that e-mail, and would like to, let me know.
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