June 5, 2000

Well, we are back from gallavanting around the prefecture, and everyone is safe and sound at home.  Some of you have already sent messages with questions about the earthquake.  It occurred in Fukui Prefecture, which is fairly close to us.  It was a little eerie to hear the rumbling and then see all the things on top of my desk come tumbling down, but it was over as quickly as it began, and everyone is just fine here.  I have not read or seen anything about damages in Fukui, but basically everyone just felt a little funny here and then it was over.  It was a lot bigger than the last one?which woke a lot of us up with some really vague nausea, but no real rumbling or shaking.  This one shook the building very hard for about 15 seconds.  Wow.  Like I said?all here is okay, so you can stop worrying about us being trapped under rubble.

We went to Kobe for the meetings on Wednesday of last week, and the meetings were as boring as you would expect them to be.  Our first speaker was Karlos van Waffleheimer or something, an Austrian Economist who is a self-proclaimed expert on the Japanese economy.  His whole speech was about how important the present economic state would be in our present and future lives, and implied that it was more important than anything else we could possibly study.  How did you guess?  Yes!  He IS in fact a college professor!  The profs at Methodist College who were my friends were the few who realized that there was indeed viable life outside their classrooms!  This guy would never be invited to the Christmas party.  He had all the interest of a yogurt container that you forgot about for a month.  You know, you almost HAVE to look in there, and then you grimace horrendously at the smell and the fuzziness of the contents, and then you throw it in the trash can and shake your head momentarily at the waste.  Well, after about the first ten minutes or so, I had heard enough name-dropping to last me for another ten years or more.  That`s when I tuned out and opened the latest arrival from mom?Mother Earth News.  Lots more interesting.  But, I digress.

The remainder of the conference wasn�ft that much better, except for the few minutes at our posh hotel where the only working escalator was running backwards and a few of us had to run UP an escalator that was moving DOWN.  For those of you who have missed this joyous experience?let me just save you the effort.  It will be out on video soon enough with some lame action star like Stallone.  If you are intent on having this much fun, just stick a fork into a light socket instead.  It gives you that same jolt when you are done.  Wow.  And WHY, you are asking yourselves, were we running the opposite direction?  We had a meeting, the clock was ticking, and both escalators were moving down.  The only way to get up was that way?no, there are no fire exits or stairs to climb in an emergency.  The Japanese, by and large, have this THING with escalators and elevators.  There are whole FLOORS of their nice high-rises that can ONLY be accessed via elevator.  What do they do in case of fire, you wonder?  The answer is?they cough, then choke on the smoke.  Then they fry.  When we are staying at any of these places, I am always careful to request rooms with more than one exit, or low enough to the ground that an escape would be possible.  If they do not comply, then we do not stay there.  The Japanese think it is weird that nearly all westerners who live in Japan request stuff like this.  The tourists (and the tourism companies that they are booked through) do not know things like this.  It is a little scary, but like I said, we do what we must to stay safe.  Anyway?the escalator.  Ken made it easily, naturally, with those long legs and easy strides.  Then, here I come, with a bag on my shoulder, my suit, hose and dress shoes, jogging up every step at double time.  You can not rest when you do this.  Imagine running upstairs for about five minutes as fast as you can.  It is really REALLY tiring.  Somewhere near the very top, my thighs revolted and threatened to just quit altogether.  But hey?I made it.  It is one of those things that my dad would say �gbuilds character.�h  Let`s consider the source, though�che said the same thing about eating jalapenos when I was seven.  I still can`t stomach those things.  And I suppose that I will refrain from repeating any escalator escapades.  However, he was dead right on the tomatoes thing?I did learn to like them when I got older�c

I only have a couple more minutes before I go to pick up Jessica.  I am going to dictate her account of her trip, if she will let me.  She had a good time, and I am anxious to share the details with you, but it will take a little time to compose.  I will also put in some funny details about our conference trip, and there WERE some, plus an account of the time we spent at Harborland in Kobe and our discovery of some local restaurants.  There is a Sizzler there.  I never thought I would look forward to eating at Sizzler.  The salad bar was amazing!  Not a single thing in sight that I could not identify!  There was also a Brazilian place that we will definitely be returning to, although the little guy who ran the place wore a rainbow clown wig and it was a bit unnerving.

Nonetheless, we remain undaunted in our effort to make ourselves into better teachers, which was our purpose for going to Kobe in the first place.  I learned some new tricks and made some new contacts.  And it was, overall, a good time.  Glad to be home, though?and get some laundry done.
I look forward to hearing from everyone (mother, are you using the pen case I sent you?) and I will write again very soon!  I send love from all to all!  Hugs and kisses, Lynley