The mountains have disappeared tonight, hidden by a fine mist of rain. On fine nights they can be seen, darker than the indigo sky, as inky black shadows on the horizon. One to the northeast is nicknamed “The Buddha’s Face”, or something similar, because it resembles the profile of a reclining man tilting his face up to the sky. As I walked home from work across the Kunibiki Bridge, I watched two young women sauntering together in front of me. Their cheap, rain-streaked, transparent umbrellas caught the headlights of passing cars, looking for all the world like jellyfish in a gentle current as they bobbed and swayed. I was relieved the rain had let up; this morning on my way to work, I was deafened by the drumming of the raindrops on my umbrella, and my shoes and pantlegs were soaked by the time I got to work. Taeko and I have been joking about wearing swimsuits to the office. Seiji’s been worried about flooding like last year’s. I’ve seen pictures of the floods. Waist-deep water swirled through Yusemiya and near SATY, and the homes in the western part of town were similarly afflicted. Kaya was flooded; Seiji said he cleaned it by himself because he didn’t want his friends to see Kaya so dirty.

 

I’ve been keeping an eye out for scary or oversized insects recently. The spiders are beginning to reach prodigious sizes. Back in April, a spider’s nest hatched outside on the window ledge and about a dozen baby spiders made their way inside to decorate my window with their first tremulous webs. I left them to it, or destroyed the webs if they were in my way but let the spiders live, because I had been given to understand that in the summer there would be lots of troublesome insects to deal with. The spiders are like my personal army. They can eat all the bugs they want. I don’t think they eat cockroaches though. I have not yet seen a full-sized cockroach, and I really don’t want to. Apparently they’re extremely fast…

 

I’ve made a number of new friends and acquaintances lately. The two newest gaijin friends are Martin and Jennifer. Martin Swift is an Icelander teaching English for a private kid’s school. He’s got a plummy British accent, is very outgoing, and likes to talk philosophy while drunk. I like him a lot. He got here in February, but I only met him for the first time in June. Jennifer is a very tall girl who just started working for Geos, one of our main competitors about a month ago. She’s from Oregon, loves Japanese animation, and sometimes comes across as very silly. I brought her to ARGO when I first met her, because she’s a vegan. Being a vegan is a serious problem in Japan, so I thought Cleve, who is also a vegan and has been here five years, could help her. Now she thinks he’s ‘supercute’, and keeps trying to find out if he has a girlfriend. Obviously, Cleve hasn’t been deported yet after his ill-fated party, but he’s got tons of paperwork and hoops to jump through before he’s in the clear. He got a visit from the local Immigration officers recently; they flashed their badges like cops from ‘Law and Order’. But ARGO’s doing well, and he’s selling some cool clothes.

 

Thanks to the folks who asked after me when the earthquake hit Niigata. I’m way down the coast from Niigata, and Japan is a long, long island. I didn’t even feel it. But people have helpfully informed me that Matsue did have a magnitude 6.0 earthquake a few years ago. And I am frequently reminded that the earth is not steady here. I have often felt a very gentle shuddering in the earth, sometimes for many minutes at a time. Local Japanese are so used to it, they don’t notice it. Or I’m more paranoid about earthquakes than I think I am. I asked Seiji what I should do if there is an earthquake. He gave me two pieces of advice:

1)      turn off the gas.

2)      Go outside.

That’s it? That’s all? I do have a highly detailed map, dropped into my mailbox one day, that shows where all the Refuges are, in case of an emergency (one is the gymnasium in Kita Park, about five minutes from my house).

 

Seiji’s birthday party was last Saturday, but there was a typhoon warning (the typhoon didn’t amount to much, though; some winds and rain, but nothing spectacular) so about twelve of us gathered at Kaya. I paced myself with a few Guinness, but after ARGO closed Cleve came by and bought a round of shots, then a glass of scotch for me. So much for pacing. Seiji, Martin and I stayed up until 3 talking philosophy; not really something I’m known to excel at. Yukiko and Kei gave Seiji a new yukata, a man’s yukata in indigo and white. Very nice. I took Seiji out for dinner the next day.

 

Seiji and I are both on the translation committee for the Yakumo International Theatre Festival, happening in November of this year. (Note to self: study more Japanese…). A group from the Stephenville Festival is coming, including Julia Moore, so I will see a couple of familiar faces then. (Everybody, sing a round of “It’s a Small World After All”!). I just couldn’t stay away. I’ll probably help with technical stuff and make English announcements in the theatre. The theatre’s small but lovely; the festival is using a larger theatre nearby as well.

 

That’s a little news, but I gotta run. Talk to you all again soon!

 

Sarah