No Joker, Just Thief. And Things Exploding.

As many of you know, this weekend started out pretty awful for me on Friday night when I discovered that no, my iPod had not just been misplaced, it had been stolen.  I'd been missing it for at least a week and a half, when I wanted to grab it for a walk to the store and it wasn't where I thought it was, but I misplace things all the time (most often, my glasses), so that's not actually that weird.  Friday night it was irritating me, so I decided I was going to go through everything and figure out where this thing was.  Well, when I did that, I discovered that the DS games in the travel case in my closet were also gone.  So I'm not actually sure when my place was broken into.  There's a game in progress on my DS already, so I haven't touched those cartridges since I got here, or I would have noticed a lot sooner.  Naturally, I was fairly upset, talked to my supervisor, and we decided to go to the police on Saturday morning.

Now, I figured: it's been possibly almost two weeks, there's obviously not a lot they can do at this point, so we'll sit down with an officer and do up a report and that's going to be the end of it, right?  Nope!  We went down to the station, they took down the information, and said a couple officers would be by to check my place out.  So my supervisor and I are imagining a couple uniformed officers comine to look at my doors and windows, right?  (Already more than I really thought would happen.)  Nope again!  Two plain-clothes guys with briefcases and bags show up, show me their badges when I open the door (just like in the movies), and proceed with the statement-taking, fingerprinting, and taking photos of things with number cards beside them.  Full-on CSI.  It made me feel a lot better about the whole situation!  Not in a "Wow, I'm totally going to get my stuff back," kind of way, but in a, "This is wildly amusing and I'm waiting for the theme music to start," kind of way.  Oh well.  Looks like now my chances of beating the water temple in Ocarina of Time are.... a longshot.

For those who don't get it: It's a pun.  The dungeon item for the water temple is called a longshot.  And you've just ruined the joke because I had to explain it.

By the time the police were done, I'd missed the train I was supposed to take to go to Ise with everyone, but my supervisor offered to drop me off at the station so that I could catch the next train and meet up with them quickly.  But when I got to the ticket machine at the train station, I realized I'd taken the bag with my wallet out of my purse because the police needed my inkan (personal stamp, like an official signature in Japan) and that it was still sitting on my living room floor.  So by the time I walked back home to get that, I've now missed the second train, and I'm hot and tired.  So forget trying to get there to see the temple.  The temple's not going anywhere anytime soon, I'll just go see it another day.  I decided to just wait until later in the afternoon and go to meet up with them for fireworks in the evening.

I managed to actually do this (go me!).   The Ise summer fireworks are one of the three best displays in Japan.  Normally they take place in July, but due to typhoons they were postponed, so I got to see them!  They were absolutely fabulous, and I wish my pictures did them justice.

Our fabulous spot on the riverfront.

 

One of the guys brought his three-year old daughter with us, and her reactions were probably just as much, if not more, fun as the fireworks themselves.  Also, the Japanese seem to view fireworks the same way they do everything else: in relative silence.  Naturally, we were that loud group of foreigners.  No one seemed to really mind that much, though (not like they do on the trains), so we continued to be ourselves throughout the spectacle.

Sunday I did nothing.  I maybe read a book, but I'm not even sure I did that.

Monday morning we phoned to have my locks changed.  It was also my first day of real classes, wherein I teach children actual things rather than just fun games and slideshows about me.  I think it went fairly well.  There were some struggles, but I expect that everywhere.  I also went for my doctor's appointment.  The electrocardiogram was, in fact, false results due to my anxiety in the original test, so that was fine.  However, I was told that I am fat, and need to diet and exercise.  You should all be proud that I managed to smile and nod and not punch anyone in the face or solar plexus.

Today was my first day at the special needs school; I was teaching Junior High School.  The kids were all great (I had one class of each grade, and my largest class was five students).  There's one kid in each class that is noticeably better at English than the others.  Automatically that student is my favourite in the class.  The English teacher for JHS level classes is really nice, too.  I think I'm going to let her keep planning the lessons for a little while before adding in any of my own material.  Working with each school level, I only see the kids once a month, so it's hard to get a good grasp of where their English skills are actually at.  I also met the Elementary level English teacher, who's really sweet and went over her lesson plans with me.  I get to sing ABCs and Head and Shoulders!  Yay!

The End.