So, this past week there was a bomb threat against the Mie prefectural government. I don`t know a lot of the details, because I haven`t bothered to Google. The only reason I even know about it at all is that my school is governed by the Mie Board of Education, and is therefore a prefectural property, so the teachers had to search the school for strange objects/bombs. I got the short, translated version from my supervisor, after the news was delivered by the principal, but apparently the bomber stated that the bombs would go off on February 24th at 3:34PM. That`s a strangely specific time. And there are a LOT of prefectural buildings in Mie. It`s likely this has something to do with the Summit being held in Ise in May, so there`s a chance the threat isn`t even coming from someone Japanese. I suppose it`s rather callous of me to even think about it, and shows how incredibly desensitized we`ve become as a society to such threats of violence and terrorism (or maybe it`s just me), but all that`s really going on in my mind is, "What does a bomb threat from a Japanese person even look like? I mean, the Japanese people as a culture are very formal, polite people... It must be the politest, most apologetic bomb threat ever."
For those of you who are now panicked about my safety (Yes, you, Mother), I would like to remind you all that Japan is still probably one of the safest countries in the world, and that this is a very irregular occurence. Also, I survived York University. Which sits on the Jane-Finch corner. And Disney gets a good few bomb threats that the public never really hears about (for obvious reasons). I appreciate your concern, because it means you care about me, but I`m fine. Seriously.
Today was my last day of classes for this Japanese school year. I`ll miss my first and second period classes from Friday because they were awesome, but good riddance to my fifth period class! ...Okay, I`m kidding, they`re sweet kids, but seriously, they don`t talk. Even to each other. It`s terrifying. I`d say you could hear a pin drop, but you couldn`t because the room is carpeted and that`s why they won`t let us put a heater in the room, but that`s a whole separate issue... Anyway, I thought I`d share some of my last homework gems. I`ll be getting more next week, since I only assigned it to some classes today, but I have some of the earlier ones on my desk now. So this assignment was to complete a chart in their textbooks about World Heritage Sites. They had to choose a site to research and give its name, the date it was named a Site, its location, and two facts about it. Most of the students wrote about either Mt Fuji or Himeji Castle, one class wrote almost exclusively about the monuments of Old Nara, and then I got this one: Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Good for you, kid! Branching out! Googling! One of the fact points, though, is... I`m really not sure what`s happening here:
"Pope Benedict XVI came on November 7, 2010 and held mass and I poured holy water in a temple of Confucius and did sacring, and in Sagrada Familia, it was with Bali deer."
...
Yep, just let that sink in for a minute.
What does your mental image look like? Because mine has the pope standing beside a Japanese kid (who was obviously not actually there and they`re not using the right pronoun), pouring water into a shallow metal bowl at the altar of a temple while a bunch of deer stand on either side of the temple. And they`re anthropomorphic deer, so they`re standing on their hind legs. And wearing priest robes. And holding incense sticks.
But why are the deer Balinese? And what are Balinese deer doing in Barcelona? Is there even a type of deer specific to Bali? (I Googled it - there`s no such thing as a Balinese deer. However, West Bali National Park is home to Javan Rusa and Indian Muntjac deer, and the Javan Rusa is technically native to Java, Timor, and Bali.)
Unrelated to anything else, I would like to take a moment to express how grateful I am that Japan embraces the lesser-known and not-as-popular musicals that no one likes but me. I have a love of somewhat obscure musicals. Not all of them, obviously, because some of them are obscure for a reason (they sucked) and no one should ever perform them again. But some of them are fantastic! An ad showed up on my Facebook last night out of nowhere for a revival production of Jekyll & Hyde that`s going around Japan, and I basically freaked out like the strange fangirl that I am and sent the link to Ros so that she could read it all for me. She`s going to help me buy a ticket tonight. She also found me a Japanese production of the German musical Elisabeth that`s going to happen in the summer, and I`m so stupidly excited about that. I haven`t seen a Musical That No One Likes But Mel since the London touring company of Chess came to Toronto back in (I think?) 2011. (I`m 99% sure I was the only person in the balcony who was there on purpose, and not because it was part of the subscription and therefore already paid for.) Now I just need to convince someone that people would love to see Tanz der Vampire remounted, because there are few things as entertaining as hearing Total Eclipse of the Heart in German.
(A note for the people who don`t get it but want to: The title of this post, "Tick Tick...Boom!", is the name of a musical that no one performs by the same guy who wrote Rent. So it`s a reference to the bomb, as well as an obscure musical. Get it?)
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