Back to Kyushu for the Weekend

But before I get started on that, a quick link to an article at the Japan Times about how all the English teachers returned safely from the Tsunami. I've talked about this issue before, so this might be over kill, but this goes into more detail than the previous article I linked to. I like it because it confirms what I noted antidotally on this weblog, that there were a lot of English Teachers from Japan in Thailand during the holidays, and it is a miracle everyone returned safely. I also find interesting the theory that perhaps the reason no vacationing English teachers were killed is because their pursuit of sex and drugs led them away from the beaches and into the big cities.

Anyway, this Friday was a public holiday in Japan so we had a 3 day weekend. I made use of the time by going back to Oita in Kyushu for the weekend. It's only the second time I've been back since I changed jobs this September. I had originally thought I'd be back a lot more, but that was before I realized how much time and money it takes to make the trip.

It was about $300 round trip, and about 6 hours on the train. I could have probably gone cheaper and quicker if I would have bought plane tickets in advance but, typical me, I never plan ahead. In fact these long weekends always sneak up on me. One day I'm going about my normal business, and then all of a sudden I realize "There's a 3 day weekend this week and I don't have any plans."

Shoko was of course glad to see me, but because I just showed up suddenly she wasn't able to get the day off of work. At a party on Friday night I overheard her explaining the situation to another friend. "If he gives me a week or so notice, I can take a day off. But when he just calls up and says he's coming down the next day, there's not much I can do."

So well Shoko was working during the day, I did the best I could to meet up with other friends. As with my last visit down to Kyushu (see Oct. 11th blog entry) I was somewhat handicapped by the fact that I now have no car in Kyushu, but I got a few lifts from other people and it all worked out. Life was made slightly more difficult on Saturday when my cell phone got cut off because of unpaid bills, but at least people who know me are used to this kind of thing happening, and were not surprised when I started calling them from public phone booths.

It was great seeing people again, although somewhat reminiscent of my trip home during Christmas break in the sense that I felt like I just got to meet people briefly and then I had to leave again. But I plan on coming back to the area again during Spring Break.