Summer Holidays and Weather

Nine months have passed since we moved to Japan. My goodness how time flies. The first quarter at school is nearing an end. The students will soon begin 6 weeks of summer holiday. I have been asked many times about how I will spend my holiday. Let’s see…I will be in an air-conditioned room, surfing the internet, and trying to keep from falling asleep. This is the first job where I would rather be working instead of being on holiday schedule. It used to be where a publically employed A.L.T. could enjoy the holiday, but hard economic times have changed all of that. I think it has something to do with taxpayers wondering why the A.L.T.’s aren’t preparing for the next quarter instead of taking a holiday. The logic makes economical sense, but an A.L.T. could easily get burned out. I’m just sitting back and trying to go with the flow. Hopefully, the business will someday support Erika and me so that we can schedule our own holidays.

On a different note…I’m still deciding which is worse, light rain for months on end (Seattle) or torrential rains for many weeks (Japan). In Seattle, I couldn’t stand the prospect of rain every day for most of the year. I was starting to grow webbed feet and I wanted to quack. On the other hand, the thunderstorms in Japan have been a daily occurrence, lately. I was told that this has been an unusually unstable weather pattern that we are having. Flooding at the lower elevations has caused tremendous damage and lives have been lost. In the Yufuin/ Tsukahara area, many of the roads have been damaged by landslides. The thunder from these storms is amazingly loud. The nearby lightning strikes sound as if a string of bombs are detonating in rapid succession. The ground shakes from the explosions. I have never experienced nature in such a dramatic fashion.

Kiley has always been sensitive to sounds. She trembles at the first signs of a storm approaching. Her breathing becomes labored and she can’t keep food down. We have been worried about her and we cringe every time we see clouds approaching. The fireworks season in the U.S. was a nightmare for her. We had thought that moving to Japan would have avoided this problem. I guess if it’s not one thing, it’s another.   George