Hmmmm......I was supposed to be at Shizen Gakuen today, but here I find myself in the Kencho, yet again! How did this happen?
Last night Yamanashi, or the western and central parts of it, were hit with a typhoon. Not a direct hit, but a glancing blow. Enough to upset the delicate balance that makes up any mass transit system. Throw one train out of whack the rest are too.
The typhoon wasn't as bad as I was hoping for. Not that I like the destruction of lives and homes, but I do like bad weather. I like the excitement it brings, the unpredictablilty, the break from monotony, the feeling that tomorrow you'll wake up and things might not go according to plan. And that's pretty much what happened in spite of the fact that nothing more than my satillite reception seemed affected last night.
This morning I rose at six and got ready to go to 'the little school that could', aka. Shizen Gakuen. You might remember this school from past tales like 'It takes me two hours to get there' and 'Hello.....two students'. Yes, this is the small school up the hills where even the crows don't go.
Anyway, I got on my bike at 655am and made my way to the train station. My train leaves at 721 and I was there with 5 minutes to spare. So I bought my ticket, noticed a man in a JR (Japanese Railroads) uniform making some announcement and went down to the platform. It did cross my mind that the announcement man might have been informing patrons of delays, but as it seemed like a nice morning with only wet pavement to show for the storm, I didn't think too much of it.
Well, at 721 I was still standing on the platform with no train in sight. So I figured it would be a minute or two but no more. But my optmism soon left as 725 came and went. You see, the bus at the end of my train ride leaves at 740 and the train ride to get there is about 15 minutes. But while all these time tables were running through my head so was the one that said, 'Well, if the trains are late perhaps the busses are too.'
At 732 my train arrived and at 735 we left the station. I wasn't too sure what would or wouldn't be awaiting me on the other end but as there was nothing I could do about it, I wasn't too worried about what might happen.
We got to Nirasaki at 750 and I went down to see if the bus was waiting. But it wasn't. So I waited thinking that maybe it was late. But after ten minutes I knew it wasn't coming cause it had already been there. So I checked the train schedule for a ride back to Kofu and found that one was leaving in ten minutes, if they were on schedule yet.
There is no taking the next bus because the next bus doesn't leave for until 920. And even if I did take it I'd probably still be screwed because I have another bus to catch about 45 minutes up the mountain. And I have no idea about the times for those busses (really large vans) as I always catch the same one and the town up there is nothing more than a few buildings next to a dam.
I had thought about taking a taxi like I did that time I forgot my wallet, but as this wasn't my doing and I wasn't sure if I'd be reimbursed the 80 bucks I decided that I'd just go back to the Kencho and tell them what happened. So I did.
I got to the Kencho at 835, just five minutes after my usual Kencho arrival time, unfortunately, and told them what happened. Goto-san called the school and told them what happened and that was that. Here I am. Kind of a drag, but what can you do? At least we had some wind and rain last night.

Tomoko has backed out of our Fuji trip. I'll get her yet. She's the same girl that didn't come to the Ichikawa fireworks festival a few weeks ago. Her number is up.
But the rest of us are still going. Have to take a bus instead, but we are going. You'll see pictures here next week.

Kaio and Taka are doing fine. They definitely have different 'personalities' (animalalities?). Kaio tends to freeze hoping I won't see him when I come close and tends to stay up on the rock. He's the couch potato of the two. Taka is all over the place and although braver about exploring his roughly 18 by 10 inch home, he has no qualms about diving into the water and trying to swim away when I approach.
I have begun to think about the winter though. When I got them I hadn't even considered cold-blooded creatures in my apartment and how winter might affect them. Dobe and Ares, as warm blooded mammals, seemed capable of maintaining their core temperatures throughout the winters without too much outside help. But, then again, they never had to contend with inside apartment temperatures where you could see your breath. I'm afraid that Kaio and Taka have no system for maintaining core temperatures and that this winter might freeze them.
So I've decided that I'll have to hit a pet store and get some sort of heating device for them. I remember that fish aquariums have heaters so I assume the same sort of thing exists for turtle aquariums. Can't let the boys (not sure if they are, in fact, boys) freeze.
I've also decided that cleaning their water every 24 hours is going to get old very fast. I did it Sunday, I did it yesterday, and I expect to have to do it tonight as well. Turtles need land and water so you tend to keep the water level quite low which means less water gets dirty very fast. So a filtering system it is.
Also might have to upgrade the food quality. Who wants to eat pellets everyday? Perhaps some nice shrimp meal or something of that nature is in order.
Anyway, I didn't have much to spend money on. Just loans and a credit card bill and a little rent and some bills and travel and food and drink and sometimes Amy and now.....two turtles. But boy are they good-looking little buggers!