I don't wish to be melodramtic here but I almost died the other evening. Or I think I did. Hell, I don't know, maybe it would have just hurt real bad. Or maybe I would have been in a coma for a few days. Or maybe I would have just lost my memory. Or maybe.....I would have attained supernatural powers and could then dress up in tights and be called Electricman.
Ok ok, here's what happened.
I have a new neighbor named Matt. He's from England. He has just moved into my building because he has taken Robin's job and is now our prefectural advisor (so far he hasn't advised me about anything). Anyway, he and I were attempting to put up his satellite dish after work on Friday.
During our endevour which included powertools, taking measurements, and generally all the things that real men enjoy (yes, we had beer too) the clouds started to thicken and the sky got darker. To the south of us we then noticed that lightning was coming in. Of course, I like these sorts of things; good weather all the time, like what you get in Bakersfield, CA , is quite boring. In fact, if it rains, I feel a much higher desire to go running than I do in sunny weather. Call me crazy.
Anyway, we were working on getting the satellite dish to work for us as this thunderstorm was rolling towards us. I was doing the counting of the seconds between flash and sound (5 seconds to a mile if memory serves) and thereby gauging the riskiness of our project. At first the thing was way off and I judged there to be no risk at all--15 to 20 seconds at this point. But it was getting closer and our task was one of those where you are constatnly thinking that you are just about done. We couldn't get reception for some reason and just kept trying different angles, different settings, etc.
So eventually I got the bright idea of moving his dish clear of the trees and wires, which, I thought, might be causing some interference. Matt lives on the second floor. Ben and I live up on the fourth. So my idea was to mount his dish up on Ben's railing and run the wire down to his place (wire wouldn't reach my railing), thereby clearing any potential obstructions. So we go up there and are mounting this thing as the storm moves closer--10 to 15 seconds--risk factor very low.
Eventually we get thing mounted and Matt runs down to his place as I stand on Ben's balcony adjusting the thing to see if we could reception. But for some reason it just wasn't working. We tried many many things and could not get it to work. This, for me, was very frustrating as last year I mounted my own, Amy's and Dilek's and, up to this date, had a 100% success rate. So we start troubleshooting as the storm moves closer--5 to 10 seconds--risk factor getting there but still low.
We then attached his wire to my system to make sure it worked, we attched his system to Ben's dish to see if that worked, and through it all we couldn't figure out which part of it wasn't working....and the storm moved closer--4 to 8 seconds--risk factor rising.
After making sure the wire worked we were then going to see if we could somehow attach my dish, without moving it, to his system to see if that would work. The wire was long and perhaps it might just reach. So I pulled the wire tight trying to get every possible inch out of it but it was about two and half feet too short. So Matt and I were contemplating our next move with the storm 2 to 4 seconds off--risk factor very high!--and I was out on my balcony with wire in one hand, beer behind me, and BANG! There were no seconds between the flash and the sound. And I felt a shock in my left hand (the free hand which was close to, but not on, the metal railing). It wasn't all that strong a shock, perhaps only about 3 times the force you feel when your friend rubs his feet on a new carpet and then touches you, but between the flash, the noise and the little shock I felt, I yelled out to Matt, "That's it! I'm done out here!" And we met at Ben's place to have a beer and watch the storm.
I'm not sure what the lightning hit; could have been the building, the ground near us, a telephone pole, a tree, I don't know. But I do that some little part of it got me. Granted it was a very small part of it but I know what I felt and I'd prefer not to get so close again. I think next time a lightning storm comes around I'll stay inside.
And no, I didn't receive any superpowers until later in the night after a few more beers.

Saturday night was the Ichikawa (Amy's town) fireworks festival. Trust me when I say you've never seen fireworks like these. The show went on for and hour and a half. All kinds of fireworks of all colors in a show that puts every other fireworks display I've seen in my life (including on tv) to shame. I can never watch fireworks again.
Unfortunately, it was raining the entire time. But through a series of events that I won't describe here (my Japanese harem of three stood me up), I was wet anyway and the rain really never bothered me. I just stayed soaked the whole time and actually enjoyed not being burdened with having to hold an umbrella.
Many of the new JETs were there and I met a few of them, plus got to see a few that I met the weekend before, and there were also a few of us more experienced JETs. It was fun but probably would have been better without all the rain (and getting so rudely stood up).

Ok, I'm done here for the day.