I'm not sure if any of you have been hearing anything about the typhoons over here, but by golly are we having a lot of them. I think about 3 or 4 typhoons ago they were saying that this was a record year for the number of storms to hit Japan. Today number 23 on the year landed. You thought Florida got hit hard this year, and you'd be right, but Japan, especially the southwestern part, has been getting hit week after week since about early July.
Anyway, number 23 is making its presence known. It's been raining here for over 24 straight hours and today's school ended after 3rd period. Yazaki and I were finishing up class when the bell rang signalling the end of the period and immediately following was an announcement. Of course, it was in Japanese and I didn't understand a word but after it ended the girls all let out a cheer and seemed quite happy. "Hmm," I thought to myself, "either Brad Pitt is going to be making a school visit or school has been called early."
Turned out to be that latter and I was home by noon. Nice day to sit here with the kotatsu on (low table with a heater and blanket) and read and write and watch the news and play a video game or two. All in all a nice day if you are indoors.

Last Friday I went to school and was getting ready for class when Katsumura-sensei came over to me. "Marcus, do you know about today?" I wasn't sure if this was a trick question of which the possibilities would be limitless, so I said I didn't. "Ah. No one has told you about the schedule today?" I indicated that she was correct so she continued. "There are no junior high classes today. They are at a sports meeting. Mr Sano or Mr Koshiishi should have told you. I am sorry." As you can imagine I was not at all upset with this news. When classes are cancelled at this school I tend to do a little mental rejoicing as that means one less time I have to come up with some idea for class. This is the school where I run the show and to be honest, my ideas are getting pretty thin. Every week I walk in there wondering if the game/activity I put together either the day before or that morning is going to work. So considering that I probably have about 30 more Fridays at this school, every time I don't have classes is one less Friday where I need to come up with an idea.
So as she went on I was having a quiet little party in my head knowing that next Friday could now be covered with this Friday's activity. "But if you don't have anything to do would you please come to my 3rd period class?"
"Sure," I said, "What you wanna' do?"
She then went on to explain to me that this class consisted of 1st year high schoolers and that she'd like to sing a song and then perhaps play a couple games supplied by me. When she said "sing a song" I knew full well what she meant as I taught with this lady last year, but perhaps you, my loyal readers, need some explanation.
Katsumura likes to teach with music. She picks random songs, mostly pop tunes of different generations, whose lyrics are in English. She then prints out these lyrics and brings the cd, and the class and I then listen to the song while reading the lyrics. Then I go over the lyrics with the students repeating them after me. And after all that we then listen to the song again with some of the braver little ones singing along.
So that was the plan for this class.
"What song will we cover?" I asked.
"Hmm," she said, "It's by Queen but I can't remember the name of the song. Let me check." And she ran off to her desk.
I followed and was pleased to find out it was one of those songs by Queen that I like. Queen really was a good band and most of their songs would have been fine but this song is an especially good one, "Don't Stop Me Now."
The chorus part goes like this, "Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball. Don't stop me now, if you wanna' have a good time, just give me a call....." And it goes on with a quick beat, some images of rockets flying to the moon, racing cars zooming around, etc. All in all it is an upbeat song that celebrates the more fun times of life, albeit in that Freddy Mercury way which many of us know is extravagant and bisexual. And therein lies the problem.
As I was reading over the lyrics I noticed this, "I'm a sex machine ready to reload." Now, that isn't so bad really, but I wasn't exactly sure about how I would explain that to high schoolers. I mean "sex machine" is ok, no big deal, but "ready to reload"? How does one go about explaining multiple orgasms to 16 years olds. Especially when you know the English used is going to be new to them!
So I mentioned to Katsumura, "Hey, uh, do you know this line about the sex machine?"
But she quickly stopped me. "Ah, yes," she answered, "It's ok. They are high school students, not junior high students."
"Ok," I thought, "but this might get interesting."
In the end it all turned out ok. No one asked about the meaning of the line, although, I did see about three or four boys laughing with each other when I got to the good parts. I think they knew what "sex machine" meant but probably allowed the "ready to reload" part go over their heads.
Sure was funny, though, to have about forty 16 year old students repeating after me....
"Don't stop me now".....
.....Don't--stop--me--now
"I'm having a good time".....
.....I'm--having--a--good--time
"I'm a sex machine ready to reload".....
.....I'm--a--sex--machine--ready--to--reload

While I was writing that some announcement came on about the typhoon. Probably just a warning. I don't see anybody out there running for their lives. Sure is raining a lot. I've don't think I've ever seen rain quite as extensively as I have seen here in the last month. A few weeks ago we had three straight days of rain. Then we had rain a week and a half ago with typhoon 22. Now this. The ground is saturated and can't take anymore. I have a river running behind my apartment and a small lake has formed in the vineyard below my balcony. When it rained on me in California it would rain hard at times but never did it last this long. I mean it rains hard for a day then lets up slightly and then rains hard again for a full day again (wash, rinse, repeat). Impressive!

Speaking of typhoon 22, let me just say that my trip to Suzuka to see Formula One was a bust. One of the most disappointing times in my life. No one was shooting at me, mind you, but it still wasn't any fun at all.
Saturday was completely cancelled due to the typhoon (first time in F1 history that Saturday qualifying has been cancelled), and then Sunday was nice but was way too crowded. They sell too many tickets at that track and Amy and I couldn't find any place to sit around the entire circuit. We couldn't even find standing room with a good view. We settled for a standing spot where we could see about 80 meters of track (perhaps about a second's worth of each car going by), watched the start plus two laps and then left. It was THAT bad! I don't leave things early, especially sporting events, especially races, especially F1 which is my favorite sport of all (football is a very close second), so you know it was bad. Problem is, I know how good it can be. I've been to many races in America and never had a problem finding a place to see the track. This was just unacceptable to me. And what was really strange was that the Japanese people seemed to take it all in stride. I guarantee you that had this happened in the States, there would have been a hell of a lot of complaining and demands for refunds. Oh well, another "learning" experience, I guess.
(Note--I was going to tell you the entire sad story of my Suzuka trip in detail, but have decided that I'd rather just forget about it. That and I don't feel like getting angry again and that is what happens when I tell people about it. Trust me when I say you'd probably rather not hear about it anyway. But take it from me, if you ever go to Suzuka to see F1, fork over the $500 and buy a seat rather than the $150 for general addmission. It may be expensive but at least you'd get to see a race.)

Ok, that's all for today. Probably have to swim to work tomorrow.