Today, Or How I Ended Up Getting The School A Second Pool

…not really.  But I did drag in so much water this morning it looked like I had.

It’s been a while, hasn’t it – sorry!  Everything has been either crazily busy or a precious bit of downtime I’ve taken full advantage of.  Today marks almost the end of my second week of school, though, and life is becoming a routine instead of a series of minor panics.  This post is going to be devoted to today’s crazy, and if my motivation doesn’t run off on me, next will be updates on my school, apartment, and general life.  がんばろう！

So…today’s crazy.

The weather in Gifu, when I got here, was in the upper 90s with nigh on 60% humidity – not exactly the most welcoming climate, and we quickly learned the reason for the shelves and shelves of cute waterbottles in Japanese department stores.  The temperature, after a baking two weeks or so, has dropped into the mid/low 80s- and the rain has made it’s way over the mountains and is now desperately trying to make up for those two weeks of baking hell.  There was a typhoon last week; this week, the forecast called for only a minor thunderstorm, and it wasn’t supposed to really start until 9AM today, at which time I would be safely at work.

Forecast fail.

Three minutes into my twenty-minute ride around mountains and over bridges to my little inaka school, the heavens OPEN, and me in my Japanese-sized kappa (plastic rain poncho) which doesn’t cover my legs, feet, or head fully.  Despite pedaling as fast as I could, by the time I got to school my shoes were full of water, I was soaked clear through to the skin, and the Japanese weather gods had been cursed every which way from Friday.  The clothes I’d brought tucked inside two plastic bags were damp, but wearable, and luckily my pants were long enough to cover up the fact that I went barefoot - because wringing out my socks would easily have filled a good-sized water glass.   

The staff and students have made a sort of guessing game, trying to figure out what method I took to school that day – I’m usually greeted with either 「自転車？」 “Bicycle?” or 「バスで？」 “By bus?” depending on the weather.  The day of the aforementioned typhoon, I took the bus. 

As I in came the door, dripping and fuming, a student coming in at the same time caught my eye and asked “チャリ？” (Bicycle today?)  I answered affirmatively, and his only response was a rather matter-of-fact “Poor thing.” （かわいそう） The response from the teachers’ room was much the same – a few gasps when I shuffled in through the door, dripping from every hair and hem, and quietly, from the back of the room, a tentative “So, by bicycle then…?”

Yes, sensei.  Right in one.