Did you ever have to write one of those good news, bad news stories in elementary school? They're a lot of fun to write. Usually they are fiction, but this one isn't.

The good news is my sister is coming to visit.

The bad news is she will have to travel for exactly 24 hours on three flights to get here.

The good news is she can sleep on the airplanes.

The bad news is her airplane tickets (from Nagoya to Fukuoka and Fukuoka to Nagoya) are lost in the mail.

The good news is I sent them to her by registered mail with insurance.

The bad news is the Canadian government (along with many other national governments) is holding all incoming international mail for inspection due to a terrorist threat.

The good news is she can buy more tickets.

The bad news is it will be twice as expensive.

The good news is Phil and I got lots of time off during her visit. I only have to work a total of 8 hours during her 14 day visit!!!!

The bad news is we will have to pay it all back by working more hours next month.

The good news is we are only working part time anyways, so overtime is not a problem.

The bad news is that I was storming around the apartment today, so upset over all the bad news, that I slipped on the tatami mats and stubbed my toe, ripping my big toenail halfway down, so now I have to hobble along.

The good news is Japan is crowded with escalators and elevators so I don't have to hobble up and down stairs.

The bad news is we live on the fifth floor with no elevator or escalator in our apartment building.

The bad news is we have no bed for her to sleep on.

The good news is we borrowed an old futon from our friends.

The bad news is it is crawling with these strange-looking black bugs with long antennae!

Ha ha ha! Just kidding Britt. The bad news is Phil had to haul it halfway across town and on the subway looking like an idiot who just stole a bed.

The good news is my sister is coming to visit for 14 days!

July 23, 2004

Hello to all my friends and family,

Sorry that is has been so long since I wrote a group e-mail. Brittany, Phil and I have been very busy here in Japan. Four weeks ago Brittany phoned me and told me that she bought airplane tickets to come visit us in Fukuoka for two weeks. I was elated. I told all my students about her forthcoming visit, and asked their advice on where to take her sightseeing and which restaurants to show her. I haven't seen anybody I know (except Phil of course) for 5 months now, so when I was waiting to pick her up at the airport I had to choke back tears numerous times as I witnessed other families being reunited. I was also worried that she wouldn't arrive because she had to buy a ticket from Nagoya to Fukuoka when she arrived at the Nagoya Airport because her original one was lost in the mail. When I finally saw her I was so happy. There was so much to show her. We rode the subway to our apartment in Nishijin, Phil hauled her suitcases up the stairs to our 5th floor apartment, and we went out for a quick bite to eat. It was pork and sauce poured over a bowl of rice, with miso soup and a salad made of cabbage and corn. We walked around for a while, showing her our neighbourhood, and then we went home and talked on the balcony for a while. We made plans, and she said that just looking out our balcony was so interesting that she didn't care what else we did! We went to bed because Brittany was exhausted from her 24 hour trip. The next day Phil had to work, so Brittany and I went to Ohori Park, the Fukuoka Art Museum, and the Fukuoka Castle Ruins where we saw a beautiful view of the city. Brittany took a whole roll of film. She was absolutely amazed at everything. Then we went to Tenjin which is the centre of the city where there are skyscraper department stores. We went shopping and I showed her IMS, the 16 floor department store where I work. Then we went to Phil's Nova office, and she met some of our Nova friends and we picked up Phil for dinner.

Brittany got to spend a whole 24 hours in Japan unscathed. As we were walking down a narrow street at 10 pm on July 10th, a reckless driver hit Brittany. He swerved to miss a taxi, came close to hitting Phil, I jumped out of the way, and he knocked Brittany over. She fell directly on her forehead on the sidewalk. She was unconscious for about 30 seconds. Then she started twitching, and then she tried to run away. She had a massive bump on her head, and her eye was swollen shut. Instantly there were about 15-20 poeple around us trying to help. I called 119 (ambulance) on my cell phone and shoved the cell phone in th ear of a Japanese lady standing beside me. She must have figured out what I wanted her to do because less than 5 minutes later an ambulance showed up. All three of us piled into the ambulance, whether they wanted us to or not. We went to the Hakujyujikai Hospital. Brittany was completely disorientated. She kept asking the same questions, and forgetting the answer. She kept asking, "What happened to me?" Every time I told her she was hit by a car, she got really scared, so I quit telling her that. She kept saying, "I'm so sorry" and "Am I going to be okay?" The only thing she remembered is Phil telling her not to fall asleep, because she kept asking, "What happens if I fall asleep?" One time she told me that I have water on my shirt. Phil said, no, that's blood. Then she asked where the blood came from. Phil said her nose was bleeding a little bit. She was surprised and asked, "Really?" When we arrived at the hospital, we called our Japanese friend, Hisae, who is fluent in English. We told her everything and she told the attending ER doctor. We are so thankful for Hisae. She had a CT scan, an X-ray of her head, and an X-ray of her chest because she said her chest hurt. She didn't want to have them done because she thought they would hurt her. She was very scared and crying, but luckily she trusted me when I said repeatedly that they are only pictures and they don't hurt. I phoned mom and dad, but they were out at the cabin, so I phoned Grandma and Grandpa Pighin to go get them. When I talked to mom and dad, dad said (among other things), that he wanted an X-ray of her neck. I told the doctor to X-ray her neck and he did it within minutes. He showed me all the CT scans and X-rays, and explained everything slowly, in broken English, drawing pictures. She was put into her own room, and after 20 minutes of negotiations with the nurses, I was allowed to stay with Bittany overnight. They performed many tests. She saw two general surgeons, two plastic surgeons, a neuro surgeon, an eye specialist doctor, and a host of nurses. Her resulting injuries are: no brain injury, 7 stitches to her upper lip, bleeding in left maxilla sinus, fracture to her left orbit bone, just below her eye, her left eye was swollen shut but she can open it slightly now, and fairly minor scapes on her cheek, neck, and left shoulder. There was no hemmorage, no contusion, no skull fracture, and no brain swelling. The doctor said she did suffer a concussion because there was loss of memory and loss of consciousness for about 30 seconds. She still can't remember about 10 minutes before the accident at 10:15 pm, until about 2:00 am. The second CT scan they did the morning after was totally new to her. She forgot the first one! I guess this is totally normal because it is better for us not to remember severe accidents. I wish I could forget it. It was about 4 am when she finally remembered what we did during the day, before her accident. When she finally remembered what we did that day both of us were very relieved. I included a picture of her at the temple we visited and a picture from the top of the Fukuoka Castle Ruins, looking out over the city. The swimming pool picture was at an Elementary School, taken from her hospital room window. The last picture was given to us by the optomologist. It is a picture of Brittany's left retina. She said Brittany's eye is "very good". Now we have to go back to the hospital on Friday to have her sutures removed by the plastic surgeon, go to the police station for the third time to have Brittany give a statement (even though she remembers nothing, they need a statement to convict the driver if they find him), and we have to go to the post office to try to trace Brittany's lost airplane tickets in the mail. Overall we have been very lucky. She has traveller's medical insurance, and the Japanese government has offered to pay her medical expenses if we fill out some forms in Japanese. The Canadian Consulate in Fukuoka and in Tokyo have offered any assistance we need, including translators. Also, Nova (the company we are working for) has offered assisatnce with translating. We also have our Japanese friend, Hisae, who spent most of July 11th translating for us at the police station and the hospital. We are especially lucky that the doctors said the only long-term damage might be a thin scar on her lip. The people at the hospital treated us like gold. They tried their best to make Brittany feel at home. They even gave her a spoon instead of chopsticks, and at the end they were giving her 3 rolls instead of rice. Her final breakfast was the "Western option". It consisted of milk, 3 rolls, butter, jam, green tea, stewed cabbage with boiled hotdog chunks, and seaweed soup in a fish broth. They didn't treat me like gold though. They tried to tell me to leave both nights, but Brittany was scared to be in a foreign hospital by herself and she wanted me to stay, so I pretended I didn't understand that they wanted me to leave. Finally they gave up with the statement, "okay, no food, no bed!" as if that would deter me. The first night I got a 12" wide bench to sleep on, and the second night they gave me a second bench, but it was about 3" higher than the other one, so it wasn't very comfortable. She has been on antibiotics and pain killers. They also gave her a few days' worth of pain medication when we left the hospital so we didn't have to get a prescription filled, or pay for it. All in all, everyone has gone out of their way to help us, which is Japanese custom. Phil asked a guy on a bicycle how to get to the subway station, and he got off his bike, and walked with Phil all the way to the door! Not only that, but he kept asking Phil if his backpack was heavy! I am trying hard to think about all the people who have helped us, and not about the one bad person who drove away. We spent two days and two nights in the hospital, and then hours at two police stations, and we had to return to the hospital twice. Once to get her sutures removed and once to pick up some papers and a CD with her CAT scans on it, not to mention the hours at the travel agency trying to get new plane tickets and the hours at the Post office trying to get the insurance money for the lost tickets.

Luckily she is young and healthy, and she recovered noticeably every day. The first couple of days home she was groggy and often tired. We still saw everything on our list to see. We took a ferry to Nokonoshima Island and a ferry to Uminonakimichi Park and Marine World. We went to Momochi Beach and got nicely sunburned. We did lots of shopping, and we explored Imajuku beach and ruins. We visited the zoo and the botanical gardens. We also had some amazing dinners. We had Japanese, Korean, Sri Lankan, Indian, Thai, Western, Italian, and Okinawan food.

Now for another wedding speech: Thanks to Aunty Darlene for offering to fly with mom on the next flight to Japan when she heard of Brittany's accident. Thanks to our family doctor, Doctor Wilson for keeping up to date with Brittany's condition. Thanks to Hisae, our Japanese friend who interpreted for hours for us. Thanks to Grandma Lerum and cousin Jana for sending cards to Brittany. Thanks to mom and dad for all their support.

Aug 13, 2004

Hello! Long time no e-mail!

Anytime you want to see how hot our sauna called Fukuoka is, check out www.theweathernetwork.com Supposedly they pour more concrete and ashphalt in Japan than any other country in the world. To put that in perspective, take a look at a world map, and then figure that only 20% of Japan is habitable due to the mountainous terrain in the centres of the islands. A student told Phil that this is the reason why this summer is reaching record high temperatures. Just our luck! This black fake earth absorbs the heat in the day and releases it through the night. This week the temperature is predicted to never fall below 27 degrees! I guess this is what we humans get for thinking we know how to make our environment better than God does. Note while you are looking at that world map that Japan is on the edge of the map. I thought that this is how all maps are printed. Silly me! In Japan, maps are re-arranged so that Japan is in the centre of the world. Although to be fair, the maps I grew up with have the Queen of England in the centre of the world. I guess you view the world through your own perceptions.

Did you celebrate BC Day? We sure did! With 5,000 fireworks and 30,000 people who didn't know that they were celebrating BC Day with us. This was truly amazing. An hour and a half of constant ooohs and aahhhs, packed shoulder to shoulder. The whole time I was wondering who could possibly afford to pay for all that money to go up in smoke; meanwhile, getting very annoyed with the man holding the loudspeaker beside me. He yelled into his loudspeaker the whole time, ruining the show. Well, I was humbled to find out from my students later that the man with the loudspeaker was announcing the names of the companies who donated the fireworks!

If I told you that a big man on a Harley Davidson motorcycle, with long hair, lots of tattoos, wearing all black leather committed a serious crime in Canada, stereotypically you would probably think of the Hell's Angels. However, if you were a foreigner in Canada you might not know the stereotype. Well, it turns out that there is a stereotype in Japan as well, one that foreigners don't know until their sister gets into a hit and run accident. Now I know why the police were so quick to offer money (to pay her medical bills) to keep us happy. The only car I have seen that looks like the one I saw that night had a Mercedez Benz symbol on its hood. Ironically, it reminds me of an inverted peace symbol. Unfortunately it is impossible to know who it was or even what kind of car they were driving.

We had a good laugh over the dinner table tonight. Phil was telling me about his trip to the grocery store. He bought a dozen cans of pop. In Japan, the cashiers always tell you the price of everything as they scan it. Well, this cashier said "yon-ju yen, yon-ju yen, yon-ju yen, yon-ju yen . . ." (literal translation: four tens yen (40 yen), actual translation: 50 cents). She said "40 yen", 12 times until Phil burst out laughing at her. There are rules for everything here, and people abide by them unflinchingly. The rule is to say the price of everything as you scan it. You are not allowed to use common sense if it breaks a rule. You must say, 40 yen, as many times as is necessary. On the other hand, they run red lights all the time. The rule for traffic laws is that police officers in Japan never give way to car chases because they could hurt an innocent by-stander. Therefore, traffic laws are merely a suggestion. Every day I see motorcycles and scooters riding the shoulder or the sidewalk, passing long lines of cars stopped at traffic lights. I figure, if you're going to commit a crime in Japan, make sure that you have a getaway car and you're home free if you can get to the car and not get stuck in a traffic jam.

Today we booked a 2 1/2 hour ferry ride to Iki Island and one night in Iki Marina Hotel. This is to celebrate our first anniversary. We saved a whole 300 yen ($3.75) by buying a package deal! The package deal also got us some coupons for something, but she couldn't explain what they were for. I plan to try to give the coupons to every business, store, or restaurant we encounter on the island and see if anyone takes them. Supposedly our hotel is western style, with airconditioning, a private bathroom, and real beds (all of this is hard to find in a remote area of Japan). However, we are fully aware that the details are dependant on how well the travel agent really understood English. We did see a picture of the hotel on their homepage on the internet and it looks nice. One of my students just returned from a vacation to Iki (unfortunately pronounced "icky") Island, and she raved about the beautiful beaches and backed it up with amazing photos. Some of my students say that Iki is boring, but that is exactly what we are looking for. Our travel guide book says that the only things to see on the island are a beautiful view and some "monkey men" carved in stone by an ancient lord of the island. Wow! Haven't you always wanted to see monkey men carved by an ancient lord for your first anniversary? (Sorry about the sarcasm; I need to stay positive somehow, and recently it has been by finding the humour in things). Some peace and quiet would be a welcome relief anyways. Look for the pictures on e-mail or on the website sometime after August 23rd. By the way, there are some new pics on the website of Phil's baseball game if you haven't checked them out already. http://web.unbc.ca/~jonesp/main.php

After everything that we have endured with these stupid lost airline tickets, it hasn't ended yet. A week ago I received in the mail a form to fill out and a duplicate one completely filled out with "example" written across the top. Why I couldn't have just signed the "example" instead of filling out the same information again, I don't know. I complied, and hand-delivered it that same day. On Tuesday we received two letters in our mailbox, written in Japanese (the kind of writing that Phil can't read) from the post office. I put them in my purse with the intention of getting them translated. On Wednesday I went to the post office to send some mail. When I walked in the door all the staff turned their attention to me within minutes. They called the boss over and he started blabbing to me in Japanese at an alarming rate of speed. One lady was madly flipping through her Japanese-English dictionary and coming up with such useful words as "mail", "lost tickets", and "refund" as if I didn't know that was what we were talking about. He was quickly pointing at Japanese words written in my binder (yes, they have a whole binder for me at the local post office). I recognized many of the papers from our previous correspondences. Finally the lady found the word "letters" in her dictionary and said the word like a question, so I produced the letters from my purse. They were very happy with this until I pointed at the letters and said, "Wakari-massen", which means, I don't understand. They kept talking at me, and I kept on saying "Wakari-massen". Finally I got frusterated and phoned Phil, who came to my rescue. They asked him "Annata-wa nihongo hanashi mass-ka?" Which means, "Do you speak Japanese?" He replied, "sukoshi", which means "a little". Well, then they bombarded him instead of me. Finally they produced the lost tickets, which, if they had produced them in the first place it would have put the whole conversation into perspective. Now I was really mad. I knew that the tickets were only insured for loss or damage. Now that they had found the tickets, not damaged and not lost, but two months late, we wouldn't get any insurance money. In compensation, I think that we will only get the price of the original postage refunded. However, we haven't even received that yet. Now we have to go to the airport and apply for refunds from the airlines. To top it all off, guess what I found in the mailbox tonight? A business card with writing on the back. It says, in English, "My name is Komiya (Nishijin post office) Prease write a bill (payment)". That is exactly to the letter what it says. What do you think it means? Arrrgh! I got the letters translated by a Japanese staff lady who works for Nova. The letter is written by the boss at the post office. He says repeatedly that he is terribly sorry that he can't speak English to me. It also says that they found the lost tickets and to please come pick them up at the post office. Moreover, he requests that I bring a translator with me when I come, which must be who he thought Phil was!

Remember, Shay, that you are growing stronger with each new experience!

Aug 19, 2004

Hello,

Well, we have almost finished our first 6 months working for Nova. Our working holiday visas will expire soon, and we have new full-time work visas. We also have new contracts that start September first. We will both be changing schools. I will go to Hakata You Me Town. That is good because I will get to teach lots of kids, but bad because I will have to take a 15 minute subway ride plus a 15 minute bus ride to get to work. The travel expenses are paid for by the company but my travel time is not. Phil will go to Meinohama. He is excited about that because it is only a 8 minute subway ride and the school is right in the subway station. He will also get to teach lots of kids. With our new contracts we also get 10 days of paid vacation, whenever we want to book them. On top of that we get time off with pay at New Year's from approximately December 28th to January 6th. So if we use 3 of our paid holidays plus the New Year's vacation plus our regular weekends off we can have a 17 day paid holiday for Christmas and New Year's. Phil and I are negotiating right now as to what country we will spend those days in. What was really important to us regarding our new contracts was that we would get the same days off, and we did. Here is our schedule in case you want to get a hold of us by telephone or MSN messenger:

Saturday Shay 1:20 pm - 9 pm, Phil 11:40 am - 7:20 pm

Sunday Shay and Phil 11:40 am - 7:00 pm

Monday Shay and Phil 1:20 pm to 9 pm

Tuesday Shay and Phil 10 am - 5:40 pm

Wednesday Shay 11:40 am - 7:20 pm, Phil 10 am - 5:40 pm

Thursday Shay and Phil off

Friday Shay and Phil off

We are happy with this schedule. We are very happy to have the same days off, and we have almost the same shifts. We each get $125 a month more for working on Sundays. Phil gets an extra $60 a month for working one late shift (1:20 - 9 pm) a week and I get an extra $120 a month for working two late shifts a week. We requested to have the same days off, to work with kids, to work on Sundays, and to work some late shifts. All these requests were met by Nova.

In summary, we are happy to start making some real money!

Aug 29, 2004

I am sitting at the computer desk in out living room, and the whole building is shaking. My glass of water is shaking. This is strange. I can't decide if I'm scared or excited. The rain is coming down in sheets and flooding the streets. I can hear thunder cracking and the lightning brightens the room. This is by far the biggest storm I have ever experienced. We are listening to the only partially English radio station we can find. Every half an hour they tell us all the train, subway, bus routes, freeways, expressways, and highways that are closed. They call it "Typhoon #16", but I don't know how they count them because we have only caught the tail end of one since we arrived. This one is bigger than Kyushu (our island). The radio just said that it is 26 degrees, the typhoon is moving at 25 km/hr, and please don't move or touch any downed power lines. Luckily this one didn't take us by surprise. Many of my students have been warning me about it for two days now. We have stockpiled food, water, and movies. We even have a flashlight and batteries in case the power goes out. We heat water and cook using gas, but our airconditioners and fridge are on electricity. We had Phil's cousin and his girlfriend visiting us for the past 5 days, but they left last night. A few more hours and their busses and trains would have been cancelled. They were lucky to leave when they did.

Yesterday Phil and Shawn went to the Dazaifu Shrine. There just happened to be a sumo wrestling contest there, so Shawn took 195 pictures! I'll get Phil to send some on e-mail or put some on the website soon. He has them on CD right now. I got reprints of some of their pictures from their 3 day trip here. Himeji Castle looks amazing. We really want to go there now. I am getting behind on my scrapbooking so I'll have to get serious about catching up.

I'll try to keep you updated on the typhoon situation. Don't worry mom. We'll be safe. Only one person has died from a typhoon here in years, and that was because a subway station flooded. So now they are extra careful and they close the subway at the first sign of trouble. Also, we are on high ground. Many areas of the city are much lower than our area. We do have a river close by, but we are on the 5th floor of our building. Even though our building is shaking, I figure that it was here and it survived typhoons long before I ever came to Japan. I'll just stay inside.

Sept. 3, 2004

Well, the Japanese Olympics are now over. I'm glad because Phil is no longer glued to the tv due to a lack of sports in his life. Now he only watches it based on the schedule of the world cup of hockey. I am learning so much here in Japan. I used to think that the Olympics were a worldwide competition between hundreds of countries in countless sports. Now that I have seen the Japanese coverage of the Olympics I know differently. The Olympics are actually an event wherein other countries compete against Japanese athletes in only a few sports. Based on the Olympic television coverage that we saw, and speaking to our students, there are only a few sports. Mainly, they are the ones that the Japanese are best at. Judo competitions account for approximately half of all the Olympics. The other half is comprised of ping-pong, swimming, gymnastics, and a few other minor sports. Every medal presentation included at least one Japanese person receiving a medal. As far as I can tell, Japan received over one-third of all medals that were awarded. Not only that, but as soon as the Japanese competitior lost their match, the competition was over and they quit playing. I saw interviews with many Japanese athletes, their friends and families, and even interviews with the Japanese fans. On that note, the tv showed that about 75% of the fans in all the stadiums were Japanese. It showed a close-up of Japanese fans waving Japanese flags, and then they backed up to show the entire stadium so that you couldn't see any individual people, and then they zoomed in again to show another group of Japanese fans in the stands. It's too bad that Canada and the United States only sent a couple of athletes to compete, and they all competed against the Japanese. In between matches we got coverage of all the background history of all the Japanese athletes. "This is Yuuske. He arrived at the stadium at 9:30 am this morning. He arrived an hour and a half early for his match. His coach, Takafumi, arrived with him this morning. Here is Yuuske putting his shoes on. This is a picture of his house in Japan. Here are his wife and children. Don't they look happy?" Last night's news had a segment on the 15 year old Japanese ping-pong player who went to the Olympics. They showed her house, her school, her sitting in her desk, and they even had a close-up of what she was carrying in her book bag! Phil and I couldn't believe it. How was your coverage of the Olympics? Undoubtedly different than mine.

Sept. 5, 2004

I am finally teaching kids at my new school. Today I taught a little five year old boy how to print his name in English. He copied my letters, but his S was backwards. I smiled to myself. It was his very first English lesson. Before the lesson I walked up to him and said, "hello" and he replied, "hello". I was thinking, good, at least he talks and he understands hello. It turns out that he didn't understand hello, or anything I said to him. He was only repeating me. Next I said, "My name is Shay" and he repeated me, "My name is Shay". I said, "No, your name is Toshikhiro", and he repeated me again. He even emphasized the YOUR part, perfectly, just like I had done. So I tried pointing to myself and saying "Sensai Shay" which means teacher Shay. Of course, he immediately repeated, "Sensai Shay. I pointed to him and said, "My name is Toshikhiro" and he repeated me again, but at least he got it right. Then I muttered to myself, "Darn it!" and he muttered to himself, exactly as I had done, "Darn it!". He even turned his face away slightly, just like I had done. Very smart kid! It was then that I realized that I was teaching him a lot more than I thought I was. Luckily he was eager to learn. I taught him how to count to 10, put the 1 - 10 flashcards in order after I mixed them up, point to the right card when I said the number, and say the number when I pointed to the card. I got him to match the flashcard with one circle on it to the number 1 flashcardcard, the flashcard with two circles on it to the number 2 flashcard, etc. By the end of the 40 minute class he could sing his abc's while I pointed to the letters, understand numbers up to ten, and write his name. I think it was the most successful class I've ever had. In the end we did some colouring and I made him ask for crayons by saying their colour. I taught him the names of the 5 colours we had, and when he said, "green", I gave him green, until we used all the crayons. I am very glad to be teaching kids . . . finally. At my new school I teach 5 kids classes a week. They are 40 minutes each, just like the adult lessons except we sit on the floor of a bigger room with supplies like a whiteboard, crayons, a big soft ball, scissors, glue, paper, tonnes of flashcards, and teaching posters. I am doing what I want to be doing, 40 minutes a day. I guess I'm making progress.