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19910212 Tuesday (blue aerogramme)

Last week the first warm breeze of spring blew up from the south. It felt great. It still seems cold, even though I'm warmer than when fall first descended. My fingertips aren't icy anymore. But I've been cold for so long, that as warm as it is, I still think it's cold.

Things change, even in backwards Beppu. Joseph, remember that huge, rusty building near downtown Kamegawa that used to be a theater (I took your picture in front of it). Well, they tore it down. And in the Oita Tokiwa, they now have the escalator announcements alternating in Japanese and English. Now that I can understand what they're saying, they're really annoying. "Please step between the yellow lines when boarding the escalator and hold onto the red handrail. It is dangerous to push baby carriages onto the escalator. Please use the elevator. If you have children with you, please hold their hands. Smoking is prohibited by law in this store. Please smoke in the lobby areas. " Hard to believe the part about smoking, huh?

Negoro-san's father has been in the hospital for over a month. He is so old that it seems only a matter of time before he dies. I don't know what's wrong with him. From what I can decipher of Negoro-san's explanations, he's genki, but he can't eat and he's been on IVs all this time.

The three remaining kittens are well on their way to being big fat cats. Negoro-san bought collars and bells for them, and they make a constant racket running up and down the hall. I've never seen their mother, the whiney cat, again.

Roxanne will be going back to Arizona on Sunday. She's very, very, very happy. My two third-year students, Aya and Yukiko, graduate this month. It will be difficult to enjoy school without them; things won't be the same. I think that's the hard part about being a teacher, watching students grow up and go away. I hope you have a chance sometime to visit Travis Heights shogakko and say hello to Mr. White and your music teacher (sorry, I forgot her name). I'm sure that they'd be interested in knowing how you are progressing.

Wednesday: I received your packet with the newspaper clippings and the cassette today and an order of books from Daedalus. I guess this is all my mail for the month; it's overwhelming to receive it at once. I listened to the cassette right away in the staff room. I enjoyed it very much. I want to comment on it in detail, but that will require listening to it again and writing a new letter. One thing that struck me as very funny is that Joseph would say something, I would think of a pun or a smart aleck remark, and then Gene would say what I was thinking. I think that despite our separate lives, that we share a strong family identity.

Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
October 19, 2004

Comments

I haven't posted anything to nipponDAZE in a long time. The site needs an overhaul and I'm involved in other things at the moment. The longer I put it off, the harder it is to go back to it. Also I realize that the comments are working only sporadically. I've started attacking the problem by updating the links. People have moved home. New people are arriving in Japan. There is always more to read and study and write and photograph than I have energy for. But even a snail gets along.

Comment by: mss. Posted October 19, 2004 02:28 PM.

Your nipponDAZE website has been featured in "Guidebook to Japan: What the other guidebooks won't tell you" (everything from how to get to a naked festival to how to avoid Japanese gangsters), second edition You’ll find your link on page 194. The e-book version is available on my site at the One Dollar Book Store at http://www.mooooshop.com/MooooBooks/order The print version will be out sometime before Christmas. "Guidebook to Japan” does not just list urls, but rather highlights two urls per topic in the book. Yours was chosen over hundreds of others for its uniqueness and relevancy to topics covered in the "Teaching in Japan" section. And thanks for all the hard work on your website! I spent months surfing the net for the best urls on Japan and the decision on which urls to include in the book was very difficult. I hope the inclusion of your url in my book will help spread the word about you and your nipponDAZE website. Thanks again, Amy Chavez http://www.amychavez.com Dollar Books on Japan http://www.mooooshop.com/MooooBooks/order

Comment by: Amy. Posted October 21, 2004 01:39 AM.

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