Last week's adventures were overshadowed somewhat by Wednesday's Typhoon which hit Tokyo in the early afternoon and didn't let up until about 7 in the evening. Another new experience for me - but perhaps the first not entirely welcome one. It wasn't because I felt I was in any real danger - quite the opposite. I was tucked away (read 'stuck') on the Tokyo tube for 4 hours. Just after I got on and the train started moving, everything ground to a halt. All I had in my bag was my Japanese study book, a pen, and a notebook.
Let's just say I have now finally mastered Katakana. And a new grammatical structure. AND about 50 new vocabulary words. For all the good they have done me this week - those new things have been subsumed into the general 'awful Japanese spoken by Laura' club. Now I just have more choice of things to get wrong!
That afternoon the headmistress of Tamaplaza Nozomi (nursery) had very kindly told me to go home before 4pm because the Typhoon was causing mayhem on public transport. But I was sad - I was just starting to have LOADS of fun playing with super cute super sweet, super well-behaved kids. The ridiculous education department apron I had come to love over the previous 24 hours had to come off
the flowers I was making for the following week's festival had to be packed up
and off I had to go to a windy, rainy, packed train station to try to get home from about as far away from my house it's possible to get in Tokyo.
I got home at 10pm. I set off at 4. But, judging from the TV reports it could have been a lot worse. And I got to have cake for dinner.
The bright side showed itself the following day though, when, Typhoon over and transport resumed to its usual super efficient norm, I not only got to do fun storytelling to a very polite - if not technically rapt - audience, I also learned a Japanese song and made three new friends, who all decided to draw pictures of me.
Can't complain!
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