| Farewell to my friends: IT's finished. I've returned from Japan. This pic was my byebye-bash #1 (there were 2). I've also got some new photos with the new logues. Ummm. I just have no words now. August 10 | |
| Finally I have a picture of Seiko. Finally! She's on the right, and the two at left are my students Ms. Yokoro and Mr. Doi. Um. In addition, new pictures are at the extension album, they are just photos of the river areas. Because I like them. | |
This is a neighborhood potluck. Left to Right, this is Ana (US/Spain), Charissa (Wales, UK), and Andrea (US/Mexico). As you can guess, potluck season is pretty much over. Ana is the only one of us that isn't leaving the country.
In other news: as you know, I've been getting giri-giri on webspace lately, which is to say that I'm almost spaceless. So I've implemented a livejournal, because I can't fit everything on here anymore. How will I do this? This site will be for pictures only...? I... don't know. Haven't figured it out yet. I'll tell you later. Top secret. Shhhh. Till then, you can find me at livejournal.com by looking up my username bluekeitai_h. Like I said, check out the livejournal. I think I may be moving my logues there from now on... Saturday I went to Shimane Prefecture with Ana (also one pic at the livejournal extension album), to the oldest shrine there, Izumo Taisha. Sound familiar? Well, if it does, I've been there before. It was fun though. Here are some NEW PICTURES: snap 01 | snap 02. Also, I found a Japanese website reviewing my cousin Chris's solo cd. (Review Here, Japanese only) Small world, eh?
A WORTHY READ
We Should All Weep and Feel Ashamed: Rwanda, Ten Years Later, By Na’eem Jeenah, in the Muslim Wakeup excerpt:
"And the world watched, complicit in our silence. We watched as one million people were massacred. As many more were raped, tortured, mutilated, orphaned. As neighbors killed neighbors. As 20,000 people were slaughtered in the Nyarubuye church. As Tutsi women were systematically raped as a weapon of genocide. As children were forced to kill their friends and neighbors. As the country’s infrastructure was devastated. As, suddenly, 85,000 children became heads of households. As the humanity of us all: the victims, the survivors, the perpetrators and the witnesses from afar, diminished."
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One day walking home from work I received a call on my mobile from an unfamiliar number. With the noise of the street traffic I couldn't hear him very well, but I listened as best I could and found myself in a tangled web of fabrication. The man on the line insisted to me that I owed some money for something, though I could not understand for what. But he did not ask to verify my name or address, did not address me with the usual language of a utility or company employee. He insisted that I must pay quite a large sum by phone, and that there was no other way. I admit, I didn't understand most of what he said to me, only snippets and verb phrases were coherent to me amidst the babble. His voice was snippier than I am used to here, and he was all but shouting and seemed irritated. I would have told him to piss off immediately, except I wanted to be certain I was in the right before doing so (thought I was pretty certain I was).
So I asked, trying to clarify the situation, "You're looking for a payment?" Perhaps it was the water company, or perhaps I had been late on the gas payment. "A payment?" the guy said. He said that that wasn't it, and fired some more incoherent phone-Japanese at me. Anyone with a passable subfluency in a second language will attest to the fact that comprehending spoken language on the phone is killer hard. So, the money that this guy was looking for was not a payment. I told him that I didn't know what he was talking about and asked him if a notice seeking payment had been sent to my home. His language was completely unacceptable for Japan's service industry, though just this side of out-and-out rude. Exactly what didn't I understand, he demanded. He began to rattle off about how troublesome I was being. Well, I said, I will come to the local office (of whatever he was supposed to be representing) and speak to his superiors and try to clear up whatever misunderstanding this was. I was not about to give him some kind of payment over the phone, which I can only imagine would come from a credit card. He insisted they were located in Tokyo. What would I have gotten into that didn't have a local branch? As I racked my brain, he asked where I lived, and I told him Hiroshima before my mouth clamped itself shut. If I was a client somewhere, would they not have my info on file? Why didn't this guy know where I lived? It was at this point that I realized he had never verified my name nor spoken to me in the usual manner of someone seeking payment (the gas company, etc.). At this point I began to feel that the man was being purposely vague, using obscure language. I informed him that I didn't understand him, I was not Japanese, and that he would have to speak more simply because I didn't know what he was talking about.
Here the conversation took a turn that I was not prepared for. He made no attempt to clarify or simplify his language. He berated me, saying I shouldn't have entered into a contract I had no understanding of (contract?). I told him that if he would just send something to my address that I would look it over (and pay if I felt I owed something, which at this point I was up to 99% sure that this man was full of poo). The guy snapped that that wasn't an option, I would have to pay by phone, I had to pay now, didn't I understand? I might never be able to go back to my country. (...? what?!) My end of the conversation dropped completely away. The situation was so inconceivable that I couldn't even think of anything to say. It was so obviously crap. And I felt sorry for the next poor gaijin- or Japanese person- that they called, who wouldn't say no. They would believe the guy's story and pay, feeling so relieved that they had sidestepped disaster. I didn't hang up at this point, I was just stunned by his callous words. I'm just not used to being spoken to in that way. He finally told me that there would be no other choice, if I wouldn't pay by phone, "they" would just have to come to my home and take the money. "You want that? I guess you do. We'll have to come and take it. Sayonara." -CLICK-
I listened to the Japanese dialtone for a minute, stupified. What the hell had just happened? I was pretty certain that this was one of Japan's numerous Phone Scams, that my number had been dialed by random, seeing as how my name had never been spoken, nor where, in a city of 1.4 million, I lived. Then again, if I was on a list of pirated information, they might have my address. Preposterous... right? The chances were slim, I figured. If this yakuza (at one point he did use the word yakuza, but I couldn't understand the rest of the sentance) or yakuza-wannabe really knew anything about me, he'd have proven it to make me more scared, or he would have been more forthcoming with details from the start, so that I would be convinced. And his number would have been blocked from my phone. That was sloppy, but its what lent credibility to his story in the first place. It made me feel uncertain, and unsafe as a foreign woman alone in this country. I'm not stupid enough to feel completely beyond harm here, but in living my daily life I am as precautious as I am at home (moreso, actually), and I have never felt so unsettled as I did at that moment. I mean, if I was stabbed and bleeding on the floor of my apartment, how long would it take to get help? My neighbor is afraid of me, so he would probably ignore my cries for help. We are talking weeks here. I would be dead, and my successor would move into my apartment and call my supervisor to complain about the dead girl in the kitchen.
Maybe this is an absurd little situation, and I'll laugh about it later with my friends. But for now I am pissed. This guy invaded my space, made me feel like looking over my shoulder. That feeling is not going to go away. It's unforgiveable, this man has no remorse, not even the inkling that he should be ashamed. That he should get a real freaking job instead of terrorizing folks over the phone. Scarey people are everywhere.
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In other news, my globe-trotting cos Chris is considering a trip to Japan. There's plenty to see, of course, and I reccomend he come and see some of it. Had my last MCing experience for the Mayor a few days ago. That man makes me so nervous, I don't know why. I didn't really get nervous about the KKC visitors, all educators from US, UK, Australia, and Canada. Nope, just the mayor. I guess he's my boss, but he wouldn't seem so intimidating if he was a bit friendlier. Oh well. Komatsu said I did fine. ...The packing is going excruciatingly slowly. I am throwing so much crap out. But it takes so long because I pick up one thing at a time, look at it lovingly and think, "...ahh yes, so-and-so gave this to me at such-and-such occasion" etc. I need to just throw all of it in boxes with clothing for padding and send it all off! Just about three weeks. Where is the time going?! Gotta go, ta ta for now.
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all things on this page were either written or photographed by heather, and as such should not be a) tampered with or b) heartlessly stolen. The two exceptions are 1)the maple pictures by Serene Gardens, and 2)the sumie flower paintings by Kay Thomas and Dolores Morrison which are all used without permission.^2001^ ^2002^ ^2003^
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