Earthquake

Sorry for those of you who read this. It has taken me awhile to rectify Bloggers error of dumping my previous message.

I Experianced my first earthquake the other day. It was actualy kind of fun. Everything shakes for a bit and then it goes away. I'm sure I'd think differently if it were more serious... or was riding the trains at the time, which shut down completely for an half an hour or so. This is crazy in Japan by the way because the trains are almost never late... EVER.

My homestay mother's brother recently went into the hospital for something. I can't realy tell because of all the Japanese. The word cancer was brought up, but I don't realy know. He is supposed to be quite old; in his eightys. I hope he pulls through.

This incident has left me privy to another Japanese custom: Smileing at adversity. You don't every show unhappyness or anger in Japan ... or at least only at special circumstances. My homestay mother said, with a smile, that her brother had to go to the hospital for a while. I can understand. Afterall I'm a guest and not realy part of the famley so I shouldn't be worried about it or see my host mom upset.

This applys to buisness too. emploies always have a smile on thier face, even if you do something rude or wrong. They also apologise alot. I bet if you hit someone here, they would apologise for thier face being in the way of your fist! Well maby it's not that bad, but still, you get my point.

There was this jerk in my acting class who keeps showing up drunk and making rude remarks to the girls. Even with dealing with this guy everyone is all smiles and giggles. Later they berate him from behind. I think thats just the way it's done here. The avoidence of direct confrontation...

The play is complete krap and everyone I've talked to thinks so too. I'll do my best anyway though...I did pay for this class.

I realy REALY need to get to work!