Spring Cleaning

Matt has been an amazing husband lately due to his new interest in spring cleaning. He had turned our messy messy place into something presentable. I am very proud of his hard work. Matt and I had a good weekend in part because of this spring cleaning attitude, but also because we have bonded over a new television show addiction. Since scrubs moved to ABC it has been a pretty lame show, I rarely laugh at their jokes. I had heard good things about the show Chuck but the premise just seemed silly, I assumed I would not like it. Oh how I was WRONG! Chuck is hilarious and action packed, plus a good pinch of family togetherness and a good deal of romance. When I first began watching the show Matt did not care to watch, but did not mind hearing it in the back ground while he did other things. As the show progressed I began hearing more interest on the part of my husband with questions about the plot. THEN in a shocking turn of events on the show, a character that everyone thought would be out of the way for a while suddenly returns. As I gasp in shock of the events taking place and I state aloud WHO has returned to the show I hear my husband yell in anger....for he too is upset about this character....my husband had finally been sucked into the show and has been watching it with me ever since. =)

Another good thing happened this past weekend. I had a nice long lunch with Mrs. Hayashi, one of the JTEs at my JHS. We were able to bond a bit while eating at a macrobiotic restaurant in Oizumi called Serphim. I was also able to tell her about my leaving Japan at the end of July. She was sad that I was leaving but was also very excited for me.

In Takane, down the mountain from where Matt and I live, flowers are beginning to bloom in some places. Some mornings it smells like spring...and my nose reminds me I need to start taking my allergy medicine again. Then again, Friday evening, March 13th, it snowed a bit where we live. Another couple weeks and I feel that spring will take a strong hold over Hokuto. I am excited about my last 4.5 months in Japan. I know the time will pass more quickly with the weather improving and with us having so much more going on. I am going to try to live the rest of my time in Japan to the fullest.

Not so fun Friday night.

Every Monday and Friday Matt tutors two elementary school kids in English for an hour while I go to the grocery store and read a book or listen to music. This Friday was just like any other, until it wasn't.
I dropped Matt off at the boys house and then drove to the store. After buying our food I sat in my car and read Paper Towns by John Green, who is mostly responsible for my renewed interest in reading quality books. With about 10mins to go before Matt's lessons end I decide to drive over and wait in front of the students house, like normal. I had been nervous every since I dropped off Matt because if he needed me he wouldn't be able to reach me by phone. My cell phone had died at some point during the day and I just learned about this fact 2 mins after my husband left the car. I promise I charged my cell phone that very morning!
Anyway...I put my book away, moved the drivers seat back into position for driving, and turned the key in the ignition. That's right...nothing happened...well my car did make an awful "my battery is dead" noise but that's about it. Not only am I stuck in the store parking lot, I have no way of contacting anyone for help. stupid cell phone! At this point it's dark and cold and I am looking for anyone who walks by who might be willing to help a foreigner with their clearly (have the car hood up) broken car. After a few minuets of no success finding help I walk back into the store trying to figure out what I can do. My Japanese is horrible and I don't know anyone in the area. Did I mention the store is about a 35 min drive from my apartment?...closest grocery store. At this point I have begun to panic a little bit, my husband is waiting for me, I can't get in contact with him, I can't contact anyone, and I have no working mode of transportation. This was not fun.

Here is when my luck changes...and why being an English teacher is awesome! I see one of my students, a third year, well, a third-grader from Nishi Takane Elementary school. She is walking out of the store with her mother and little sister when I am walking into the store. I smile and say hello but keep walking...why would a mother with two kids, 9 and 5 I believe, want to deal with helping the foreigner with car trouble on a Friday night...she clearly has places to go and things to do. She clearly did not feel the same way. My student's mother comes walking back into the store and asks me if I need help with my car. Now I have someone who is willing to help me! What's interesting about my interactions with my student's mother (still don't know her name!!) is that I don't speak Japanese, and she doesn't speak English. We had a little bit of vocabulary in each others language but it was enough. I explained my car, my cell phone, and my husband. She explained that she didn't have what I needed (a jumper cable) but that she would call her friend and he would help. So for the next 15 mins I am sitting in this lady's Land Rover with her two children talking about where I live, where I am from, what food people eat in America, where I teach English, various ideas about the drawings her 5 year old was making in the back seat, along with drawing pictures of food with my student (also don't know her name!) Her friend eventually arrived and jumped my car back into shape at which point I did a whole lot of bowing and "Domo Arigato Gosaimashita" before I drove off to pick up my husband.
On the way to pick Matt up I see him walking down the road towards the store. I was over 30mins late to pick him up and he had begun worrying about my safety to the point of attempting to walk to the store to find me while our neighbor JD was on his way to pick him up to go check the hospital, if I was no where to be found at the store. My husband had a plan! Matt and I got to explain our stories to each other on our drive home.
It was a horrible experience I do not want to have again. But I did get to experience the kindness of strangers. Since I am an English teacher at local schools those who know that fact, though might not actually know me, are not afraid to greet me at the store, and in this case help me on a cold, dark Friday night. I often have my students and their parents see me at the store and stop to bow and say hello, though I never know their names. To be fair I have so many students at three different schools, two schools I only visit twice a month.
I feel guilty that I don't know my rescuers' names, but I already have plans to provide them with thank you gifts when I teach at Nishi Takane elementary again.
I am so glad my car trouble was only a 40 minute inconvenience. I don't know what I would have done if this mother of two, who doesn't even speak English, wasn't willing to stop and inconvenience herself by helping the local English teacher with her car on a Friday night. Thank you lady!