A few updates

Happy First Day of March! The end of winter is in sight, and I'm happy.

Here are some things that are going on/have been going on around here these days...

• Tsunami warning!
  You might have heard on the news about tidal waves--caused by Chile's earthquake--hitting Japan's coast yesterday. I didn't see the waves since I was out of town, far away from the ocean, but apparently it was more like high tide than anything. I drove along the coast this morning to get to Kuki Elementary School (after making sure it was safe to do so), expecting to see some pretty big waves, but was really surprised to see the water so still. I read in an article that "hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from shorelines" in Japan since it was expected to be worse than what it turned out to be. I found out via text message from my friend Kenji yesterday morning that the local government was advising people living near the ocean to seek higher ground. I was already on higher ground when I got the message. Kenji recommended that I not go swimming, haha.
  
  
• He's baa-aack!
  I haven't had English lessons with my buddy Tomoki for the last couple of months since his mom didn't want him riding his bike in the snow. So I was glad to see him this evening when he came over to chat in English. And I was happy to see the pineapple he brought with him, too!

• I got a postcard from my host family!
  So I wrote them a postcard in return. In Japanese. Eeek.
  Special thanks to Shizuka Sensei at Yamane Jr. High School. :)
  Here's what my Japanese postcard looks like, front and back:

It basically says, "Thank you so very much for everything! You rock!" :)

• I went ice skating over the weekend, hooray!
  That was pretty much the last winter sport I needed to check off my list. (Not that I actually had a list.) It was a lot of fun, and I didn't fall once. The rink was in Morioka, where I also went to a birthday party.
  
  
• The Christmas trees in Kuji are not only still up, they're still being lit up!?!?!???
  That's all I really have to say about that.