Explanation

Joe e-mailed me last night, and I responded. I figured it's easier for me to cut and paste what I wrote than compose something else, so here it is:

Yesterday was full of ups and downs for me. Once in a while (in Japan or back home), I'll have one of those dreams that upsets me terribly in Dreamland, but after I've been awake for half an hour I kind of wonder what all the fuss was about.

I found out Friday that one of my students is in the hospital, and has been for several weeks. He's in Tottori, a neighboring prefecture, so I assume it must have been something serious. So I went yesterday with his homeroom teacher (one of my JTEs) to visit him, so she could give him some schoolwork. She told me he'd had two surgeries, but that he was doing better. I guess he really is doing better, cos we couldn't find him in his room at first, and after looking for a nurse or someone to help us, we saw him coming up the hallway, returning from the gift shop. He still has a tube in his throat, so he can't talk (not that I could have understood him if he did), and doesn't seem to have regained his full strength yet, but he was very happy that I lent him my copy of the newest Zelda game for Game Boy Advance. Poor kid must be bored out of his mind.

So yesterday I had something to do (visit a student), and someone to do it with (my JTE, who is the one with the mad English skillz, and is fun to talk with), but as soon as we parted ways in Matsue, and all the way back to Nita, I felt terribly lonesome. To top it off, I decided to watch Casshern. I'd seen it once before at a friend's house, but I enjoyed it so much I wanted to see it again. I'd just forgotten what a sad, sad movie it is. I don't think a movie has made me cry since I was six. In America came close, but I was in a theater with my dad, so that would have been not cool.

I'm actually in a pretty good mood right now. I have something to do (go to Taisha for a big Japan-wide festival--about the only thing our prefecture is known for; it's the time when all the gods all over Japan come to Taisha to discuss matters for the next year), and someone to do it with (I'm picking up a friend on my way, and we'll meet up with other JETs there), so I'm set.