Yesterday we got a note from our teachers saying that '暴風警報' (boofuukeihoo, storm warning) was announced by the Japan Meteorological Agency (http://www.jma.go.jp/en/warn/index.html), and that if the warning was not raised by 7 a.m., then all morning classes would be cancelled. If the warning was not raised by 10 a.m., then afternoon classes would be cancelled as well. So far the warning is still in power, which made me a bit sealed in my room for now. It's a pity though, the morning classes were supposed to be kanji and culture and tradition, so pure pleasure. We will see about the afternoon soon though. It definitely does rain. A lot. It got significantly cooler, too, compared to the 35-ish temperatures and full sun during most of my first 2 weeks here.
One thing that will never cease to mesmerize me (in a very positive way), is the fact that Japanese have it all so... well, organized. Predictable. And even if something unpredictable happens, they simply don't panic, they follow certain rules and procedures. Nobody makes fun of the rules and procedures, nobody is 'smarter' than the system. Moreover, nobody even tries any shenanigans because the group will proverbially 'hammer the nail'.
'Are you scared of going to Japan?', 'How will you organize everything?', 'Aren't you a little bit anxious?'. These, along with 'Aren't you excited?' made me realize my departure for Japan was near. Was I scared? Anxious? To be honest - I was far more scared before coming to study in London. The Japanese have well in advance sent me detailed information about, well, EVERYTHING that could possibly concern the foreign student. About money, about arrival, about the university, about the dormitory, about the required documents, about things that I would need to do in the first week or two, about the food, about the best ways to travel/commute, about Kyoto in general... I got everything booked, everything prepared and the only thing I had to be stressed about was the flight itself... Which was fair enough, don't you think?
 | ||||||||||
| Approaching Korea... The view reminded me that I need to see the Hao Long Bay in Vietnam. Soon! |
 |
| Marvelous clouds over Korea (the Koreans probably had a different opinion that day :-) |
 |
| And here's Japan! I found it very amusing that the flight trajectory almost exactly copied Genghis Khan's 3 failed Japan invasion plans :-) No 神風, kamikaze, divine winds were here though, thank you very much! |
It's a far cry from typical Polish mentality, where the communism has made more harm than most people imagine. Where following the rules makes you a 'loser' and an 'idiot' because 'the rules are set to be broken'. Where still the cunning ones who cheat, even at school, win, and in the shops you are at the mercy of the cashier, who is the queen, right? You have to beg for her time and attention, if you don't like it - bugger off to some other shop. Country where even being nice and saying 'good morning' and 'thank you' makes you feel like a weakling, because even if anybody answers, you can tell that they have already started thinking about why you are so nice, are you a whimp or something?
Anyway, sorry about that ramble. I'm just trying to say that I like Japan a lot, and I don't find its rules or people behaviour weird at all. More to that, I think a lot could be learned from Japan and its dealing with things, like the natural disasters for instance. When I think about how much fuss is made about few inches of snow in Britain, or about the yearly Polish spring floods in the areas they've always been occurring, my arms (if not other parts of the body) just... drop. With resignation, that is.
PS. Please forgive if the pictures don't seem to be lined correctly, I'm still learning how to edit things in here :-)
