日本語も下よ！
I am just putting this out there for the people that I have not been able to talk to and that know my dad. My dad was diagnosed with Mantel Cell Lymphoma a little more than a week ago. He started his first chemo treatment today, and will be having a treatment done every month for six months, maybe longer if the disease is not gone after six months. I am not worried about this at all since they: A) Caught it early. B) This is not his first run in with cancer. C) My dad is a fighter. D) I worked with cancer patients for more than a year and saw people come back from far worse.
I am posting this because we have recently been busy and I haven't been able to call people and tell them myself. I will be making more phone calls this weekend hopefully.
*Note: Not to sound mean but I am not putting this up for sympathy. Like I previously stated I am posting this to let people know that don't know.
Using the blog for other than Japan news,
Andrew
日本語から
一週間前に私のパパが新しいの診断があります。診断はリンパの癌です。私の家族がほっとしたです。だから私たちはもあぶない癌の過去分詞しました。でもりんぱの癌は弱いです。が今日はchemotherapyがはじまる。六月間にchemotherapyをします。後で元気になります。がばれお父さん。
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
A Week That Won't Be Forgotten
So this last week has to be one of the craziest weeks we have experienced here. It all started last Saturday. I met Amber up at the train station and we decided to go out to dinner to this Indian restaurant that we had had our eye on for the longest time. This food just so happened to be the best Indian food we have ever had. After we ate and talked to the restaurant owner for a while we decided to make our way home.
Here is where the crazy started...
There is a road that Amber and I like to walk down because there are less cars, it is off the main road and it gets us to where we want to go faster. On this said night however, something strange happened. As we were walking, a moped sped past us with two individuals on it. As they passed us we both thought they were acting a little strange, and we thought it was ridiculous for two reasons: A) The boy in the back was wearing a bright white sweater with a giant gold dragon and tiger on the back as well as bright white baggy pants. B) He also wasn't wearing a helmet.
They turned off down a side street and we just thought they were drunk and trying to get home. A few moments later they pop back out, pass us again, and proceed down the road. They sped up and started to get closer and closer to this lady up ahead. To our surprise it looked like they hit the lady and just took off because she was suddenly down on the ground screaming. Amber and I rushed up to her to see if she was okay and to call an ambulance. I instructed her not to move, but as soon as I told her that she replied with, "They just tried to steal my purse!" We helped her over to the curb to clean her up and check the cuts on her face. She had blood running down over one of her eyes. This was the first time we experienced a mugging. We have seen car accidents and people hit by cars before, but never a crime. We both thought that this would be something we would have seen in America before we would have ever seen it in Japan.
Another Japanese man (who just happened to speak English) was there and he called the police for her, which from the time the phone call was made until the police arrived was about 15 to 20 minutes. It seemed a little ridiculous, but since the police don't really patrol here, it makes sense.
The police officers put her in the car and proceeded to question everyone else there about the incident except Amber and I. Finally I asked the man that spoke English if they needed our statement. The policeman seemed reluctant but took our brief statement. We then went home.
Flash forward to last Tuesday. While I was out on my third sweet potato picking trip with one of the kindergartens the police called my school to find me. I didn't know this had happened until I got back and the assistant principle came down to my office and started speaking the fastest and most incomprehensible Japanese I have ever heard. I could only understand a few words here and there so we went to Mr. Nakamura's office (he's the Japanese-English teacher) and she told him what was going on and he translated. Come to find out the police were looking for me to talk to me about the crime, and they would come Friday to speak to me in person. The ladies in the office thought I had committed a crime, not witnessed it, so that took a long time to explain to them that I had done nothing wrong and had only seen a crime.
On Friday, the police officers came right after lunch, and I say police officers because I was expecting two guys in uniform. To my surprise I was greeted by a detective in a very nice suit and a man that I could only describe as an undercover detective. Nakamura joined us to make sure that I didn't need any help with translating and what not. The whole process took a little over two hours. They were asking me about the incident, asked me to describe it, tell them what the individuals were wearing, draw a small map of where it happened, and then finally sign the statement that the officer wrote out in Japanese. The whole thing was much like I seen in a movie or TV show.
After everything was said and done they gave me a gift of really expensive flavored crackers. I never found out if it was from the lady that we helped or if it was from the police because Nakamura informed me that it would be rude to inquire. Also, they hadn't caught the criminals as of Friday, but they had an idea of who they were, and they were going to make an arrest soon. The lady of the attempted mugging was doing alright, but was just a little frightened.
Now yesterday, we were driving to Costco with Inamori-sensei. On our way there we came across another crazy incident. I pulled up to a stop in a long line for the traffic light. As soon as I did Amber said, "Oh my god." To our immediate right there were two vehicles. The one in the front was a mini-van and the one in the back was a small delivery truck. At the delivery truck door there was a man outside screaming and trying to get into the truck with his wife/girlfriend trying to hold him back. This went on for the whole duration at the stop light. The man finally wrestled away from his wife and opened the truck door and started attacking the man in the truck. At this time the light turned green and we had to go.
Just another crazy day in Japan. Amber and I couldn't believe what we had seen.
All in all it was one of the strangest weeks we have had here.
Here is where the crazy started...
There is a road that Amber and I like to walk down because there are less cars, it is off the main road and it gets us to where we want to go faster. On this said night however, something strange happened. As we were walking, a moped sped past us with two individuals on it. As they passed us we both thought they were acting a little strange, and we thought it was ridiculous for two reasons: A) The boy in the back was wearing a bright white sweater with a giant gold dragon and tiger on the back as well as bright white baggy pants. B) He also wasn't wearing a helmet.
They turned off down a side street and we just thought they were drunk and trying to get home. A few moments later they pop back out, pass us again, and proceed down the road. They sped up and started to get closer and closer to this lady up ahead. To our surprise it looked like they hit the lady and just took off because she was suddenly down on the ground screaming. Amber and I rushed up to her to see if she was okay and to call an ambulance. I instructed her not to move, but as soon as I told her that she replied with, "They just tried to steal my purse!" We helped her over to the curb to clean her up and check the cuts on her face. She had blood running down over one of her eyes. This was the first time we experienced a mugging. We have seen car accidents and people hit by cars before, but never a crime. We both thought that this would be something we would have seen in America before we would have ever seen it in Japan.
Another Japanese man (who just happened to speak English) was there and he called the police for her, which from the time the phone call was made until the police arrived was about 15 to 20 minutes. It seemed a little ridiculous, but since the police don't really patrol here, it makes sense.
The police officers put her in the car and proceeded to question everyone else there about the incident except Amber and I. Finally I asked the man that spoke English if they needed our statement. The policeman seemed reluctant but took our brief statement. We then went home.
Flash forward to last Tuesday. While I was out on my third sweet potato picking trip with one of the kindergartens the police called my school to find me. I didn't know this had happened until I got back and the assistant principle came down to my office and started speaking the fastest and most incomprehensible Japanese I have ever heard. I could only understand a few words here and there so we went to Mr. Nakamura's office (he's the Japanese-English teacher) and she told him what was going on and he translated. Come to find out the police were looking for me to talk to me about the crime, and they would come Friday to speak to me in person. The ladies in the office thought I had committed a crime, not witnessed it, so that took a long time to explain to them that I had done nothing wrong and had only seen a crime.
On Friday, the police officers came right after lunch, and I say police officers because I was expecting two guys in uniform. To my surprise I was greeted by a detective in a very nice suit and a man that I could only describe as an undercover detective. Nakamura joined us to make sure that I didn't need any help with translating and what not. The whole process took a little over two hours. They were asking me about the incident, asked me to describe it, tell them what the individuals were wearing, draw a small map of where it happened, and then finally sign the statement that the officer wrote out in Japanese. The whole thing was much like I seen in a movie or TV show.
After everything was said and done they gave me a gift of really expensive flavored crackers. I never found out if it was from the lady that we helped or if it was from the police because Nakamura informed me that it would be rude to inquire. Also, they hadn't caught the criminals as of Friday, but they had an idea of who they were, and they were going to make an arrest soon. The lady of the attempted mugging was doing alright, but was just a little frightened.
Now yesterday, we were driving to Costco with Inamori-sensei. On our way there we came across another crazy incident. I pulled up to a stop in a long line for the traffic light. As soon as I did Amber said, "Oh my god." To our immediate right there were two vehicles. The one in the front was a mini-van and the one in the back was a small delivery truck. At the delivery truck door there was a man outside screaming and trying to get into the truck with his wife/girlfriend trying to hold him back. This went on for the whole duration at the stop light. The man finally wrestled away from his wife and opened the truck door and started attacking the man in the truck. At this time the light turned green and we had to go.
Just another crazy day in Japan. Amber and I couldn't believe what we had seen.
All in all it was one of the strangest weeks we have had here.
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