The Holiday - Day 1

 I didn't post yesterday because in the morning I did nothing else besides clean.  Some of the Care for Tokushima group came by the apartment in the afternoon.  I tried to teach them tatting.  It's difficult when you are working with a group of 5 and trying to demonstrate a difficult to describe technique.  Tatting is about getting into a rhythm and controlling tension in the thread.  At some points you have to hold one part tight and the other loose, then you have to switch those roles.  You also have to move the shuttle in particular ways to tie the knots.  Then, getting the knot to "flip" from string A around B to string B around A requires practice.  I had fun.  I hope they did as well.

I don't have pictures (yet), but I was able to try on a jinbei.  I think that's what it is.  At least, the picture I linked matches what I wore.  It is super comfortable for wearing around the house.  Probably also sleeping in.  If I can find one (or four) I might be bringing them home.

Shortly after that ended, I went to dinner with Hachiro and his former student.  This student is somewhere on the autism spectrum, as near as I can tell.  Last night I paid closer attention to the way the two of them interact.  Hachiro shows much kindness and concern.  He provides guidance and gives the student a chance to make mistakes in a safe way.  He's helping this young man figure out how to navigate a world built on cultural norms and expectations.

This afternoon Yuko and I will go see some waterfalls and then I'll get to try shabu-shabu.  Other than that, I'm kind of relaxing this morning.  I'll probably head out in an hour or so just to do some poking around.  I have a few gifts I'll be buying and what-not.

Obviously, I didn't go to Hiroshima.  I think as significant as seeing the results of human narrow-mindedness would be, if something went wrong and I got stuck there or in a doctor's office it could be bad for the exchange program.  It's pretty clear the administration would like me to stay in Tokushima Prefecture, and I understand that.  Over the entire pandemic, this Prefecture has had about 236 confirmed covid cases per 100,000 people (1,721 cases out of 728,600 people, or less than 0.25% of the population).  For comparison, Michigan has had 9,092 confirmed cases per 100,000 people (898,626 cases out of 9,883,000 people, or about 9% of the population).  Respecting the rules about controlling the virus is how the numbers have been kept so low.

As Jen pointed out, and I'm a little embarrassed to say I didn't really think of myself, I could be getting the staff in the International Office in trouble.  My going could be interpreted as either they didn't work hard enough to keep track of me (I've already been misplaced once) or they knew where I was and didn't say.  If not that, then it might be seen as the American who doesn't much care about the rules did whatever he wants.  The risk of something happening is very small, but the potential fall-out is considerable.

Besides, it's another item in the list of "reasons to return."