Another day off school!

In the last 13 months we've had two weeks off school following last year's disaster, a day off for a typhoon, a snow day, and today an afternoon off for strong winds! It's been a tumultuous kind-of year!

Here is a report explaining today's wind (and rain) storm. It actually isn't so windy yet here in western Tokyo, but apparently it is coming. There is a report that an elderly lady on the western side of the island was killed being knocked off her feet by the wind.

The main reason that CAJ has closed so often is because many students rely on trains to get to and from school and we've had a lot of train-schedule-affecting-events this year. Anything that affects the train schedule, affects the school. After all, the school wants to avoid students on their way to or from school being stuck on trains that are "grounded". The majority of students travel without parental supervision. I've done enough parental-supervised travel with my kids to know that you don't want a whole lot of unsupervised kids stuck on trains or train stations anywhere!

It is nothing like school when I was growing up, when there was a line of mums-in-cars waiting for us when the bell went. I cannot remember anything ever cancelling school in my mild-weather home town of Toowoomba. We had sports days cancelled, but all that happened was you had to stay inside and do work instead! It rained, got cold, hot, and windy, but nothing that stopped school. The worst weather I can remember was pea-in-the-soup fog. Driving home after musical practise one night and Mum had me hanging out the window of the car checking for cars parked along the side of the road. But it didn't close the school down.

So, my quiet day at home, going through every last little dit and dot of the Japan Harvest Spring issue for (hopefully) the very last time before publishing, has been a little less quiet because everyone came home after lunch.

But I do have a quiet evening meal to look forward to, David has organised for our kids to go to a friend's house while we celebrate my birthday in a local restaurant. Yay! As long as we don't get blown away on our way there . . .