Status update

I'm posting this on my iPhone so forgive me for any weird spelling mistakes.

After three days in mito with no water, no food other than brown rice, and rotating power, I decided to ask the Amity to put me up at the Honbu (or headquarters) in Okayama where I trained. They accepted an Erica decided to come with. I had to take a bus to get out of town, since mito train station was closed and ibaraki airport demolished, but after a few stops we found a working train station and took the Shinkansen the rest of the way. The first few towns we saw the old familiar earthquake damage, including 30-40 car lines outside the gas stations and paper signs in the window of all the convince stores. Grocery stores that were open had lines of people wrapped around them, and I'm assuming by now their food has long run out other than the government sanctioned rice and water bags.

As we travelled further west, we saw less and less stores closed. After passing through Tokyo everthing seemed like normal life in japan, an after getting off the train in Okayama station I felt like the whole thing never happened. It is still filled with giggling schoolgirls who buy heart shaped waffles and late businessmen literally running back to work in their suits. The annex is like a skeleton apartment, but a hot shower and a full size bed felt great after all the travelling.

Where do I go from here, I wonder. Nobody has any idea when the school is open, and it seems like Japanese business etiquette is to run all decicions by the head head boss. The only reason I'm here in Okayama is because I asked to be, a
nd some great trainers helped push the word on to the higher ups. But the same beurocracy exists about reopening the school. Is there an official date? Will I still be getting paid? The biggest pain is that I'll probably get a call one day saying, "head back! School opens tomorrow." I would be happy to be home and working, if the city was, of course.