And the moral of the story is...

God invented washing machines for a reason!!! I know you are all thinking "what?" but after my adventures with the rug on Saturday, I had horrendous back/ shoulder pains on Sunday/ Monday which can only be attributed to the sudden burst of activity on Saturday morning!! LOL! My shoulder has recovered now but I definitely won’t be washing the rug in the bath again any time soon!!! Sunday we had a big typhoon. Apparently it was the biggest one in 10 years but I was sure they said that about a typhoon last year so I am always very skeptical about this kind of thing. However, it did wreak havoc further north of us as it gained momentum. We were completely unscathed in our apartment and apart from some strong winds that rattled the screen doors; it was hard to tell there was a typhoon passing through at all. In fact, our whole family spent the worst of it having an afternoon nap!! Further north though in Miyazaki prefecture they had a 竜巻　(tatsu maki, which I am guessing is a tornado) caused by the typhoon which turned over a train in motion and killed several people. Japan really does have a hard time with natural disasters and whenever I tell my Mum about the latest one (typhoons, earthquakes, floods etc...) she always says the same thing "It is God telling you to get out of that terrible country." I never know what to say in response because I am sure that isn’t the case but I do wonder what I am doing living in country (by choice) that has so many natural threats!! I guess the rain in England wasn’t exciting enough for me!!! On Monday we went to see my MIL and yesterday I was supposed to have back-to back classes but for one reason or another, most of them cancelled. I am starting to review the way my students pay me because lately there have been too many cancellations and each time I end up out of pocket, which makes it really hard to budget for things. Everyone keeps telling me I should get the money up-front every month and then if the student cancels, they are entitled to change the class to another day, which they would be more willing to do if they have paid for it already IYKWIM. I implemented the new system with my favourite students this month and it worked like a dream and made it easier for both their Mum and I! Only problem is that I hate talking about money with my students, I would be a terrible business woman!!! Yesterday morning I took Joey out to meet an old student of mine from when I worked for the Prefectural government. Her son is about a year older than Joey and the two boys had some fun playing together. I love watching Joey interact with other kids and I have decided I need to create more opportunities for him to do so!! Today I have nothing planned until this evening when my student (who is a university professor) comes over for his class (postponed from Monday because of the holiday) I think I will take Joey to the park as it has cooled down lately and I can stomach being outside for more than five minutes at a time!!!