Japan is a place where strange things happen

. . . if you can believe CNN.com. And I’m not really saying that you should, it was just a remark.

Check this one out:

Woman dead in bath full of sand

(good title!)

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- The body of a young British teacher has been found in a bathtub full of sand on an apartment balcony near Tokyo, Japanese police said on Tuesday.

Police in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo, identified the body as that of Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, who worked at a language school, a police spokesman said. Her body was found late on Monday.

"The bathtub was left out on the balcony and the (corpse) was left there in the bathtub," chief investigator Yoshihiro Sugita told reporters.

"Furthermore, the corpse was covered with dirt as if to hide it," he added.

A 28-year-old Japanese man who lived in the apartment fled when police arrived. Domestic media said the man was known to the victim.

A British woman who lived with Hawker was reported to have called the police on Monday afternoon to tell them the woman had not come home.

"We can confirm that a British national is missing -- an English teacher -- and as you know the Japanese police have discovered a body," a British Embassy spokesman said. "Beyond that we cannot comment."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/27/japan.murder.reut/index.html

The poor woman was my age. She was probably on the JET program or some other teaching English in Japan program that she thought would lead to an awesome time to travel and do fun stuff. Instead she ended up in a bathtub full of sand. Weird.

Dylan actually had a bit of a take on this. Apparently there is a very popular manga series called Naruto that involves a villain who carries around a bag of sand. This sand is the spiritual embodiment of his dead mother, and she goes around killing people from the vantage point of said sand. He is suggesting that perhaps some kinky, role-based sex play got out of control, and she ended up suffocated by their prop. I’ll have to keep an eye on this story.

Dylan does have a point. If the British people who go to teach English in Japan are anything like their American counterparts, then they are a group of under-socialized, manga and anime fanatics who somehow manage to develop crushes on cartoon characters and think that’s normal. This would be the sort of thing such-a-ones would go for. Alas, I hope it is something as innocent as all that, and not some crazed serial killer who targets foreign women. I can’t imagine the Tokyo police are too thrilled about this.

The Passions of Men and Women

Blogspot seems wonderfully designed for longer posts, so forgive me while I indulge.

In the past week or so, some excellent drama has been stirred up between my German friend Silke and her not-exactly-a-boyfriend Collin, an American economist from Chicago. "Excellent drama" is of course defined by the characteristic that it "is not happening to me."

Please enjoy!

It all started when he came on to her, she says. They started dating, but then he said they had to end it. “You’re too young for me; you’ll only end up getting hurt!” she said he said. But they kept hooking up, kept falling into bed together, kept having sex, they did it all. Is that the part that matters?

She said he said he didn’t want them to hook up anymore, that he only liked her as a friend, and the whole time he was saying this, he was holding her hands and kissing her.

Circumstances heated up! First it was Silke's anorexic roommate that was causing damage all around, and then Silke's uncle acquired cancer, and she turned to Collin for comfort. Then Collin's grandmother died, and before he could blink he was on a plane to Denmark to attend a funeral. Silke was there for him all the way, she says. They were closer than ever before.

This was at the end of November. In the middle of December Silke went back to Germany for Christmas. She returned to Kunming at the end of Jauary. Apparently that was enough time for Collin to get lonely . . .

They went to Thailand together (it was a bad idea). They never had sex, just cuddling in the hammock and skinny dipping. Shoshannah was there. When she returned, she said she was sick of Silke’s drama and sick of Collin’s bitching. She didn’t say any more.

Collin told Silke he was seeing another woman, and had been seeing her for awhile. Her name is Nele, she is from Belgium.

Silke fled to Shanghai with her heart broken. She told Collin they were no longer friends and that she didn’t want to see him ever again. He sent her an email.

When she returned from her trip, nothing had healed. Their chance encounters were not friendly.

Then one night, Silke and Nele met at a party, and they sat down and talked and compared notes. They agreed that it was time for Collin to go down.

The next day, Collin in the lobby of our apartment building. Nele came in. We were all meeting and greeting, her eyes were red-rimmed and she looked tired, she looked like she’d been crying. After a few moments of pleasant chatter, she turned abruptly to Collin and said, “We have to talk.” The two of them went upstairs together.

Dylan and I went for food. We came back to find Silke and Lisa in the lobby chatting. Silke didn’t have much time; she was in a hurry. “Where are you going?” “To Collin’s room.” “But Nele is there!” “I know.” “You have to tell me everything.” “I will,” with a wink over her shoulder she was gone.

I started feeling sorry for the guy. Dylan said, “He’s brought this on himself.” We went away; we came back. I got a phone call from Silke. The whole thing didn’t go so well. Maybe it went well, maybe it’s hard to say. The two women ganged-up on him, he was cornered, threatened, and he lashed out. He said some things, some nasty things, he threw Silke out of his room. Nele went with her.

Silke poured the whole story out to me – I was on the phone for an hour and a half. I had a headache when it was done. She said, “Tell everyone.”

Dylan and I went out to dinner with Lisa. I mentioned it to Lisa, but she wasn’t interested. Not her business, not really even her friends. We passed Shoshannah, I mentioned it. She got tight-lipped, and grimaced. We parted company.

Never have I heard Collin’s side of this story. It's possible I never will.

Collin heard from Shoshannah that there was smack being spoken. In his anger, he sent two nasty emails to Silke, she forwarded them to me.

Feeling guilty, Dylan and I emailed Collin to apologize for talking about his private business, somehow that seemd to cool things off.

And now Collin and Nele are "toghether"? Are they? Collin says he's single, Nele's talking about a "distance relationship" after she returns to Beligium in July.

So glad this isn't happening to me!

Names My Students Have Chosen

Here is a list of all the odd English names my students have chosen, both from this year and last year:

Tea

Sophiye

Bertha

Apple (3)

Ahua

Dark Schneider

Mahone

Youngker

Justine Quin

Merry

Peach

Soar

Alaska

Cloudy

Friday

Golden

Bosi

Tity

Jaciker

Livy

Eming

Pisces

Caesar

Xanthe

Lock

Mashell

Elva

Aimee

Sissi

Sucan

Bad Boy

Mills

Peak

Sweet Li

Puresky

Carnations

Reagan

Icey

Jojo

Having three students named "Apple" this semester is interesting, but they are all in different classes so that shouldn't be difficult to sort out. Dylan thinks the prevalence of Apples has to do with Gwnyth Paltrow and her baby, but it could just be a name that sounds cool to Chinese people. I notice that nobody took the name "Carrot" or "Celery" but it wouldn't surprise me if I did stumble upon suchaone at some point. Dylan had a student once named "Popeye". It was a girl.

Sick

I am sick. On Wednesday morning I woke up with a sore throat, and by evening I had a fever and body aches and was coughing. I decided to post-pone any travel planning until I am healthy enough to follow through with any resultant plans. It might be awhile.

On the bright side, I am not going to go to work tomorrow to teach English to small children. I like working with kids, but it is amazing how much harder 8 five-year-olds are to control than 50 Master's Degree candidates. Also, it doesn't help that my Chinese is poo.

No more news from Israel. My dad sent me an email that very pointedly made no mention of the situation at all, and I'm just going to give up on that front. He probably doesn't know much and thus has nothing to say.

Hope you all are doing well!

The Drama Continues . . .

Here is the news in email form!

From Sharon to me:

I did it!

After I talked to you I bought tickets. I fly out tuesday morning and get to Israel early wednesday. I feel like I'm going crazy right now canceling my life and putting up an art show, getting my passport back, packing my room, aaaaa

I feel really good about it. I will be in israel until April 5 then new york for a week.

more soon. Haven't been able to get a hold of aba yet.

sharon

From my father to me:

Ruty,

Please do not consider going to Israel. There is nothing that you can do there. Savta is being taken care of by the people in the nursing area of the Beth Avod. Ima says that she sleeps most of the time. You have responsibilities where you are. Savta remembers your visits and your letters. You could send her a letter about things you are doing, and Ima could read it to her. She is scheduled to come back the weekend of the 24^th. I am at work so I do not have the exact itinerary.

I just spoke to Sharon and she insists on going and has bought her ticket for Tuesday. She was able to rearrange her work and stop in New York on the way back. I tried to talk her out of it, but she insists. It will also do her good to get out of Guatemala for a while. In New York she will stay with Merriam.

Daddy

From me to my father:

Dear Daddy,

I am struggling with at the moment is what feels like a lack of information. I can only make good decisions if I have good information, and the information I am getting right now is spotty at best. Sharon told me that she heard from Ima that Savta has been asking when I will be there. For me, this is a very compelling reason to go to Israel. My plan is to go for no more than a week. It is written in my contract that I can take time off for family emergencies, and not only have several of my friends volunteered to cover my classes, the university is also very willing to let teachers make up classes when needed.

My idea in going to Israel is not that I can somehow magically cure the situation and make everything better. I am no doctor, oncologist or geriatric specialist, I am going there because it is where I want to be.

If you have any further information related to the situation that may influence my decision, I would be very interested to hear it. Otherwise, I will be meeting with a travel agent today to look at my flight options.

Ruty

From Mr. Ma, the travel agent:

Dear Ruty,

Further to your phone call last Saturday,this is what we may find for your one week trip to Tel Aviv and back:

OPTION ONE (via Bangkok)

14Mar(Wed) MU 741 Kunming-Bangkok [0805-0915]

14Mar(Wed) LY 086 Bangkok-Tel Aviv [1600-2245]

21Mar(Wed) LY 081 Tel Aviv-Bangkok [2210-1405+1]

22Mar(Thu) MU 742 Bangkok-Kunming [1015-1325]

at RMB 9140.00 yuan per seat eco class (applicable airport taxes and fuel surcharge incl.)

OPTION TWO (via Hong Kong)

14Mar(Wed) MU 733 Kunming-Hong Kong [0900-1110]

14Mar(Wed) LY 076 Hong Kong-Tel Aviv [1600-2215]

21Mar(Wed) LY 075 Tel Aviv-Hong Kong [2125-1415]

22Mar(Thu) MU 734 Hong Kong-Kunming [1210-1435]

at RMB 11560.00 yuan per seat eco class (applicable airport taxes and fuel surcharge incl.)

Please note you will have to stay one night in Hong Kong on the return trip if you take option two.

And for me to proceed booking of your flights,please kindly advise your passport details (full names as shown on passport,date of birth,nationality,and passport numbers).

with best regards

Xiaowei

I spoke to my mother on the phone yesterday and she is still firmly committed to the idea of me not coming to Israel. She said that it is depressing and that she would rather I remembered my grandmother as she was before this. She has moments of lucidity when she recognizes people and moments when she does not. Between the pain meds, the anti-nausea meds, and the cancer itself, she is pretty out of it.

I told my mother that I heard heard that my grandmother was asking for me to come visit, and she replied, "So? She always wants you to visit" and then she added a phrase in Hebrew "lo shayach" which roughly translates as "it does not contribute." Basically, it doesn't matter what my grandmother wants. Odd.

Sharon should be in Israel by now, so I am going to take Sheri's advice and check in. Israel is only six hours behind, so they should be awake soon . . .

Rock Music

If someone were to ask me the question, "What is the single greatest rock song ever created?" I would not hesitate to answer: Under the Bridge, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Please, to enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQOYCXKfpt4