Careless, Incompetent Gaijin Burns Flourishing Rural High School to the Ground

This very nearly could have been a headline in the Amakusa locals this week. Yesterday, I put some water in the office kettle to boil for tea, as I do first thing every morning I work. I then sat down and commenced my morning head-clearing ritual of studying kanji (most of which I managed to forget while I was in Canada, GRR!) I began to sense, vaguely, the smell of something burning. No one else was moving, so I sat for a few more seconds. The smell grew more distinct. Oh shit!, I thought, and ran over to the device used for keeping water at a boiling temperature all day, which, I had the sick feeling, I'd turned on empty. But no. What I'd actually done was to allow a cord access to the gas flame burning under the kettle. The cord had just caught fire when I got to it, which was lucky, because the flame was moving mighty quickly along the line by that point. I reported the cord fried to the office (and, to my shame and embarrassment, learned how to say "I burned this" in Japanese) and spent the rest of the day contemplating the potential headlines and thanking the powers that be that we were all safe and sound in our air-conditioned heaven.

Now I'm home after school, feeling a bit rough after a late night at a co-worker's (who, to the delight of Grant and I, turned out to be a Bon Jovi fan- I never knew how thrilled I could be to scream along to "Livin' on a Prayer"), listening to Paul Simon's Negotiations and Love Songs (yeah, it's that kind of night) and contemplating an early night. Is 7:30 too early to hit the sack? I miss you all.