Earthquakes and Tsunamis

Remember the earthquake that happened in Chile a few weekends ago? Well, this is the story of that weekend for me. So on Saturday, I had to go into the city because I'm in a musical that the JETs in Kochi prefecture are putting on (I'm just a dance person, nothing more, lol) and we had rehearsal for the people in the waltz. And I was supposed to be there at 10:30am. Then I have church in the city every Sunday, so I was like, I don't want to go back and forth, back and forth, so why don't I just get a room somewhere. So I started doing it at work, but then was like, I guess I shouldn't really book a hotel room at work, so I decided to do it at home. This is on Friday btw. So I get home, and I try to make the reservation online, only to discover that I had to have made the reservation earlier in the day. So I had no reservation. Then I figured that it wasn't meant to be. So I would be going back and forth and waking up extra early. Ok, so I wake up the next morning and have plenty of time to get ready because I actually wasn't feeling tired. I even had time to eat breakfast (a rarity). So I get to the station, think that I have plenty of time, and that I will catch an express train which costs more, but takes half the time. I thought it left at 9:04, and I got there like 7mins before it left (our station is tiny so it was plenty of time), only to realize that the express left at 8:53, and the regular train at 9:04. So when I thought I would get there at 10am and have 30mins to get to the other side of the city by street car and reach the place just in time for the 10:30 rehearsal, in reality, I would arrive in the city at 11am, and then get to rehearsal an hour late (11:30 - the express train takes an hour, and the regular takes 2). So again, I am thwarted. I get to the rehearsal and stuff and then it is over by lunch time. So ya, missed most of it. Then we all go eat and it is good, and I figure, I am in the city, with the day ahead of me, why don't I do stuff that I can't do while in Kubokawa. And I have been previously thwarted every time I have tried to watch a movie in the Theaters in the city, so I was determined that I would get to see one. So I check the bus schedule at the station, and have 35mins before the bus leaves to the mall where the only movie theater is. So I go to Book Off (a store that you can buy and sell a bunch of used books, manga, games, consols, etc - I love this place) which is at the station there and I finally have the chance to sell back my DSlite and get a DSi. So I do that, and it had been like 35mins exactly. So I run out and across the station to the bus terminal, and turns out the bus was like 2 mins late. So I guess that worked out for me. Anyway, I get to the mall, and to the theater. I stand there for a while because I kind of feel dumb being there and wanting to watch a movie by myself, lol. But I said, who cares, you don't even live in this city. So I look and of the movies playing in English that weren't dubbed, most had just started and wouldn't play again for hours. So I just kind of have to wander around the mall for 4 hours by myself. I ended up buying a bunch of bread from a bread store and sitting and eating and reading at a table for most of the time. After I went and bought a toy hamster from Toys R Us, lol. I go to the movie theater 20mins early and the guy said they weren’t letting people in and I had to wait a while. So I got to stand there on date night by myself waiting to go into the theater, lol. I had decided on the movie Valentines Day to boot, lol.  I am let in, and I go to the theater, and it is empty for a while and I think, well, that isn't too bad, no one to see the weird foreigner who watches movies by herself. Then people started coming in. So I guess I did finally get to see a movie too, after a 4 hour wait. Then I walked outside, and it was dark and late, and I asked this traffic director guy about the buses and he told me the buses had stopped running at that hour. So I have to get back to the station to catch my train, but I can't really figure out where the cabs go to pick people up at the mall. So the traffic director looks around and he sees this one cab on a street at a stoplight and says that one is open. So I wait and cross the street when the little man turned green, but that was also the cabs signal to go, so it was gone. Lol. Then I just start walking along the dark street until I hit a supermarket, and figure it was light enough to be seen, so I just kind of stood on the side of the road waiting for a cab to pass by. However, I have never in my life had to hail a cab down. I always just found them waiting somewhere and got in. So I stood there not knowing what to do, and 3 cabs passed me, lol. I had never seen anybody whistle for a cab in Japan, and don't even know how to do that, lol, so finally I just leaned out into the road when I saw one coming and started waving around, and the guy pulled over. And I went home. The next morning I got up for church but not in time for the 7am regular train that I always take, so I decided to go on the express again but that got me to church late even though it was an hour faster since it left at 9am. I didn't make it in time for them to confirm my calling. Which is greeter, lol. Like the only thing I can do. So I get to church late, and find out everyone is leaving right after because a tsunami was coming. Although they kept saying big wave when they tried to explain it in English (even though I understood them in Japanese) and kept asking what tsunami was in English. I kept answering tsunami and they were like, ya, that's the word, what is it in English. Lol. Anyway, they took me to the station and I was going to leave on the 1:50pm train, trying to avoid the tsunami which was supposed to hit between 2:30 and 3pm. Kochi city is at sea level. I got to the station around 1:20 only to discover  the trains weren't running. So I figured I would hunker down and wait till it had passed and catch a later train. I waited and waited and the news people showed up (shown below), they passed out free tea, made the same announcements a bajillion times, etc.  I ended up waiting for 9 hours, just to discover that the trains weren't running at all and might not even be running the next morning either. Geh. So it's late at night, and I have to go out in search of a hotel. I find a cheap one, and sleep. Not having a computer to check when the first trains left, I woke up early and headed to the station. When I got there, I found out I had missed a train by 2 mins and had to wait another hour and a half about. So I did, and finally got on a train home. I made it back at like 11am missing the first half of the day at work. But don't worry, I had filled Marisa in and she told them, and then Tagashira-sensei called me and asked about stuff. When I got back in to work, I had to fill out a form for half a day of my 3 days off left. So now I only have 2 and a half days left for all of summer when the kids are on break. Sigh. And that was my weekend.