Swine Flu and Final Weeks

Winding Down

December is upon us, which means only 17 more days of Japan. My feelings are mixed. There is still a lot left to do here in Japan, but as we approach the end of the semmester final projects and tests are begginging to bind my hands. There's a sense of constant urgency among everyone who is leaving, and it's stressful.

I plan to see the ocean again before I go, and I want to make some daytrips by train to see the cities and towns around Akita. I also want to spend a good deal of time playing arcade games. Those things feel very doable within the time frame, and I think if I accomplish them I should be able to leave Japan feeling satisfied. The full experiance of Japan has truly been something I'll remember the rest of my life. Even if I don't manage to really do much in these final weeks it'll have been a truly incredible experiance.


Also . . .
As far as plans for these couple weeks go, the decisions may be made for me. So far 50ish kids have been quarantened for swine flu (or the likelihood of swine flu). No one should worry though, the ony reason swine flu's been in the news is because there isn't much of a vaccine for it, not because it is particularly terrible. I've met a few people that had it a while before they came to AIU and it pales in comparrison to the regular flu.

As far as quarantene goes, if they find out you've been closely associated with someone who has Swine flu, you're quantened for 3 days in a special quarantene room. If after that they find out you have swine flu, you're quanatened for another week. Thing is the capacity for sick people isn't very large on campus, so there's talk that if too many people catch it, they'll shut down the school. Possibly even quaratene the entire campus and just keep the virus from spreading. I'll keep you guys updated.




(A journey through our trip to Kyoto will happen, untill it does here's the raw video)
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAuthorM#p/u/20/5bvSv8u7Dzo