Broken Roof 壊れた屋根

At 3 in the morning on February 5 the foot thick ice and snow that was hanging off our roof collapsed. Have you ever heard hundreds of pounds of snow fall? Let me tell you its loud. I woke bolt upright looking around for the bomb that had gone off in my bedroom.  I told Samantha not to worry about the snow falling. Then I realized she had slept through the whole thing. I tried to open the front door, but we were snowed in. So I did what anyone would do, went back to sleep. The next morning we managed to squeeze through the door and look outside.

The snow had broken our roof. Badly. There were huge chucks of ice every where. If it had hit us we would be dead. I called the School Board and the boss came out to look at our houses. The boss told me to be careful because the snow is dangerous if it falls. I got that. I figure if something can break wood and metal it’s dangerous. They are going to have someone come fix the roof this week. I’m just kind of amazed at the house sometimes.

Here is a list of the things that have been fixed, replaced, or broken in the house in a year and a half:

1. The old TV caught fire.
2. The stove broke and had to be replaced.
3. The paper in the windows got mold and had to be replaced.
4. The living room tatami had a hole and was replaced.
5. Xbox.
6. Roof
7. DVD player.
8. Couch.
9. Frozen pipes.

If you are my replacement in Ichinohe don’t be scared. When you come you will have, new paper screens, new stove, new tatami, and a partially new roof. Also the TV was replaced; with the oldest TV I have ever seen. So you will get the nicest of the houses.

Installing the tatami is a strange home repair. Partly because none of the Japanese people I asked have done it. This prompts comments about who the Japanese person is. Partly, because of the installation method. You pretty much just spread the tatami out, tack it in and push it flat. This took about an hour for a small room. It was really hard to get it flat. I would pull my side flat and then Samantha’s would wrinkle. Her side would be perfect and mine would be wrinkly. Smooth one wrinkle and a new one pops up.

It was a bit of an exercise in frustration. We finally got it though and it looks pretty good. The new tatami looks pretty good if I do say so my self. The smell it has is great, it smells kind of like fresh hay. So now I know more Japanese house repairs than the average Japanese person.

２月５日の午前3時に屋根から沢山の雪が落ちました。ものすごい量の雪が落ちる音を聞いたことありますか。とても、大きい音でしたよ。たび起きました。何かが爆発したかと思いました。私はサマンサに「心配しないでください」と言いました。でも、サマンサは目をさましていませんでした。落ちた雪でドアが開けられませんでした。だから私は誰でもそうするように、また寝ました。夜があけて、私達はなんとか家から脱け出し、外を見ました。

雪が落ちて屋根が壊れていました。大変でした。庭は雪と大きな氷のかたまりでいっぱいでした。この雪が私達に落ちていたら、絶対に死んでいました。教育委員会の人は屋根を見に来ました。「雪が落ちるとは危ないから気をつけてね」と言いました。分かります。雪で木や金属が壊れたらとても危ないと思います。今週中に、屋根を直してくれれでしょう。1年6か月の中で沢山の家の物が壊れました。これは直した物、かえた物、壊れた物のリストです。

１．テレビは火をふきました。

２．ガスレンジは壊れて、かえました。

３．古い障子にかびがありました。はりかえました。

４．居間の畳に穴がありました。はりかえました。

５．屋根。

６．Ｘボックス。

７．ＤＶＤプレーヤー。

８．ソファ。

９．パイプがこおりました。

次のＡＬＴさん心配しないでください。あなたが一戸町に来るときは、家に新しい障子と新しい畳と新しいガスレンジと一部に新しい屋根がついています。テレビもかえました。とても古いですけど。ＡＬＴの家の中で私の家が一番です。

畳を取り付けることはちょっとやっかいです。私がたずねた日本人は皆、畳をはりかえたことがありませんでした。「あなたのほうが日本人らしい」と言われました。畳は平らに押し広げて、びょうでとめました。でも、畳は平らに押し広げにくいです。私の方でしわをのばしたらサマンサの方がしわになります。サマンサの方を平らにしたら私の方がしわになります。一つしわを平らにすると、べつの所にまたしわができました。いらだたしかったですよ。1時間後に平らな畳ができました。新しい畳はきれいで香りがいいです。香りは干草っぽいです。私のほうがてんけいてきな日本人より、日本風の家を直すことを知っています。

Big Big Post

In this post I will try to finish about Korea and update everyone on how we are. I will also be trying to post more often in the New Year but the past few days have been trying. First, Korea.

In Korea we had a ton of fun. In fact in you just wanted to come to Asia and had narrowed your choices to Tokyo or Seoul I would say go to Seoul hands down. The English was better. I mean, not fluent but at restaurants people could help you. Basically, people had enough English to help you in the situation you needed. We went to several cool sites like the National Museum of Korea. Its the sixth largest Museum in the world and was huge. There were a lot of cool exhibits pictured bellow.



After the Museum we got a lesson in geography from some Korean school kids. They taught us that the Sea of Japan does not belong to Japan. It also belongs to Korea. They were very insistent that it be called the Sea of Korea. Which I guess is just as good. The next big thing we did was the Seoul National Flea Market. It was really cool. We ate some good Korean food and saw some interesting art and things for sale. We bought ourselves some metal chopsticks. They are more commonly used in Korea then plastic or wood seemed to be. They are really pretty. We were looking around the flea market when we did discover one section that an American Flea market wouldn't have. Let me just say that it was an adult entertainment section and sold some things I wouldn't buy at a flea market.



We also did the USO DMZ tour. As we prepared to leave, a representative got on the bus and said "This is not a tour. This is a trip to a real war zone that is no joke and a place where serious diplomatic events happen." So on this not-a-tour which is to a real war zone where do they have the first stop? A gift shop. That and the fact that it is sold as tour made it a tour. It was a great tour too. We saw Panmunjom, the peace village. It is the northern most village in South Korea. We then went to the place where the armistice was signed. It had guards from North and South facing off at each other and showy diplomatic buildings on both sides. We saw the worlds tallest flag poles, the tallest in the North and the old tallest in the South. This kind of thing seemed common on the border. After looking from an observation post into North Korea we watched a video on the border becoming a impromptu nature preserve. In places the North had dug tunnels under the border. We toured one of these tunnels. It was like any other cave I've been in dark, damp, and too small. the last stop was a train station waiting for reunification to rebuild the tracks for service to Pyongyang.


This set of pictures is of the place where the armistice was signed and where negotiations still go on. This is the closest we got to North Korea.


After the tour we went out to eat with some Canadians and one guy from Las Vegas who were teaching English in Korea. It was a ton of fun. I will write more about Korea later in the week but right now I want to to catch you all up on us.

We have had a difficult week. I watch American news and I know that its been colder then normal. This weekend here it reach -12C which is cold. Our toilet pipes froze and a plumber had to come out. I apparently had not plugged the right plug to warm the pipe. Which is my mistake, but still annoying. Then yesterday our washing machine drain froze and threw up the water from the wash all over the freezing cold kitchen. Which took an hour in barely above freezing temperatures to clean up. It was a kind of depressing thing to do. Now, I know that many of you are wondering if these two event make a bad week, but I have a third one that will defiantly do it for you. Today I got home from work and Samantha turned on the TV and it made a terrible sound and caught fire. That's right, when our TV was plugged in it shot sparks and caught fire inside. So our TV is dead our house stinks of melted plastic and the Board of Education says it will be a while to replace it. The other ALTs and I have decided to ask the Board for more repairs on the houses like vented heaters and non freezing washers. The TV is just the icing on the cake.

Pictures of the House

These are pictures of the house. When Samantha gets here we will do a video walk trough. Its in really good shape and Dan and Tyler did a great job cleaning. It was nice to sleep on clean sheets in my own bed that first night. There is tons of weird stuff left by former JET. I have a closet filled with old computer stuff. There are 2 snowboards and tons of boots. There are several pairs of cold weather boots. We have a good amount of kitchen stuff including a large supply of forks and spoons. All in all if you don't mid that nothing matches, but its all in good repair we have a great house. Though there is one oddity no rice cooker.