The alarm pierced my ears. It happened AGAIN. I couldn’t believe
it. Neither could my poor friends who had to sit through the ongoing blaring noise. They had learned ‘hijo’ kanji (chinese character) a long time ago. I, obviously, hadn’t.
It started out innocently - a dinner for three. pasta. salad. a little wine. Audrey was cooking and I was helping her by staying far away on the other side of the room supervising with a glass of red wine. Hamish rang the bell below, letting us know that he had arrived and wanted to be buzzed in. Making myself really useful I answered his plea and went to hit the big, bright, orange ‘open’ button on the phone.
It all happened in slow motion. It seemed forever for my long index finger approaching the button to actually make contact. From across the room I could hear a long, deep ‘nooooooooooooo.......’. But it was futile. I don’t know whether I ignored the ‘no’ or couldn’t stop my finger once set in motion. And so it happened. I hit the hijo button.
The alarm stated ringing: the red lights started flashing. Hamish tried to stop the alarm, while I looked for duct tape to cover the speaker. Audrey just kept cooking. There was no building management company or landlord to call. No emergency service in sight. So we called the police to explain we (this was no longer simply my problem) had accidentally hit the hijo button and couldn’t find the off switch.
Within 30 minutes we had police in cars, police on bikes, fire fighters in shiny red trucks and all the neighbours in the neighbourhood at our doorstep. Yup, 30 minutes off woooooop! woooooop! wooooop! before they arrived. If it had actually been an emergency, the bad guy would have already killed us, eaten our dinner AND dessert before escaping the wrath of the bicycle police.
When they arrived the alarm did not shut off. They couldn’t find the off button either. So they simply pulled the button off the wall. End of problem. Many, many, many sumimasens and bows later the youngest of the fire fighters left with little more than a name and phone number of the apartment inhabitant (which we’re not sure was for professional purposes, considering the smile he shot Audrey as we closed the door).
Ahhhh! The hijo button. Every bathroom, office, train car (and the list goes on) has a hijo button. Japan, the safest country in the world, thanks to the good old hijo button. I’ve now hit that button 3 times. One, two, three times - all with equally embarrassing results. It’s like pulling a fire alarm... something you should not do, especially when locked in a bathroom stall. Well, three’s a charm, right? I can honestly say that I now have the hijo kanji ingrained into my mind, and will hopefully never to hit that button again, unless absolutely necessary of course.
And, unfortunately, that’s about all the excitement I’ve had over the past month. The good (actually great, fantastic, amazing, wonderfully delightful) news is I just handed in my final paper at Temple University, passed all my exams and am officially FINISHED grad school. Ohhhh.... now’s a good time to hit that hijo button and make my escape.
So, I’m off on safari. Not hunting animals, but more the kind of safari that the resembles what the Swahili people originally used the word for. Safar is Swahili for journey, to be away, unobtainable, out of touch. How good does that sound? To some, not so good. But to me, amazing! I’m ready to take a real break and
remain as unobtainable as possible for the next 2 months (Feb 1 – April 3). Woot woot! (That’s Kiwi for yeah baby!)
If you’re wondering where I’m disappearing to, I will share my simple agenda. I leave tomorrow for Jo’burg. I’ll then head northeast to Kruger National park, continue east to Mozambique, then south through Swaziland, and follow the South African coast to all the way to Cape Town.
This trip is going to entail a lot of hiking, camping and reconnecting with nature and wildlife (and not the kind of wildlife found in Shinsaibashi).
I’m going to make my way back slowly, passing through Singapore, Vietnam and Laos, arriving just in time to enjoy some time with Kirsty, Anthony and Mandy (who are all are staying at my bed & breakfast for a while – woot woot!).
While I’m away Yoko You, will be teaching my Zumba classes at Salsa House. She’s got some sexy salsa moves! Zumba’s really starting to pick up in Japan, and in just one year we’ve gone from 6 instructors to over 1600 certified instructors. If you have a chance, check out page 24 in this month’s edition of Kansai Scene. There’s a one-pager about Zumba in Japan
