Day 51 (Osaka) : Merry Swine Flu-iday

This is one of those "when pigs fly" scenarios. More than four hundred schools have been closed in Osaka because of an outbreak of about ninety cases of swine flu in the area. Normally having school officials tell you that you're off for a week vacation is great news. This time it's bitter sweet, because the week we take off now will be made up during the summer vacation. In addition they may take an additional week if the flu is still spreading around. In that case summer vacation will drop from three weeks to one.

Thanks to that I now have an abundance of time to find parks to practice softball at but no good motivation to study Japanese. The plan for now is to get some brave souls to venture out into the mist of swine flu for a study group somewhere. I got the kanji test back that I was hyped about earlier and yes, I did get my first perfect score. Woot! I broke out the shogi board last night but the rules are crazy hard. Unlike chess where the pieces move in a single fashion, the majority of pieces in shogi can be upgraded by reaching the opposite die of the board and their movement pattern changes. In addition, you can place captured pieces back on the board. It all seems very bad ass to me so I'm excited to get into it.