The day everything went wrong but finally ended well

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Last Friday was the day everything went wrong. No pictures or anything special here, but I thought I should share that with you.

It was a normal day and I went to school as usual. I was actually excited because I planned to go try this new kendo club in the evening.

At the school, we were asked to purchase a new book to start to learn Kanji (hard stuff lol). So we were on our way to the school library to buy the book. After purchasing it, I was about to write into my phone the expense so I could keep trace of it... and there, my phone decided to die :/ It was just not turning on anymore. After restarting it and trying everything, it finally turned on but only to show me the starting screen where I should do the configuration. Like if it was a brand new phone. I was really scared I lost all my data, but having no internet at the school, I couldn't log in and then decided I will see that later at home. Once at home, after fighting with the phone for a good 30 min, it finally logged in and it was actually all ok :D

While doing that, my flatmate Femy (new English guy) arrived and we started to have a chat in the living room. Suddenly, my phone started to ring really loud and scream in Japanese. The kind of same sound like when your computer is attacked by a virus and your antivirus is warning you. I got really scared that my phone was broken, but what happened was even more scary. Femy, who speaks Japanese, recognise the phone was saying JISHIN JISHIN JISHIN. Jishin means earthquake :/ so we wondered what was happening until 30 seconds later when the flat started to shake. It was slow at the beginning and then got more and more powerful. We got actually scared as the earthquake was about 2 minutes non stop. When it finished, we watched the new to see there was a massive one in the west of Japan (6 on Richter scale). But at the end, no one died, and just few house got damage... It was my first earthquake in Japan, and living on the 6th floor, I have to say that is a scary experience 😊

After all this emotions, I continued my normal day until I went to kendo. This club is a regular club, not like Osaka castle which is more free practice. People where really nice and I started to get my stuff ready. An old guy (70+) came to talk to me asking me if that was my first time here and how long I have been in Osaka etc... As he was not dressed in kendo gears, I assumed he was a family member of someone from the club. Then we got called to do the starting ceremony. Going to get my stuff back, I saw the old guy looking over my bag, then leaving. I saw as well that the front pocket of my bag was open, so I run and saw that my wallet was gone. Screaming in Japanese "MY WALLET" (Watashi no walletto), I run outside the practice area to find the guy putting slowly his shoes on. I asked him to give me back my wallet and he faked not to understand me. Then with more power, I started screaming at him and he finally pulled my wallet out of his pocket and gave it back to me. Then he tried to run away, but I was decided not to let him to in case he stole something from someone else. I screamed really loud and some member of the kendo club came to ask what was happening. After explaining to them, they called the police which arrived in like 3 min. They took the old man and I had to do a declaration. The members of the club were really sorry and said it was the first time in the history of the club that something like that happened. I have to say that it is pretty stupid to try to steal in a martial art club with people fully geared to fight :P But at the end, I got back my wallet with everything in it, and no one else had stuff stolen...

After all this story and missing half of the practice, we got into kendo and I have to say that the training was really good. So I will be sure to go there again, will just lock my bag with locker 😉

After the training, the club apologised to me officially, which was a big thing, but a bit strange for me. Then, Katsuno-san, two other members of the club and I went for some food and drinks in a small restaurant nearby. We had a really fun time speaking Japanese and half English, and they were all really nice people.

As I said, that was a WRONG day, but everything was good at the end, so that's all what matters :D

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Comments

[Nicolas MENU]

Experiencing Japan
Earthquakes are really common. You'll get used to it. And, you probably got to meet the only thief in Japan, so that's quite something... lol