I love life's random small gifts.

They are never extremely significant, but they can really make a day.

Today started out like any other day. On Tuesdays I am contracted to teach at a small business in the suburbs about a 10 min train ride away from Hakata. There are only 2 students and they are really cool so it is nice and laid back. I always take the 11:55 train, and it is the only one I know how to take to get there. The train is only 3 cars so I always have difficulty remembering where to stand exactly on the platform (Hakata is soooo big) so that I don't have to run to wherever the train parks itself. This time I decided to go to the furthest end where there were benches and listen to my ipod since I was a little early. Then, my friend called me and I was chatting. I looked up and saw the time was 11:55 so I got ready to get on, the train approached me.....and kept going. =( I missed it!!! I kind of freaked out because I wasn't sure when the next train would be, etc. I went to the JR people and luckily one of them spoke decent English and they told me which train to take, but it was leaving at 12:11 and my lesson started at 12:30 (and you know how J people feel about tardiness) so I was a little stressed. I made it to the station and literally booked it, heels and all, for my usual 10ish minute walk to the office. I literally made it at exactly 12:30, sweaty and disgruntled, and positive today was going to be awful starting out like that.

But...I walked in and they said "Um....so we had an idea to go to Dazaifu today (big shrine-see blog entry in May), is that OK?" Of course it was. However I was a little skeptical as I was in all black today and it was humid as hell (I imagined we'd be walking around the land/they'd make me teach them outside or something). But when we got there I realized the deal. Their president who is super nice (and speaks very good English) opened a cafe in Dazaifu with his father who is calligraphy artist. So they just took me to the opening day of the cafe. It was really nice (and had AC), I got a free beverage, and there is an aromatherapy school upstairs and the lady gave me some oil as a gift. No lesson. Just free talk. Then they took me to one of the temples I had been to before, but it was a bit more helpful having someone there to explain what things meant, etc. Then they dropped me off at work, where I didn't even have lessons today due to a schedule change this week, so I just had a luxury of time prepping for the week. Not a bad day I must say =)

I am a firm believer that for all the bad there is in life, there will always be plenty of good to balance it out/make it even better =)