Abunai desu kara...(あぶないですから。。。）

In english, "Abunai" means dangerous. Mothers say it to kids all the time and the train station tells you that because it's dangerous you should stand behind the yellow line (a reasonably safe distance away from the arriving train).

Today I have learned that private tutoring can be dangerous as well. Of course, this is part common sense and part, 'what the frick'!? As it is, I came home to a news report about a british woman who taught enlgish here in Japan and her murder. Turns out a Japanese man had approached her at the station about lessons. I'm not sure if I'm understanding this correctly, but he may have been following her before hand. She was a teacher normally so I guess she didn't think anything of him asking. Now, none of this seems terribly off balance to me (except the possibility that he was following her). The dangerous part was that she agreed to meeting the man in his home. Not smart. Not even I, as naive as I can be, would make that mistake. IN the end he murdered her in his apartment.

Okaasan has now pretty much told me I am never to EVER meet anyone in their home for english lessons (which is a duh). Although....now that I think of it I meet Mrs. Fujisawa in her home. Of course, I met her through a reliable contact and the first time I met her was very public.

Moral: If you're meeting someone you don't know well for a lesson then meet them at starbucks or somewhere equally public and safe.

By the by, this freaks me out a hell of a lot.
but what can you do?

Much love!
PS: I've put some pictures on photobucket. I moved the pics from mom's trip into an album titled "mom and rae" and I uploaded pictures from Andrew's parent's trip into an album as well. I still have pictures from nara to upload and I am still planning to write lots of detailed info on all the places I visited. I'm currrently trying to figure out registration and stuff so It might have to wait till classes start.