Hashika Outbreak!

I ended up with more time than I expected this morning. My first 2 classes at Hokkaido University of Education were canceled because of an outbreak of measles (hashika in Japanese). It had already hit another university earlier this year, but just after my classes had ended.

I still had to go in for my afternoon classes, which had 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students. How the measles epidemic ended up confining itself to 1st year students is something of a mystery to me. I also wonder how many students were actually infected.

The poor freshmen - their first week of college, an exciting time in anyone's life - and they're not allowed on campus! Well, we'll have a lot to talk about next week plus a new word to add to our vocabulary. (Hashika got added to mine!)