Fuujin: Kaze-no-Kami

Fuujin. Japanese god of the wind. His origins are from the Hellenistic influences and trade routes of ancient Asia. He was Boreas in Greece, god of the north wind. In Greco-Bhuddist art, he was Wardo. Later in China, he became Tarim. Finally, he ended up in Japanese Shinto tradition as one of the oldest gods. He's considered demonic, but faithfully serves Buddha because of his defeat by Buddha's army of heaven.

I can honestly attest to his demonic nature. The word in Japanese for wind is 風 (kaze);. This just also happens to be the word for an illness or a cold. In English, we catch colds. In Japanese, they say (kaze o hiku), meaning to catch a wind.

To allay your fears (in case you had any), I am not sick. Although, I expect to be in a matter of days. Why, you ask? Well, today I taught 7th grade. I was supposed to teach 8th grade, but classes have been cancelled for the rest of the day. There were a whopping 8 out of 30 students in class today. But, by now, another three 7th graders have gone home sick. It's mandatory hospital procedure that any student diagnosed with the flu must stay home for 5 days. Since they all have the flu, we're unlikely to have classes for the rest of the week. They've already been cancelled for tomorrow. I would normally be excited about this, but teachers still have to come to school. In fact, I believe that teachers come to school even if they have the flu. It's a mystery to me why they do it, but they are very dedicated.

The reason I'm so worried about this flu epidemic is that I leave for Hawaii in 5 days. It'll make for a very different trip if I have the flu. And, after paying over $1000 for my flight, I'm not about to miss it. Well, here's to good health and happy vacationing! Please wish me luck...

Maikeru (Raijin: God of Thunder)
^_^

P.S. Credit for the image comes from Wikipedia. The link to the article is Fujin)