We found out that Steven is now an alternate with Interac. They "hired more people than they have positions for currently." BASTARDS! We know for a fact there are at least two positions in Noichi in Kochi Prefecture, but they claim to know nothing about this. He'll start work in mid- to late October, in Tokyo, then go wherever they need him (which means when someone quits or gets fired) whenever that happens. It is good that he will be closer, but so frustrating that we know he could be here. Ugh.
On a brighter note, Monday was my last visit to the Kochi University Hospital for my knee! Great news, right? I'm a little nervous that something will go wrong now, though. I have quite a bit of bad luck in my life. . . I also got the insurance claim back, WOOHOO!!! Even better news! These have been some of the only pieces of good luck to happen to me for a while.
Yesterday, Angela and I took some newbie JETs to Kochi City for some Yosakoi fun. It was pretty nice, just chilling with people, no real stress. The day wasn't planned out the best, but things turned out all right. We even got to meet Captain Jack Sparrow out there! The new Umaji JET, Ben, isn't currently able to drive his car since the paperwork can't be completed until he has his gaijin (foreigner) card all sorted. Who knows how long that might take. The poor guy is pretty lonely and isolated out there in the woods all by himself. Anywho, I drove him home yesternight, since I live the closest. We had quite a late night and we both just wanted to get home, so I was going a little faster than I should have been.
Right outside of Yasuda, my town, a guy came into the street with a flashing triangle and a light wand. It looked to me like some kind of construction thing. But, at 11:30ish at night? I realized the triangle was a stop sign and came to a stop. Then, he motioned for me to come into this area that was pretty separated from the road. When I came around, I saw a big van of cops and two small cop cars sitting in this area. For whatever reason, my first thought was "rape!?" but this was clearly something to do with police, so I figured that was highly unlikely for inaka (countryside) Japan. I also had Ben in the car with me. Perhaps this was a breath test for drunk drivers?
They had me stop the car and I rolled down the window. The officer said clearly "your speed, too much". FUCK! I heard about people going 30kph over getting their license revoked! I'm pretty positive I was going about 85 at some point here! He continued, "This road, 50. Your car, 74." WELL, at least I wasn't 30 above! Still, this scene was waaay too serious and dramatic and intimidating. UGH!
They had me get out of the car and get into the passenger seat in the van. This whole process was eerie and surreal. They asked me about where I lived and what I did for work and where I was from. I felt like this was going to be published in the papers or something! How embarrassing. . . Ben is fluent in Japanese, so he helped a bit. We talked quickly about whether or not we should pretend to be ignorant as far as what they were talking about, but it was all pretty clear. I also JUST got my Japanese license, which was such a pain in the ass! >_< I just wanted to get out of there. ￥15,000 and 2 points off my license later, the time I tried to spare with fast driving was all taken up getting fined and signing forms for the ticket. Today, at lunch, I spilled my somen all over myself. I cried a little. What's going on? Must be a mix of slight financial troubles, trying to get Steven over here, disgusting heat, frustration at the lack of nothing to do at work, and my emotions getting the best of me through it all. **Japanese people use the word "genki" to describe people that are a combination of happy, energetic, healthy, and lively. It's used all the time. It's a good thing to be genki, even though my thought when i hear the word is something more like skinny, awkward and dorky.
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