These Give Me Good Feelings.

First of all, this video. Is gorgeous. Gives me incredibly good feelings. I guess I'm just a big hippie at heart, but nature is so stunning that I have no idea how people would ever pass it by without noticing or (even worse, today's situation) want to destroy it. Anywho, I could go on forever about that shit. . . watch and enjoy. . .

Finding Oregon from Uncage the Soul Productions on Vimeo.

Secondly, I finally got to go to Fukuoka to see Steven! The trip was only frustrating because it was the first time I was doing it. I went to many places I had never been to before and I just hate being tired, confused, and longing to just be laying down somewhere with my beau. I drove to Ikku, near Kochi City, took a bus from Ikku to Okayama, then a shinkansen (bullet train) from Okayama to Hakata Station in Fukuoka.

Ikku was crazy confusing when it came to finding a parking spot, but I hope next time will be much easier. An overly-helpful man showed me how to get to the shinkansen to buy tickets and where to stand for it. It was really quite an enjoyable ride, very fast and comfortable. I got the "ju-seki" seats which meant we had to find an open seat anywhere on the first three cars and sit. It costs about　円2,000 less to do it this way and it really wasn't a bother, since I got there earlier than the rest. Steven met me at Hakata Station to show me the way to his place. I had no idea just how big Okayama and Fukuoka Cities were going to be! MAN I live in a tiny place. . .

While in Fukuoka, I really didn't get to see, erm, Fukuoka. Friday night, I was beat, so we just stayed in. Saturday, all day, Steven's Wajiro Junior High School staff had a volleyball tournament which was, of course, followed by an enkai (drinking party). They were great fun and very excited to meet me. One girl reminded me of my friend Naomi quite a bit, only twice as Japanese.

The latest bus leaving Okayama on Sunday was at 2:20, which was incredibly irritating to find out. This meant I had to leave Hakata around noon. Only one and a half days in Fukuoka. . . While packing, I realized I had left my shinkansen ticket in my wallet which I had left at the Izakaya (pub) the night before! What a damn mess. Today I had to mail the ticket I bought to replace the lost one to Steven so he could try to get the money back for the first one I purchased. What can I say, I am accident inevitable. . . Though it was brief, it was a nice weekend.

Thirdly, THIS video:


Lately, I keep thinking "wow, it's so warm!" during the day and "how effing freezing!" at night. I enjoy and hate this time of year. With the warmth, I'm finding mosquitoes and mossie bites all over me as well as my nightly slugs (which have tripled in size since the summer). With the cold, getting a shower, waking up in the morning, and going to use the toilet downstairs after I've been in my cozy, warm bed are a real bitch. WOO!

It's hard to believe it's almost X-mas. . . In Japan, just like in the U.S., as soon as Halloween is over, the Christmas stuff comes out! Because I really feel like I haven't contributed much of anything to my town as far as cultural exchange, I'm throwing a Winter Dance Party for the JHS students! I have no ifdea how well this will go. . . instead of making it solely for my school, I decided to invite the entire Chugei area, which means the neighboring towns of Tano, Nahari, Umaji, Kitagawa, and mine - Yasuda. I hope a lot of kids come. I'm really excited because, in America, middle school dances are always a bit awkward, but here, it's going to be insanely awkward. . . so we'll have face-painting, games, and snacks to try to keep them calm.

I'm pretty sure Steven and I are planning a trip to Korea over winter break, since Fukuoka is so close. We'll see how that goes, though.

Can't wait!

What happened to October!? Been A While, ね. . .

Well, well, well. . . I can't believe October flew by like that (and November is half way through, too)! There was so much going on, though, that I just never got around to writing anything up. I will try to sum things up as best as I can. . .

October 2nd, Steven finally arrived in Japan. He was in Tokyo for orientation with Interac, the company he works for. In my opinion, they are pretty shit, but they gave him a job and that's what matters. As I was going to Tokyo the 7th to meet him, Interac let him know that he had indeed been placed and was supposed to leave for his city on the 7th around 2, an hour after I arrive. BASTARDS! However, we worked it out and he ended up flying to his Contracting Organization that morning, meeting them, and flying back to Tokyo that same evening. Poor guy, probably jet-lagged and everything taking 2 flights the same day.

Tokyo was not as big and confusing as I thought it was going to be. Somehow, I managed to navigate the city with ease, even when I was sometimes lost. . . it was easy to get back on track again. We met up with my friend Mamiko, who showed us around a little, taking us to a Kyushu (which is the island Steven is on now) food festival. We visited Harajuku, watched the Rockabilly dancers in Yoyogi Park, went to a lovely cafe with an art gallery, nice selection of beer (for Japan), and trees sticking up through the tables, and made lampwork beads with some awesome Japanese hippie guys. Steven and I found the best curry soup place in Japan. We had a wonderful (and expensive) three and a half days together until he had to go back to Fukuoka and I had to fly to the US for my small holiday/ friend's wedding.

In the US, everything was a bit strange. Many things were how I expected; too big, rude, loud, and rushed. I almost cried in the airport when the luggage guy growled at me for being in his way after the other luggage guy told me to be there. Pathetic, I know, but it was a bit of reverse culture shock. I got over it quickly. . . I felt the need to have cash at all times, since Japan is such a cash culture. I had forgotten about the whole "card culture" in America. My darling friend, Justine, picked me up and I'm pretty positive my time there was non-stop from that point on. I showered at her place to get rid of that "just been dragged around the world for the past 20 hours" feeling and we headed out right away. It was Tuesday, $2 pint night, so we went there. I had hoped to meet up with many other friends there at the same time, but no contact, no showing up, and I was too knackered even if they had been there. . .

It really was lovely getting to see old friends again. Debora and Adrian were preparing for their wedding. It was strange to see them in my old place, but they did make it very very nice, as opposed to my mess of clutter and electronics. Lindsay came to hang out despite her living outside the city now and her father being in the hospital. Kayla had a new beau (who I'm not terribly sure of yet, as a protective friend of that darling) and he was around for a while, too. We all had a great Moroccan dinner together to celebrate the couple's marriage.

My friends Emily, Ijeoma, and Mercedes also met up in the city and we ate at a Mandarin restaurant that we went to back in our City Year days. It was a lovely reminder of good people and the things they are doing as the river of life flows on.

Justine's boyfriend turned 21 and we celebrated with Bloody Marys at brunch.

I got to see both my mother and father in a very short time period, which is always nice in a strange way. My father came to have lunch and Justine came along to that as well. My mother came the day after that to Debora's wedding. It was a gorgeous event, perfect for the Jewish/ Portuguese/ Neo-Hippie/ Culture-loving couple. I was a bridesmaid, along with Kayla and Debora's high school friend, Valeria.

Immediately after the wedding, I went back to Justine's and packed for my flight a few hours later.

The trip back to Japan was a mess. . . I left my passport in Justine's car and I knew she didn't have her phone, so I had to wait until she got back home to have her return to the airport at 5am. Luckily she didn't live too far away. I just made the flight. In Texas, I also just barely made the flight. First, I waited for baggage which, it turned out, had been already put on the connecting flight. Second, I traveled to the area which was supposed to be the departing gate: gate 9. There was no gate 9, only 8 and right next to that, 10. WTF!?!? I asked the woman at 10 and she said "It's supposed to say 'gate 35' and that is on the other side of the airport. . . you better hurry because it's final call!" >_< I ran as fast as I could, with my name blaring over the loudspeaker. . . "STEPHANIE STONER, LAST CALL FOR THE FLIGHT TO TOKYO!!!" Fucking embarrassing. . . Made it back to Tokyo Narita airport and asked the woman at arrival gate how I should get to the Haneda airport in time for the flight to Kochi. "You are just barely going to make it," she said. In a calm panic (if that's possible) she helped speed me through customs and onto a bus for Haneda. This was probably the most relaxing time of travel. Haneda to Kochi was not too bad (except for the fact that somewhere along the way I had gotten some kind of head cold, making the descent into Kochi excruciatingly painful) and Kondo sensei met me at Ryoma airport to drive me home. How CRAZY! There was an art meeting that weekend. It was nice, we chatted about upcoming things, like a show we wanted to make and an art book we wanted to create between us. I volunteered to go first, which proved to be a difficult task. . . This is what I came up with, anyway:

The second grade junior high school class had an outing at a semi-famous pastry factory which took a long time to get to, a long time to wait for beforehand, and a very short time to actually tour. Because we ended so soon, the teacher in charge decided it would be fun to have another trip, so we went to the Noichi Zoo. It was both sad and adorable. The welcome sign was shocking to me. The giraffes and hyenas were probably the best parts of the tiny zoo, which only just got giraffes a few years ago. Good times. . .

My predecessor's predecessor, Nathan, came to Yasuda one day to visit the places he used to work and live. He is from Minnesota and was very sweet and so was his wife, Katie. The students mostly remembered him, even though he was here about six years ago. I showed him what I've made of the house, which he was in when he was the Yasuda-cho ALT, and he claimed it was pretty much the same. It was a nice opportunity that I doubt many JETs get to experience.

Yasuda had the Konomine shrine festival, which was tiny and adorable. In the day, they had moved the 1,500 or so pound golden shrine to the beach a long way away and at night, they partied on. There was a little performance of "four Gods and a demon" as well as the usual little food carts and games. My students went nuts every time we walked by each other in the tiny streets, which was quite often.

There was also a festival in Kitagawa Village where we, once again, did kyudo archery. Since I had done it last year, I was kind of the teacher for the non-Japanese speakers. We all did really well, though. Such a great and unique experience.

Throughout October, I helped at a few Halloween parties dressed as a black cat. The only thing I had to buy was a pair of stockings since Steven and I purchased some cat ears last year for the jungle party. They were exhausting but good fun. On real Halloween, I dressed as the Yasuda train station character since a few of us thought it might be cute. There is a famous cartoon in Japan called "Anpanman" and the cartoonist from that was a Kochi-ite. He also drew our station characters on the east side of Kochi. That being said, only the people on the east side of Kochi really know what they are, so no one at the giant Kochi City Halloween Party knew who the hell we were. I wanted to be gory, since that's a big part of why I enjoy Halloween, so I put a fish hook on my neck with a bunch of blood. That made me feel a bit better. We went out dancing after we left Hirome, this popular food place in the city. Dancing was lame as always, but we had a decent time.

We crashed at our friend Johnny's place somewhere just outside the city. I didn't feel like I had drunk too much, but the next day, I was sick until about 3pm. We didn't know where the train was and some lovely lady drove us back to Kochi City to get my car. I had left my keys at Johnny's but, luckily, had a spare. Lucy drove as I continued spewing the entire way back. I woke up around 8 to have my first meal of the day. Train wreck. . .


My Halloween lessons went well. I had bought a giant bag of candy in the U.S. big enough for every student in Yasuda. They all loved them. I don't think teachers ever give students candy here, so they were almost in tears they were so excited. They've always loved me, but they really loved me after that.


Steven came to visit Kochi/ Yasuda on November 4th. It was amazing to have him back here again. It felt as though he had never left! Everyone was excited to see him, ask about Fukuoka, etc. We had a party to celebrate, for which I made a trivia game. That was frustrating but great fun. I love trivia games. . . they bring me back to my time in Australia. We had a really busy time that weekend, with Aki Culture Festival, the trivia party, and Yasuda town sports day/ sports day enkai (party).

It was sad to see him leave after such a short time, but I plan to go there the 25th of November. I have applied to transfer from Kochi to Fukuoka for next year. The process has been irritating, to say the least. I really really hope it happens but, if it doesn't, I am seriously considering leaving JET to pursue a position with another company in Fukuoka anyway. We may very well have to get married in order to make this happen. . . fucking idiots. . . We're going to make it work out, no matter what.

I assisted with the English testing called "Eiken," which is a very serious thing for many Japanese students. I interviewed junior high school and high school students. Some were so nervous that I thought they were going to vomit or have a heart attack right in front of me. We were paid quite well for it and had a "delicious Japanese lunch" AKA Japanese bento box lunch, and a lovely treat from the Aki bakery, "Yogashi Club": cheesecake, macha / cream roll, and a cream puff, mmm. I hope I get asked to do it again. . .


The other day, it was November the eleventh of two thousand eleven (11/11/11) and at 11/11/11, 11:11 AM, I was teaching fourth graders the names of vehicles. We played a game I made up where I shout out the name of a vehicle and they have to form it with their bodies according to certain rules. Very cute. I wanted to strangle the third graders, but ４年 was great, since they have a very domineering teacher this year. At 11/11/11, 11:11 PM, I was singing karaoke (Queen's "We Are the Champions") at a tiny place in Nahari town with the other Chugei area JETs and some of the members of our various Boards of Education. Great fun.

Well, longer than I wanted, but that sums up what has happened worth mentioning, I think. . .

Life is rolling along and it's hard to believe the end of 2011 is here. . .