It's been almost a year now since being stuck on this tiny little half-island in the belly of Kyushu. Suzie, my dearest friend out here, and I are pretty much alone down at the bottom of this peninsula, with only movies and the occasional un-working Erich to keep us company. We kind of drew the short straw in terms of having lots of people to hang out with: the JETs closest to us have their own friends, and the people in Shimabara are lovely but an hour away. Carlos, our other dearest friend, is leaving this year and I will be SO SAD when he leaves!

Out with the old, in with the new...

So Suzie and I have been praying that the 2 new JETs placed closest to us are sane. (Well, I've just been praying for their sanity...Suzie is probably praying for hot Scottish men...actually, I wouldn't mind that either!) Just decent people...that's all I ask.

I guess we'll see next month...

But I'm forgetting the original purpose of this post: we finally made a Japanese friend! Her name is Ayako, and she works at the local convenience store. We met her one day when I was trying to buy edamame, and she said in perfect English, "I'm sorry, but I can't sell these to you because they are expired." My jaw dropped to the floor, I forgot all about the edamame, and a friendship began.

Ayako is lovely - she majored in English at university, and she currently has a Dutch boyfriend who she talks to on the Internet. Her English is so good that sometimes I forget she really is Japanese. And she lives right here in Kazusa!

It's funny how when you want something bad enough, it just appears at the local Family Mart and won't sell you edamame.