The other JET's

So, there's two other JET's who work for the Fukutsu Board of Ed. Both have been [and I hope you're reading this - and if you're not, what a waste of a compliment] exeptionally nice and helpful to me in transitioning to Japan.

First off, there's Kathy, in her second year of the JET program. [Sorry for using the pic of you eating Kath, it's the only one of you I had of you by yourself. That's my story and I"m sticking to it.] A relentlessly cheerful and optimistic young lady, which, btw, is refreshing to be around, cynical malcontent that I can be.

Kathy, at age 23, already has her Master's Degree, fences, plays volleyball and tennis, scuba dives, does taiko [Japanese drums] and is that person you read about that actually throws herself into whatever experience presents itself to her.

I think she's probably a cybernetic android sent from the future designed to make the rest of us feel bad about how little we do with our lives.

Of course that's only a working hypothesis.

Her weblog is here, btw ibuki16's Xanga Site

And then there's Malik. A 3rd JET, in every sense of the word. Exudes a bit of the "been there, done that" uber-relaxed vibe, which is also very cool to be around. And in the niftiest bit of synchronicity I've come across lately, a conversation in the office revealed that he's also a Robert Anton Wilson fan [one of my favorite authors] along with the gnostic classics like the works of P.K. Dick and the latest and greatest from Disinformation...

To come across that rather unusual coincidence, a fellow fan of RAW, Disinfo and the counterculture, halfway around the world in a small town in Japan... well, I think that means something.

Though I'm not entirely sure what yet.

They both worked for the Fukuma BOE before the merger, so they actually live down the road a bit. About 20-25m away by bike... So they're not in the BOE everyday, Kathy working with the clubs at the schools she teaches at and Malik doing... ummm... other things. I think. [Sorry dude, this is a place for the truth :) ]

They live right across from the JR Fukuma station [the fast train into the city] and are really centrally located to just about everything in the area. As a trade off, I think my apt is a little nicer than theirs. Or at least they paid the lip service of saying how lucky they thought I was and how nice the place is. [Which it really is. More on that later.] Sandy though, has already spoken of envy as to their location. We're actually close to a train too, the Nishitetsu line [as opposed to the JR] which is good, but muuuuuuuuch slower. If it takes 20-25 minutes to make it down to the city [20m away or so] by JR, it probably takes about 45-50m to make it by Nishitetsu.

I actually always took the Nishitetsu into the city when I worked at Crazy Cock [the bar I worked the door at when we lived here before] but that was only on the weekends. Plus, I really had no problem with the slow train... take a book and you're good to go.