Social news update

Whoa.. when did it get to be November? ..and not just November, but MID-November?!

Hmm.. so there's been plenty of news lately, most of it not postable (non-postable items include things I believe would be offensive to someone and things I don't want the entire world to know). If you want clarification, e-mail me.

In postable news... I'm still working at making Japanese friends, which is going slowly. I've decided to start calling people on those "Oh we should do ~~~ some day" comments and pinning them down with specific dates. This includes my cool kendo instructors with their ambiguous "We should have dinner sometime" and the obaachan owner of the knitting store who promised she'd help me make open-fingered gloves (which I think will be essential winter non-heated-classroom garb). I've been away for the last few weekends (Izuhara Halloween and then the Nagasaki mid-year conference), so this weekend I settled back in the Hitakatsu area and roamed around on my bike for awhile smiling and saying "Konnichiwa" to people-- the nice thing is they have a social obligation to respond and I feel like I made contact with someone. (The bad thing is.. well.. how pathetic is it that a chorus of "hellos" from a bunch of random strangers is the closest I can get to human contact most days?)

...and thus my idea to search for a furry companion. I think if I had a furry companion waiting for me to get home, it wouldn't matter so much if human contact is limited. However, furry companions in Japan are quite expensive and present many other complications. So it may not happen... but even the dream of a furry companion has made the last month better.

While during my darker days I sometimes think that making Japanese friends is a hopeless goal, I haven't given up. Heck, I received my first vegetables this weekend. You know, that landmark that rural JETs always talk about.. sure, it may get old after I get 20 pounds of giant radishes, but right now it's awesome. Someone's giving me vegetables! They like me! Yeah! And now I can make soup!

I also finally made contact with the taiko people this weekend. The Shushu momiji matsuri (maple leaf festival) presented an excellent opportunity to track them down since they were performing. They seemed excited to have me as part of the group, so I gave them my contact info and someone will let me know when the next practice is. Some of the taiko members seemed younger, too, so perhaps my "There are no young people between the ages of 20-35 near Hitakatsu" statement wasn't entirely true. Young people are really rare, though... maybe they're all hiding out in the taiko group, practicing in someone's garage. Hopefully I'll find some more potential-friends in the taiko group.