Okonomiyaki

Next morning/afternoon we had okonomiyaki (like a savoury pancake with cabbage, other veggies and fish or meat or whatever you want!) in a little place in SeaMall (a big mall fairly close to my apartment) where you cook it yourself on the table. Yummy!! (note that Steph is having her first beer of the day; it's around noon ;)


Video games in the mall.


Autumnal Equinox themed purikura.


Back at Becky's, looking through magazines she just received from home.

Back in Shimonoseki for El Diablo's tour

The wall of one of Steph's old uni haunts



I think this picture pretty much sums up Stephanie's personality. The handcuffs, gun, and badge came in a set, and were used to cuff herself to the railings on the train, and to shoot little suction cups at unsuspecting victims.



Anita and Becky



Me and Steph

Beautiful Hagi, day two

(these are digital pictures from Becky's camera--thank you Becky--because I only shot film this day)


The gorgeous, and nearly deserted, beach in Hagi. We were pretty much the only people on the beach, because after the middle of August the Japanese people don't swim because of the threat of jelly-fish. Fortunately we didn't see many of them this day, although a few people were stung the night before.


Volleyball--The U.S. vs. the Commonwealth (+Panama) ;) Unfortunately the Commonwealth's wouldn-be best player was already well into the "cocktail partner" at this point and ended up doing more tackling of her own teammates than anything else.



Swimming. The water was gorgeous; it was the warmest water I've ever gone swimming in! And the clearest and bluest! Perfect on a hot day!


Steph on the train ride home...

Beautiful Hagi!

From Tokuyama, we caught a bus to Hagi for some time at the beach. We arrived in late afternoon, then went out for drinks and some karaoke.


Having some gorgeous drinks in Pete's newly pimped-out apartment.

Tokuyama

After a second meeting in Yamaguchi city with all the other new JETs, we headed for Tokuyama. Went to a very good Indian restaurant, then a couple of bars, and stayed with Christine from Florida.



Matt, me, Anita, Pete, Christine at a little bar...



Marina and Erin at a slightly bigger bar.


And at the close of the evening, poor Pete got his face written on after he was the first to pass out...pictured here with the triumphant Christine and Steph.

Potluck, teaching teachers, enkai (welcome party)

Bakan Dancing

Isla de Salsa

We started the weekend with a salsa festival on an Island I don't remember the name of outside of Fukuoka city (about 1 1/2 hours south of me by bus or train). There were quite of few of us, most of the Shimonoseki city JETs and two from Hagi.



It started pouring rain on our bus ride down from Shimo, so we bought umbrellas at the 100 yen store (like a dollar store) in Fukuoka.


After a very muddy hike down a hill through some trees we arrived at a very muddy beach filled with lots of music and dancing people. Lots of these pictures are from Becky's camera because I took pictures mostly with my real camera. I didn't realize how tropical it would be there; there were even more palm trees than in Shimonoseki. The beach was gorgeous. There were so many foreigners there that I felt like I wasn't in Japan anymore. There were lots of stands making mohitos and pina coladas.


The stage


Found this girl on the beach and asked if I could take her picture (these are digital photos taken of my actual photos, so sorry for the bad quality). Very unusual to see a Japanese girl with any tattoos at all, let alone one so big. Traditionally having a tattoo means you are Yakuza, so if you have even a small tattoo you can get kicked out of public baths because it scares people. Apparently she is a tattoo artist in Fukuoka. She clearly loved the attention she got from the tattoo, and a small crowd of people gathered around and took pictures as well.

Becky on a big swing hanging off a palm tree on the beach



Jonathan and Anita salsa dancing



I didn't witness the destruction of Matt's umbrella, but apparently Becky and he had a fight; as you can see, Becky won.




The two "yaki" of any outdoor event in Japan, yakisoba (above) and yakitori (below).

Our whole group: Pete (NZ), Matt (Wales), Becky (England), Selena (Scotland), Stirling (US), Anita (US), Jonathan (US), and me.

More Karaoke and the "Beer Station"

A night of fun at the Beer Station. There never seem to be any other customers in this huge bar, which I guess is good because that way we don't disturb people with our loud English...
Yukari (who works at the city hall) and Stirling




Stirling, Matt (Wales), and Pete (N.Z.). Matt and Pete live in Hagi (which is at the opposite end of the prefecture from Shimonoseki) but come down often to party with us.


Beer Station was followed by a night of karaoke at Shidax.

We walked home from the Karaoke place and I discovered that if you are from the UK, and have had a few drinks, a fun activity is putting cones on your head (see below) then leaving them in your housemate's apartment.