WE'RE ON A BOAT!

Last Thursday there was some kind of Nipponofile boat cruise organized. Among the scantily clad japanese girls, dread-locked japanese guys, grizzled exchange veterans, and dancey weirdos, us Toronto JET newbs tried to eek out a spot on the boat.

However, as with any group of freshly greened newbs, we were eager and, with some help from my general social whoredom, we were all able to connect with people we recognized from various info/training sessions, and by the end of the night we had assembled us a bit of a 2009 Toronto JET posse:

(some of) JET T.O. 2009

It's kind of unfortunate that, as of August, all of us Toronto kids will be scattered to opposite corners of Japan. These kids are alright, and we had us a crazy time Thursday night. Here's hoping the burgeoning JET Toronto couch surfing network pans out and we'll be able to leverage it for some further nights of madness in Japan.

Also, I want to go on record stating that I think the whole peace-sign thing is getting a little out of hand. I mean, I'm sure that sharing in that particular Japanese meme could be argued to be an essential part of integrating over there, but I ain't going to do it.

You can rest assured that if you ever see me throw up the ol bunny ears, I'll either be sauced or ironic.

Where is Furubira, anyway?

YAY FOR MAPS!

Snooping around on googlemaps, I think I found Furubira, so it's time for some geography:

Furubira-Cho is where I'm supposed to wind up, and Sapporo looks like the nearest big urban centre. It's also got the brewery where they bottle one of Japan's most popular beers: Sapporo. 

Score.

Craig's girlfriend Sonomi is also JETing over to Japan for a year, and she'll be hanging out in Aomori Prefecture, which ain't so far.

...and here's Japan. Yep; we're at the ass-north end of Japan, which--for good or ill--is exactly what I was hoping for. I'm hoping the fact that we're, essentially, further north than North Korea keeps us safe from any stray ICBMs.

Welcome to Furubira

From Bassguitar, via Flickr

It's official. I'm going to Japan.

In the letter I received today from the Consulate-General of Japan, I was informed, in no uncertain terms, that I will be heading to Furubira-Cho in Hokkaido Prefecture for my year-long teaching contract.

Being an eager little JET, I proceeded to googlemap Furubira-Cho, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan...only to discover that, as far as Google was concerned, it didn't exist. Considering Google seems to have more pull than the governments of some countries these days when it comes to deciding whether things do or don't exist, I was a little worried.

Fortunately, though it be lower on the I-decree-this-to-be-fact totem pole, Flickr had something for me when I punched in Furubira-Cho. It returned the above picture by Steve McInnes, and I immediately decided that Furubira-Cho was somewhere I wanted to be.