bai-bai paati

A 6 cabin arc amidst south-Iwatean woods was the gathering point for the annual Sayonara party. Perfectly hidden from the British Embassy, and the Inner Party, so that a rice-fueled, flag-burning, chopsticks standing-rigid-in-the-rice orgy could take place. And did it ever.

AJET arrived with 8 tonnes of rice and Iwates biggest paddling pool available for rent, everybody had brought kerosene to ensure their flags would blaze instantly. I was naked and causing destruction, just like at last the rice party, but this time I had stolen 7 Japanese high-school students and tied them to a tree occasionally headbutting them and shouting 'China Is Number 1' in their faces. It was a cultural spectacular that O'Brien would have been licking WigoaurusRex's pasty head over. Eventually when the lube ran out and bones became weary we got down to some run of the mill hate rally stuff, but nothing worth blogging about, it certainly did miss DerFuhrers abilities of captivating the masses but we coped well enough.

Now O'Brien, you don't honestly think that's what happened. Do you?

More people than I'd expected showed up but then again it was certainly less than you would expect from the " JET community", indeed a gruff boo hummed around as news of another sayonara party also taking place that day was taking place. I guess it was just indicative, and the final rubber-stamping, on the attitudes and personalities endured whilst in the Iwate State Penitentiary.

The amount of booze available brought a tear to my eye. Kegs, tins and bottles; the three basic food types. More than a man could wish for as farewell lubricant. I started off the evening with a couple of draught beers before changing into my award-winning costume, which incidentally is still waiting on its award. Grrr. The pirate theme hadn't caught on like scurvy on Blackbeard’s ship but there was enough to stroike feeeeeeear unto the hearts of all landlubbers abaord the good ship AJET, aaaaaaargh. (Oh god) FlirtyShoulders as per usual tried to be a little to clever with her DVD-piracy theme while TittyBeavers outfit walked the plank and only HellaGhettos giant X an her ass hitting the spot. I'd come as an abducted leprechaun who'd managed to escape his pirate captors without revealing where me pot of gold was, tiddly-ay-dee-ay-dee-ay.

"AJET, make me a burger", was how I was fed thanks to the obedient T flipping the burgers but somehow I only managed one as my mind veered off course with the booze. Myself and ChainSmokinDub proceeded to make some highly innovative cocktails called 'Walk The Planks' which contained a little too much rum for even the most hardened of sea-pillager. They had an initial kick like a cannonball to the face but went down surprisingly well in the end. With the tiny beer cups just pissing me off I took charge of a bottle of rum and sat at the camp fire for the marshmallow roasting. A step down from the other type of roasting I attended last week, spit-roasting.

PalestGirlAlive was winner of most pissed person alive that night and decided to further with the letting of her ginger mane down by taking up chain smoking. A not-so-stylish lifestyle accessory as she coughed up at least a half a lung after her endeavors. I tried standing after about two hours of bench warming with the rum-straights and wobbled over to PalestGirlAlives gob and flushing an unhealthy instant dose of rum down her gullet before seeking the balanced sanctuary of a life sitting down.

Soon the party shifted to the cabin with only a few remaining by the fire. I had come full circle on sobriety-inebriation-sobriety and was alert enough to fear T's visiting mate from England who'd just done a tour of Afghanistan and delighted in telling me about his favourite guns. Wish he had of been all year round, would've swapped him for about 18 JET's in the area. It was decided that walking on fire be the next event of the night, so we did just that. Not the best idea running across dwindling embers at 6 in the morning, but something to kill time with nevertheless.

Everyone sought repose and some sought a little somethin' somethin'、well nothing more than an impromptu kiss. What I will say is, from what I heard, is that the both parties involved were rather surprised at the chemoistry and that this faintest of kisses was a little overdue as far as one party was concerned. One of the party’s consciences eventually kicked in and sabotaged the encounter, but that doesn't mean the encounter wasn't any less enjoyable, far from it from what I hear. One of the party's is really keen for a repeat performance while the other party is stewing over what happened and its consequences whilst not allowing spontaneity to have any influence whatsoever. One of the party's is now writing to major alcohol manufacturers to develop future products with a conscience nullifying agent to ride in tandem with the inhibition dousing agent that's already laced in most tasty alcoholic beverages.

While this took place most people were in boozy comas, in particular Sentence:Marriage who slept standing up and WeirdGirl who slept kneeling down after puking out mini cow patties all over the cabin.

The morning breezed by with AJET making me a bacon sandwich and then everyone blazing trails on home to their individual cells around the penitentiary. A few of us stragglers pulled a Stand By Me-like walk through the woods to the old waterfall where we had the pleasure of seeing FantasticHugger in her element. FantasticHugger is the human embodiment of nature and leapt straight in to Mother Nature’s bosom leaving us for dust in the secluded canyon. The Waterfall was colder than my last week’s reception with two JETs in Morioka station but a good time all the same, even FriendliestPersonInTheWorld got in for a fully clothed dip. FlirtyShoulders moped around with a hangover and TheCorpse is apparently allergic to the cold which might explain why she smells so bad given that you need to refrigerate a dead body to preserve it as best you can.

And so ended the first Sayonara party, after a 6 hour drive home, in Iwate amongst its disbanded 'community'. The Iwate 4 were missed and there was little emotion on show for a going away party. A strange placement where strange bonds have been formed out of locality and maintenance of sanity, would we all have hung out back home in uni or whatever? It's not yet time to summarise the year but to partly steal from the last line of Stand By Me: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was on JET. " A strange year, by far the strangest to date.