My 9th grade class has been out pickin' mushrooms in the woods surrounding our school for the last month or so (remember the fateful accident where I feel and gouged huge holes in my hand). Well, on Tuesday, one group of students found a seemingly abandoned tent in the woods. One of the members of that group found what looked to him like a human bone! So they went back and reported all of this to the principal who in turned called the police. The police went out and investigated the tent and talked to the students and found that someone had committed suicide in the tent! Talk about surprised!!! All of the students had to go into the prinicipals office w/the police officer and he in turn told them what he found. Japan needs to get it together because their folks are really just committing suicide left and right out here.

Gosh, its been about a week since I last came here to blog. I feel like a stranger in my own journal. Last week was like a whirlwind trying to catch up from being away in Gunma for 4 days. I went to a really fun Halloween party this weekend and didn't really dress up as anything but I wore a black dress my black knee boots and my friends wig, i put on make up and stuff like I was going out...but the thing is folks here so rarely see me dressed up like...uh...NEVER! So when I got to the party, people were kinda cordial but weren't acting like they knew who I was! I was so surprised, but the wig hair is really long and looked pretty good on (from what others say, you know how modest I am...I'd never say). I can't wait until I see the pictures from that night. I ended up staying with my friend Alberto

I wanna go home for Christmas!!! I won't be able to buy my ticket for two more weeks and I know the prices are going to be off the roof by then. A friend of mine was supposed to come visit but I guess things just got real busy for her and she just couldn't get back to me...its sad but now I'm ready to go home. My mom isn't expecting me. She didnt' think I'd have the funds. Honestly I didn't either and unless I get a really good deal from the travel agent, I may be here for the holidays...I'll just keep praying that all will work out well.

I just got finished watching this movie called Black and White. Its a really good movie. I would definitely suggest renting it if you can get hold of the movie. I saw the trailer on one of the tapes I rented from the Video Store. The movie is crazy...it deals a lot with race, but I guess my problem is movies like that only make me have less trust in people. I'm thinking the main point was no matter what color you are and what your position is in life you can still be shady and scandelous. There were a lot of plots going on together but it was very well written as well as acted

RACE: is constantly in my face. I can't decide how I feel about race. I can't decided if its colors that separate us or history or both and more...uh, as if enough things in life aren't confusing me like present and past tense and japanese verbs, now I'm on this quest to dechiper how I feel about race. I think what I'll do is begin my own sort of race chronicles. Separate from this blog of course because after all this is supposed to be decided to my life in Japan, like race isn't a factor in that...?

Anyway, My inside voice and outside voice are competing so its time to go.

I love Harlem Nights. This is my most recent find in the book store called "Book Off". They have all the used CDs and movies you could think of. I have been slowly adding to my movie collection buy films that are 500-900yen ($4-7). My favorite line from the movie is when Benny says to Vera "well swallow it and shut the F up!" Classic Movie line!

I am reading a new book called Manchild in the Promise land. Erica gave it to me this weekend. I had been reading Harry but it wasn't holding my attention. I still have every intention to finish up the first book I started, but I am enjoying this book so far. Reading, studying Japanese and watching movies consumes my after work time. But that is cool with me because I like doing all three!

Not a the relaxing week or weekend I envisioned. When I decided to go to Gunma to visit my friend Erica, I didn't know that I'd end up working Thursday and Friday!!! I was supposed to be taking my vacation days for having to work, but ended up at work with her teaching both days! It was fun I must say having more students to play with and talk to since her school is so big, but still, it was work. We had a good time though, catching up and doing some shopping. I bought a few long sleeve shirts to hold me off until I get the last bit of my winter clothes here. We hung out with some of the ALTs (English teachers) from her prefecture and they are quite different from my Yamanashi peeps. I'm sure she thinks our folks are weird but I've grown used to hanging out with them. Our prefecture is so small that I see just about all the ALTs from the JET program that live here often and we know each others names and its all cool. With Erica's folks, she was just introduced to a lot of them for the first time. It helps to me with getting adjusted knowing that there are so many other people who I can call or talk to that don't live very far away.
My prefecture is also much prettier than hers. The are so many mountains and small valley villages and the leaves are starting to change and driving past nature in all its glory, I just love it! Going to her prefecture was a nice drive. It took me about 3 hours. But once you get there its nothing but country and flat land. She lives in an apartment complex called Maruwa Heights. There are nothing but Brazilians out there and anything called "Heights" you know from the door is ghetto! It was a lot of fun, good time was had and coming home was much appreciated.

My friend Hazel gave me a flower before I left and when I got home...it was almost dead. I still think she is trying to hold on so I'm bringing her to school tomorrow to see if the school secretary or science teacher (who both have very green fingers) can help make her better. I hope so..I took a picture of the flower just in case. My flower's name is Hana, which means flower in Japanese.

Yet another really fun weekend.

Friday I went to Yamanashi City for a birthday party for a JET who lives near here.

Saturday I was in a parade in Kofu. I thought it was going to be boring but it ended up being really fun. I was with a large group of foreigners. People from Russia, China, Canada, Brazil, and many other places. We paraded up and down the street with the rest of the parade dancers and did some really fun easy dances. I had a great time. My friend took pictures of us...soon to come.

Sunday I had folks over for a sleep over. I felt quite domestic. I fried chicken, made rice and noodles and put together a salad. We drank tea and of course, beer. We watched some movies I had in my small collection and talked about books and magazines we've read recently. It was really fun to get together and I think they enjoyed themselves. They marveled over how big my place is which is small in American standards but in Japan its rather large.

Monday...the end of my long weekend. I took my houseguests up to Lake Shoji to see Mt. Fuji. We took a bunch of really nice pictures up there and then I took them all back to Kofu. On my way home, I found a beautiful park about 10 mins away from my house. I went there and spent the afternoon watching families, enjoying the sunshine, and studying my Japanese. Its a really great place and it even has a path for running. I was glad to find such a nice park, but was really disturbed by something as I was leaving. I went to my car which was parked beside the road and I saw a small boy who couldn't have been more than 7 years old who was cripple and walking alone down the narrow street. As he got closer I could see that he was crying...so I got out of my car and went over to him and asked him, "Are you alright?" (in Japanese of course) He didn't say anything, but he stopped crying. Then I asked him, "Where is your mom?" And didn't answer so I started walking with him back in the direction that he came from. As I was walking with him, this Japanese man and his young daughter came over. The looked at me a little funny then they walked off with the little boy talking to him in fast Japanese. It wasn't his dad or sister, but they took him to his folks. When I drove back around, the guy waved at me and nodded. Its really hard to read Japanese people's expessions but I'm glad that the little boy found his family.

Its finally the weekend and boy am I ready for it. Last night I went to dinner with some JETs up in this town called Yamanashi City. Just before I was leaving some JETs called me from Masuho and asked if I'd pick them up. Its about 20 mins down the mountain for me, but I also had to go to Kofu to pick up the futons for my sleepover on sunday. I ended up driving and hour and a half each way tonight to L-River. Trust I won't be doing that again.

The biggest topic in my life recently has been interracial dating. I guess the first thing was when a friend of mine told me that she was dating white men. I thought it strange at first but then starting doing some thinking about it. The next thing was the July issue of Essence Magazine...Cover story "When Mr. Right is White", then a conversation with my aunts on IM about it, then talking with a friend in London, and on and on. Today I got two emails regarding it which were sent to me from a friend whom I'd been discussing the topic with.

The first was from a sister who was having trouble finding the "Black Mr. Right" so she decided to date a wonderful white guy who had class, style, sense of humor, good job, caring, yada yada...they dated for a while and it ended in her dumping him because she was trying to fight for the black race and didn't feel like it was right to have a white man by her side. The conclusion was basically that you can't be Pro-Black while dating a white person. Hmmm....I wasn't going to at first, but I have to include her comments here:

This dude was taking me out, kicking it with me, supporting my endeavors, conversing with me on a plethora of topics, bringing me flowers, etc.. I have yet to find a Mandigo with the same characteristics knocking at my door (which would be a dream come true). However, after much mental and emotional debate, and after talking to my overly opinionated father, I couldn't justify with myself, how I could date a white man and concurrently hold a position as one of the leaders of this milleneum's revolution. So that leaves me with what? Between Mr. Charlie and an empty bed. LOL. It eventually led to turning down potential attention, love and affection because my passion for my race and fighting the injustices that people have mainatined on us, is soo strong.

So, at the present time, I do believe that it is a contradiction for a man to cry about the injustices he faces as a black man, and then lend is emotional well being to the same individual who is inherently responsible for those injustices. Dr. King had a dream, yes, but if he was indeed sleeping with a white girl, like so many militant Panthers and revolutionaries, he was wrong. Period.

The response to her email was a sister saying that she wants Ms. Black Power to slow down a little bit. Here is what the other sister had to say:

Whoa! I fully support your decision to find your purpose and start working toward a better life for our people. I certainly admire the fact that you have matured into a young woman who knows her responsibility in life goes beyond fulfilling her own dreams, but taking care of the dreams of the future. HOWEVER, you do not have to put YOUR happiness on hold to continue working toward the goal. So he's white? Big deal! You're not looking to get married today. You should be looking to experience life and the beauty one can find in things different. Companionship, laughter, support -- those things don't see color. My dream man is black and beautiful, but I will not close my options at this point in my life. I don't go out seeking to date a certain color, but I'll be open to any intelligent, funny, caring and sensible man. Problem is, none, no matter what color they are, are stepping to me!
So, Miss, you better stop trying to fit the image of a revolutionist before the romantic revolution passes you by.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I'm supposed to be having a sleepover at my house this weekend. As of now, I have 3 people that are confirmed to be coming. The only problem I see arising is NO ONE had a freakin' car! Meaning I have to pick everyone up from the train station. The most I can fit at a time is 3 so as much as I want folks to be able to visit, I don't want to have to take numerous trips up and down that mountain from my house to Kofu. I'll know for sure about numbers toward the end of the week because Erica is thinking about coming down with a friend of hers from Gunma. E's friend went to Spellman and the girl I know went to Clark so it will be cool for them to meet. Its Kofu week here and there is a big International parade on Saturday that Alberto signed me up for, but I still haven't decided whether or not I want to be "on display" anymore than I already am. We'll see how the weekend shapes up. I know I do need to clean up and wash some clothes before they come so they will have somewhere to sit!

You know its is honestly the little things that TRULY make your day!!!! I recieved a b-day card and present today that was so unexpected and so thoughtful that I wouldn't care if it came a YEAR late! You are truly a GEM SAB sister! You have put a huge smile on my face and I really really hope that I will get to see you soon. **HUG**

What a great weekend! On Friday night the girls soccer team from Yamanashi went to dinner at this great Italian restaurant in Kofu. The meals were kind of expensive but the portions were so large that we just decided to split dishes which cut costs and leftovers. It was good. 12/14 of us were there. It was really nice to all be together for the first time. The bonding began at dinner and continued on from there. I stayed at Katie's house and drove up with her and another car full of people first thing (5AM) Saturday morning. The drive was about 3 hrs and we were doing 120km/h just about the whole way there! The guy I was following was FLYING! At one point, I was like "nah dawg" I have to risk getting lost because he was really speeding around these curbs.

We arrived in Nagano around 8:30ish dropped our bags changed clothes and went out on the field to warm up.Since we had 14 girls from Yamanashi and we were playing 6 a-side the team co-ordinators wanted us to have 2 teams of 7. Our teams were Yama Mama's and Mama Yama's. We had a cheer, pom poms, matching outfits, and headbands. My team was pretty good although we went 0-4. The first day we played 3 games and on our field it seemed like the more serious set of girls were there. The other Yamanashi women's team went 1-1-2. They were good and really seemed to gel as a team early which helped out.

Out of all the teams we played the girls from Osaka were the most bitchy. They complained about everything!!! Rules, offsides, rough housing (when they were the roughest of all the teams we played), so when my team played them in our last game of the day on Friday we were already down 0-2 so we decided to forget winning and take them out. We were tired of hearing them whine and run over people all day. So that is exactly what we did!!! It was soo fun too! I playing defense and basically trying to take this one big girl down the whole game. My teammates were so funny because they were encouraging me to be mean!! It was so funny...I stole the ball from the big girl like 4 times and she kept coming at me the same way...I figured she'd learn but apparently not. I think they were getting mad about me tripping them and stuff so one big girl came down and took me out! I got up right away but my head was spinning. I was literally seeing the little stars that spin around the cartoon characters heads! I had to sit out for a second or two but I got myself together and watched the last 2 mintues of the game. It was a lot of fun.

My friend Erica came down to hang out with the Yamanashi folks and they really like her too. They said she was funny and that I should tell her to come down to our prefecture to hang out with us sometime. There was a party that night at the hotel we stayed in which was a lot of fun. The DJ had a lot of hip hop but got stuck on house music too long. Our team "SAID" we weren't going to drink much because we still had a game to play Sunday morning....but it didn't quite work out like that. Someone found our goalie in the bathroom drunk and one of our forwards was caught kissing on some randome guy in the back of the party. Our girls were done to say the least. As for me...I had 2 cans of Chu Hi (which is like flavored beer), two glasses of wine (different brands), one beer for the toast of the party, a cup of sake, another can of beer because I was the last one to hit the floor for GRENADE!!! (tell you about that later), and some rum and coke that my friend Charlie KEPT making me drink. I was definitely done that night! But what surprised me the most was that in the morning I was good. I wasn't sick or anything...and I usually can't mix at all so I was lucky. Erica had everything I had except the Chu Hi and her no-having-tolerance self kept saying "I want some more to drink, I'm not drunk yet" I am learning that when she says this...She's DONE!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an announcement to make. I, Eboni Staton, met a black guy in Japan!!!! Don't get to excited...he has a girl friend and lives about a million hours away..but it made for a nice weekend. Out of the 500 people at the tourney there were 5 black women and 3 black men. When I came downstairs Saturday morning dressing in my uniform (looking cute with my French braids and bandana tied around my head might I add) he looked so shocked to see me. We exchanged pleasantries and went off to our respective fields to warm up. He wasn't the cutest thing but by the end of the dance (and after many many drinks) both Erica and I thought he looked much better. He was a little cocky and was like "I'm the only black guy in here, I know you want to dance with me" And just for that I let the negro dance alone until his Jamaican groupies came along. Who I might add were dressed up in Rave and Rainbow clothing while everyone else had on jeans and t-shirts. Go figure?!

GRENADE-drinking game where you have a "Grenade Master" who during the night will periodically call out "GRENADE" and everyone has to get down on the floor all the way. Not just hands and knees...all the way! If you don't hear the grenade master or you are last to get down...you have to down whatever drink it is you have in your hand...if you don't have a drink in hand, they will get you one.

Sunday morning was quite a sight!! We had one more person in our room than had been there all night. A guy from our prefecture that we all know didn't have anywhere to sleep so when Erica and I went to bed, he came up and stayed in the room with us and the 3 other girls who were in our room. The hotel we stayed at was Japanese style so there are tatami mats on the floor and futons, blankets, pillows, and sheets in the closet. Its much more economical this way because you can fit many more people in the room. All 14 of us were so beat up from Saturday's activities that we WANTED to get put out early so we wouldnt have to continue playing. Our wish came true! Both teams lost in the first round and went to go watch the end of the boys tournament.

I had a GREAT time! I definitely want to go back to Nagano when YETI has their ski trip in February. Hopefully I'll be able to go back before then. I really enjoyed myself with the ladies and gentlemen of our Yamanashi group. We were by far the most outstanding-ken and had the most fun. I didn't mention the game of strip soccer did I??

Yo, in my old age, I really think I'm starting to get some emotional bones in my body. I was in here watching "Something to talk about" with Julia Roberts and I had to sit in here and fight back the tears! I'm not even kidding! I watched that and Curly Sue tonight so my movie collection is officially exhausted. I need to find a new Book Off Store with some good movies in it.

Tonight I fixed some of the best chicken nuggets I've ever tasted. They were frozen and all I had to do was warm them up but when I ate them with a pinch of mustard...my taste buds exploded!!! This chicken is giving me new inspiration for cooking! (if you call microwaving, cooking). I had to bring my own lunch to school today so I packed up some pineapple rings, Ritz crackers and spaghetti that I cooked this morning. I'm going to make mixed pasta for tomorrow's lunch. I bought some bread at the store today so I'll have that too. Not sure what else. I'm not really good at making balanced meals...I have to come up with a better system than this day by day thing. I'm trying hard not to take peanut butter and jelly sandwiches everyday because that's what they expect. I'll get it together sooner or later.

We've been told all day that this typhoon was going to overflow the river in front of my house and that all kinds of terrible weather was coming this way. This is typhoon #21 for Japan this year and the biggest so far. We ended up leaving school a bit early today because of all the high winds and rain. Around 6pm the winds picked up and it got quite bad. But it has definitely calmed down a lot. Its supposed to hit Yamanashi at midnight, so we'll see. I'll be sleep so I probably won't know. All of our windows have bars on them so if something hits the window it won't break immediately. We also have storm doors what are made of all metal that close over the glass window sliding doors. It makes it quite safe for flying objects and shattering windows so I won't have a problem sleeping at all.

I'm going to read a little Harry Potter then I'm taking it to bed. I've been so sleepy in the mornings that I just feel like going to be earlier tonight. Oyasumi!