Alrighty…….so I wrote this before I actually left Japan, but since I never even opened my laptop while at home, this is when I’m posting it…..
Friday July 13, 2012: Fukuoka, Japan: 3:58AM
Man, oh man have I already had an experience just getting this far! 
My last blog discussed how the weather was really making it difficult for me to leave. Indeed! My supervisor got back to me after I left for work and told me that my bus had been canceled and that the IC was completely closed. All buses and trains in the Hitoyoshi area were shut down indefinitely. The only other ways out of our area are the 219—a road that I knew had been closed earlier in the day—and the 445—a dangerous one lane mountain road that probably wouldn’t be the best idea to take in the pouring rain. I had no idea if either of these roads were open. I felt horrible at that time….absolutely terrible. It seemed like the situation was hopeless, and I honestly wondered if I could make it home. I threw myself a little pity party, called Ian in tears, and finally got a grip on the situation.
My supervisor called me back to say that if I could get to Yatsushiro (normally about forty-five minutes from Hitoyoshi), the Shinkansen (bullet train) was still running, and I could take that to Hakata station in Fukuoka. She also let me cancel my eikaiwa class so that I could leave Yunomae earlier. My dear sweet friend Melissa offered to drive me to Yatsushiro, so I drove to her house. In my tiny little car without a working de-fogger, driving in the pouring rain at night is a risky situation. My ultimate goal was just to keep it between the ditches.
Melissa and I decided to take the 219 as far as we could and figure out the next step from there. The 219 isn’t the safest road in normal conditions. It’s carved out of the mountainside and follows the Kuma River to Yatsushiro, so on one side there is a terrifying, raging, swollen river, and on the side is sheer mountain rock. Rain water flowed down from the mountain and straight across the 219. There were a couple of deep pockets of water that we hit, and it honestly scared both of us. Just outside of Kuma-mura, the 219 was closed, so we had to re-route through Ashikita. This added another hour to our journey, and we weren’t exactly sure where we were going, so we followed the line of cars.
When we reached the Yatsushiro train station, Melissa walked in with me to make sure that I could get my Shinkansen ticket. She truly is a wonderful friend! The ticket guy gave me more bad news…..since the flooding was so bad in Kumamoto, there were no direct routes to Hakata. I could take the Shinkansen to Kumamoto and then re-route to Hakata from there. Since this was pretty much my only option, this is what happened. I waited another hour on the platform for the train to come, which gave me plenty of time to pray to God that I could make it back home. The train ran late, and once I got to Kumamoto, I asked a guy where the train to Hakata was. He literally walked me to the platform. 
The Japanese are so kind! On the platform a ton of people were waiting to board the train, but on the departure board flashed a message in both Japanese and English: OUT OF ORDER. 
Several announcements were made over the loud speakers, but I could only pull bits and pieces of the message. Apparently one of the messages was to switch platforms because everyone rushed toward the escalators. When in Rome (or Japan…) do as the Romans (or Japanese…) do. I followed the crowd, crossed to the next platform, and within fifteen minutes a train arrived bound for Hakata!
I finally made it to Hakata shortly before 1AM and set up Camp America outside the Hakata bus and train terminal. After having such a miserably soggy day in Kumamoto, I was surprised to see that it looked like it hadn’t rained at all in Fukuoka. The sidewalks were dry, and no leftover rain droplets fell from the tree leaves blowing in the wind. 
Since the station closed, I went outside to a little park area by the front doors. It seemed like other people had the same idea. There were about a dozen benches in the park, and most of them were occupied throughout the night.
I passed the time by people watching, Skyping home to Mommy and Ian to let them know I made it okay, and writing this. People watching was pretty awesome. You see all kinds of people in the wee hours of the morning, let me tell you! 
I never felt unsafe since there were two police officers standing guard at the entrance to the station all night long. Had I needed them, them would have been there within seconds. My favorite person to watch was the drunk guy. He was asleep on the sidewalk by one of the benches, and occasionally one or both of the police officers would come over to wake him. He’d stumble around, slump over in the park bench, and eventually make his way back to the ground. Ha! Ha! I also saw a creeper dude. While I was on the phone with Mommy, he walked around the park area mumbling things. I thought he was talking to me at first, so I asked him what he wanted. When he didn’t say anything back to me, I realized he wasn’t talking to me. Throughout the night, he would disappear and come back, rambling and circling the park. He eventually made his way toward the statue near my park bench and ever so gradually moved himself closer to my bench. Eventually, he sat down on the arm rest with his back turned to me and then slid into the seat next to me. His body was leaning away from mine, and it looked like he was asleep. I happened to look over at him…..only to notice that his pants were unzipped, and he was exposing himself to me! I immediately gathered my things and left, retreating into the safety of the then opened station. The nerve of him!! 
I wish I would have been smart about the situation. I should have gone up to one of the police officers and said “Hintai!” which means, “Pervert!” and pointed at the guy. They would have taken care of him! However, I didn’t think about that until later…..
Even though things are looking up now, I’m still worried. If I get up to the airport tonight, one or both of my flights might be delayed tomorrow, making me miss my connections. UGH!!! Why, rain, why?!?!
(I would never, ever, EVER think about staying outside a closed building by myself in the States, but this is Japan, and I feel completely safe doing that. Besides…it’s not really worth it to find a place to stay that night seeing as how I’ll be getting to the airport around 12:30AM and have to check in at 5AM.) My flight leaves Fukuoka at 7:10AM and I go to Tokyo. From there, my flight leaves at 11AM bound for Dallas/Ft. Worth. Here’s the funny part: my flight actually arrives at 9AM…..as in two hours BEFORE I took off from Tokyo. Ha! Ha! Ha! It’s like I’m from the future!! 
The last leg of the journey will be the car ride home from Nashville to Paducah. All told, this little journey will cross fourteen time zones and take me thirty-five hours to complete. Shew!
During the summer, most of the doors are left wide open so that a breeze can pass through, allowing little annoying critters in like mosquitos, flies, and moths. (It’s an everyday occurrence to see teachers stop what they’re doing, reach for a fly swatter, and smack whatever is flying through the air. They’re REALLY good at it, too and never miss! I now understand how Mr. Miyagi was so good at catching flies with chopsticks in The Karate Kid. He probably had lots of practice in his native Japan!!) However, the other day I heard Ms. Higashi, the office lady, scream in the hallway. One or two teachers ran out to see what the problem was. I was on my way to class a few minutes later, and Ms. Higashi was trying to tell me something, making an S motion with her hands and Ssssssssssssssss sound. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to put all of that information together. SNAKE. IN . THE. SCHOOL. Mr. Fujiwara confirmed my suspicion and told me that yes, Kai-sensei (the groundskeeper) had to be called to remove the snake from the hallway. My gosh, had it been me who found the snake……I would have had to take the rest of the day off in an attempt to NOT have panic attacks. *shudder*
After our conversation, I did a few more things around the house to prep up for leaving. I hacked down the last bit of grass around the side of the house, cut down some flowery vine thing that was growing on my hot water heater (while avoiding wasps on the flowers! 
), sprayed for bugs, put boric acid around the perimeter of my house to prevent bugs, planted my tomatoes, and pulled the few weeds in my flowers. I was so productive!
We didn’t care, though. We played, laughed, and had the best time at the river! Out of the four of us, Krista is the best swimmer, so we made her go in the water first to tell us how swift the current was and if the water was deep. The river is very narrow—maybe twenty feet wide—but was surprisingly deep. There’s a rope swing tied onto the upper branches, and if you look hard enough in the upper right picture, you can see Krista preparing to swing from it. She’s on the right side in the middle of the picture. Although the current is very swift there and we were a bit afraid of being swept farther downstream, the river creates an eddy at the jump point. Instead of floating downstream, the eddy actually pushes you back up. Perfect!
I had to give myself a 3,2,1 countdown, and I did it! It was actually really cool, but hitting the water kind of stunned me because I wasn’t expecting to go down so far. Then once we were in the river, we had to cross it, which consisted of swimming up the eddy current and then fighting your way across the current, inevitably getting pulled downstream with it. 
That’s about $60-70!! She gave it to me as spending money for America. I was so shocked!! I really wanted to refuse it and say that it was too much, but you really can’t refuse a gift in Japan. It’s really, really distasteful if you do. I really don’t even know this lady all that well, but I thanked her time and time again!
I was strangely calm/nervous. Knowing that it was my last opportunity to take this test and that if I didn’t pass, I couldn’t drive when I return in August really didn’t help my nerves. As I stretched my foot to the brake or switched to the gas, my foot shook. It didn’t affect my driving, but I was still a bit on edge. Luckily for me, the proctor was really nice….dare I even say funny…? He was making jokes and being very light-hearted the whole time. I didn’t see him make very many marks on my grade sheet, so I thought that maybe, just maybe I had passed. When I got out of the driver’s seat and into the back seat so the other guy could take his test, I glanced at my grade sheet and saw that it said 80. You have to have a 70 or above to pass. I HOPED and PRAYED that I was looking at it right, but I couldn’t find out until the other guy finished his test. I felt sorry for him, but I knew that he wasn’t going to pass. He definitely didn’t know the moves and certain silly things that they want you to do like not coming to a complete stop once you finish the crank and S-curve (which is STUPID….side roads always give way to the main road). It also started pouring rain halfway through the course. 
