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We have already seen a good number of new JETs posting in our forums.
To all incomers who have not introduced yourselves - please mosey, meander, or otherwise make your way on over to the forums section and post up something!

FJET is the Fukui chapter of the nationwide AJET group.
Just to brag, We are the best - we have lots of trophies, shirts, and certificates that we made that say so!

We hope you can use this page to answer your questions, alleviate your worries, and lighten your wallets (seriously! we sell a lot of $#|T!)

A simple tip to help get more out of this site is - Don't be afraid to ask questions - we have a highly excited and seemingly trained staff of other JETs to answer any and all questions!

Safe travels!
- 2010-2011 FJET Committee

Hi everyone,
Happy New Year. Hope you all had lovely holidays and are feeling refreshed :-) Big news for the New Year!

We are starting Orphanage visits in Ono! D'Arcy and Greg are going to be running the show so a huge thank you to them for being so great. I just called them and they are super excited about our visits.

So, we need to know who wants to volunteer in Ono :-) I think we are going to be aiming for a visit every two months with lots of people rather than monthly with a handful of people. The dates wont clash with Fukui Shi or Tsuruga orphanage visits wherever possible :-)

If you are interested please send me a mail

Love as ever
Mike
ps I also mentioned to them about the 7 man from MYC and they seemed really blown away so well done everyone again :-)

Hi everyone,
Just to announce that Conor Mooney is going to be taking on the job of Southern Orphanage Rep :-) Huge thanks to David for all his hard work over the last year and a half, and to Conor for taking on the role!

Please can anyone who has yet to visit in Tsuruga and would like to get in contact with Conor. He will be contact you soon with the date for the next visit. I know the south rocks so I don't really need to ask, but please support him as much as you can and help make the visits even better :-)

Thank you all so much for all your support,
Mike

Hello team,

After the last orphanage visit a couple of people were asking me a little about what was happening with the money from the MYC auction so thought I would stick a post up here so that everyone knows what is what :-)

We raised a lot of money, and it is going to be split evenly over the five orphanages in Fukui Ken. We currently visit Fukui Shi, and Tsuruga, with Ono starting this month, but in addition to these three there is an orphanage in Takefu and one in Sabae. The kids at these two are obviously just as in need as those at orphanages we visit, so we are going to divide the money between all the homes.

From there, it is a mixture of the home's and our wishes as to how the money is spent. They obviously now far more than we do what is really needed so their opinion is crucial, however obviously we have ideas on how to spend the money too. In Fukui Shi we have settled for vacuum cleaners - their choice, and a basketball net - our choice. The cleaners will make day to day life better for the kids - saves them from cleaning with clothes like at school, and the basketball net will give them a new toy to play with. I will talk to the other homes once we actually have the cash all collected, so please pay up ASAP!

Thank you again for all your fundraising, you all rock
Mike
ps if you ever have any questions about money or indeed anything please mail me at fjetvolunteer @ gmail dot com anytime :-)

Our own Volunteer Coordinator Mike has made some amazing progress with a project that many FJET members participate in. You can read more about it at their new website http://www.smilekidsjapan.org/.
From the website:
We are a recently formed small non-profit group. Our aims are to
* Promote awareness of orphanages across Japan, especially amongst the foreign communities.
* Encourage these communities to set up regular volunteer visits.
* Help show these volunteers how this is possible, with hints, tips, and an overview of everything from setting up the first meeting to keeping up volunteer motivation.
* Ultimately we are aiming for every orphanage in Japan to have a two hour visit once a month.

Hey Hey all you Sapporo going people,

In order to figure out all of our numbers and make the reservations... We decided to make like a combo menu deal... So cutting to the chase...

Super Tasty Set A: The Whole Shebang! This includes the buses from Fukui to Tsuruga port and back, the ferry to Hokkaido and back, the hotel for 3 nights, bus from the Hokkaido port to Sapporo and back.

Delicious Double Cheese Set B: Southern Super Saver! For those that live a little bit south of sanity. This includes the ferry to Hokkaido and back, the hotel for 3 nights, bus from the Hokkaido port to Sapporo and back.

Creamy Hot Fudge Set C: Sea Sick Thifty! For those that are just gonna meet us in Sapporo and skip all the FJET planned transport. The hotel for 3 nights Only.

Baked Beans Set D: For the Homeless! Sign up too late? Gonna find your own lodging? This is for the transport only! No hotel for you?

Southern Cheesy Baked Beans Set E: For the Southern Homeless! A hybrid of Set B and D. No buses in Fukui. Ferries, buses in Hokkaido.

I think those are the main five options. I cant really think of any other ways unless you have some pirate friends who might give you a ride to Sapporo on their pirate ship... Which would be totally sweet. If anyone has some pirate friends ask them if I can catch a ride with them as well. Pirates... Sweet...

I know what some of you are thinking... How much? Well we need number to get prices... And if you reply faster, the faster we can get you what you want... Prices!

Anyway email the FJET Presidents at the fjetpresidents@gmail.com Please write Sapporo Set Menu in the subject line.

Choose any of the five... Mmm... So good...

Attention everyone! This is the final interest call-out for anyone
that is interested in working, in any capacity, with the 2008-2009
FJET play, an original adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in
Wonderland. Speak now or forever hold your peace. We are in the
process of creating a low-frill, surreal, odd and visually appealing
show. Please join us on the muddy edge of obscurity! Email
fjetplay@gmail.com if you are interested or have any questions.

THIS IS NOT LIMITED TO JETS! ANYONE IS ENCOURAGED, SO GET THE WORD
OUT!

We are looking for writers, actors, musicians, costume designers,
stage hands, publicity coordinators, publicity designers, rappers,
gymnasts, translators, and human sacrifices. A special thanks to
that person that volunteered to star in all nude scenes. We will be
sure to utilize you in every possible way.

We are very excited about this opportunity to bring a traditional
western story to Fukui-ken in a non-traditional, cutting edge form.
You should be a part of it!

Thank you to those that signed up at the MYC. We have your name.
If you are interested in writing in any capacity, please make it
VERY clear to us. We will be giving out writing assignments in the
next week or two. The more the merrier.

Expect an email this weekend! Writing starts now! Auditions will
be in January!

Kelly and Alice

Hi all,

Sending out info for the Festivus Art Contest. There are four categories:

1. General art (i.e. non-photography)―anything goes!

Photography:

2. Landscape/Nature/Architecture

3. People

4. Travels

You can enter one piece in each of the four categories. Photos should be printed on A4 size (or B5 at the smallest) since we want to be able to see them.

The winners are determined by a hybrid voting system. Everyone can vote for their favorite pieces, and these vote totals will be added to a points system based on technical merits for each piece. The contest is all in fun, so please enter whatever you'd like! Also, you do NOT need to be present to submit, nor must the photos or art pieces have been produced in Japan.

Deadline: Thursday before festivus. Get your piece to me in person, or use the school mail system and send it to:

Corey Johnson

Harue JHS (春江中学校)

Along with your name and a title for each piece. Also, if you're into it, you can submit the technical info for the photos (ISO, f-stop, shutter speed) but this is not required nor will it count against you in judging. All photos will be mounted on black poster board along with a nameplate, and the technical info would go on the nameplate somewhere. All general art submissions will be displayed as-submitted with your name and title.

Let me know if you've got questions―

Corey

BIG BIG THANK YOU for all the people who auctioned off their skills, items, and love ;)

THANK YOU for participating in yesterday's auction, your bids will help with two wonderful causes: care and love for two Fukui Orphanages and SOPA's education in Thailand.

We want to say BIG Thank you to the MCs - D'Arcy, Stephen and Fernando; you kept the bid lively and totally enjoyable.

BIG Thank you to the Anna, Richa, Meredith, Michelle and Meena - you did an excellent job with the receipts; keeping track of the final bids was kind of busy at times.

Melissa, thank you for giving us the time and space for the Auction.

Last but not least THANK YOU JESS for putting the slide show together...it was really well organized.
(From Galina via email)



If you attended Matt Hafner's presentation and want more info about Japanese study, check out this extra stuff.
Here are the links about scholarships available for studying in Japan
http://www.colorado.edu/ealld/atj/Bridging/ABRD-finaid.html
http://www.studyjapan.go.jp/en/toj/toj0302e.html
Japanese language school database
http://www.aikgroup.co.jp/j-school/
Scholarships for int'l students in Japan
http://www.jasso.go.jp/study_j/scholarships_sfisij_e.html
Japan Study Support (JPSS) - an excellent listing of schools, tuition
costs and scholarships
http://www.jpss.jp/eng/index.html

I've just finished posting this year's FJET Guide, located at http://fjet.org/book/fjet-guide.

If you are logged in, you should be able to see an "edit" tab at the top of each page (if not let me know). Just click it, make any changes, and click "submit" at the bottom of the page. Please feel free to add, update, and delete any part of it this year as you discover more about your area.

Your help to keep the guide current is greatly appreciated!

Love,
Steven