Either the Lamest Reality Show Ever or a HUGE Cry for Help

Have you ever wondered if your whole life is based on fabrication? If people were just stringing you along and making you jump through hoops for their own personal amusement? If your friends were just actors and your workplace was a well-designed set, kinda like in the life of Jim Carrey's Truman Show character? This past weekend, these sort of questions kept entering my mind.

Saturday morning I traveled to Hiroshima to see my good friend, Anne. As I live on the Shimo side of the Guch, this was quite a journey for me, so I spent the most of the weekend there. Everthing seemed pretty normal until I ran into Ellen while shopping. We exchanged greetings, and then she was on her way, as she supposedly had to head back home. Soon after, I ran into 2 more ALTs, followed by 2 more, and then even more. That is a lot of Y-JETs to happen to see outside of the prefecture. It was almost like the directors of The Cindi Show experienced a shortage of extras and were hoping I wouldn't notice these people I knew in the background.

Now I am left wondering if possibly I am the only Yamaguchi ALT, and all the others just show up to kencho meetings to keep me from getting suspicious. After all, I live in a tiny rural fishing town with only 1 other ALT who I never even see except at the meetings. He says he is busy, but what could he possibly be busy with in my town? Maybe he's such a big star that he has it written into his acting contract that he will only appear in scenes at kencho and once a month when he visits my son's school... You don't think my son's in on it too, do you?

What's that? You think this is a problem I should seek counseling for? I guess maybe you're right... Alex! Jason! Crystal! Where are those darn Prefectural Advisors when you need them? Probably they have a lot of vacation time written into their acting contracts, too.