Consider yourselves ahead of the game as you’ve been placed in Miyazaki. It’s the other dirty south; down home and with a tight scene that ranges between traditional cultural events to beach parties to sports events. MAJET, the Miyazaki chapter of AJET, exists to promote these to you, to try to organize them and to help you organize anything that you reckon would be a cool time. If there’s something happening, our job is to facilitate a means of having it take off. Whether that involves posting an ungodly amount of advertising telling you about the most amazing fire festival you must see, or simply giving you funds to help put on your event, we are here as your ken events/good times secretaries.
In the past, MAJET has been super active in organizing/promoting dance parties, fundraising events (we raised more dosh than any other ken this year), beach parties, book clubs, wider Kyushu trips as well as sporting events. This year’s MAJET is already anticipating your pending arrival (i.e. trying to evaluate your personality based on your name); we’re planning a mad welcoming party to introduce you to the nightlife hub that is Miyazaki; we’re trying to conjure up an even greater city wide Scavenger Hunt (think Italian Job meets Run Lola Run, minus the retakes and pumping German techno) and we’re getting the social scene working outside the city with bowling tournaments, hikes and local snack karaoke.
MAJET gives you free reign to tell us what to, when to do it and how to do it; we’re that kind of organization (i.e. laid back, not comatose). We’re looking forward to meeting all of you and showing you the wicked times to be had in the ken. If you have ANY questions at all, don’t hesitate to ask any of us. We’re all on-line and emailing more than the average Surgeon General would advise!

Message from the Prefecural Representative:

Hello Miyazaki!
My name is Hilda Tong, a second year JET in Kadogawa-cho. And I'm your new one-woman MAJET. Just kidding... This year, we have a great team assembled to help you out during your first few weeks and we'll be (organizing as well as) helping you organize your own events.

Caroline (Miyazaki-shi) will be my righthand woman, Stephen (Nango-cho) will deal with the financials, and Anita (near Kobayashi) will be keeping us *genki* about upcoming trips that she'll be organizing. Brad (Nobeoka-shi) will be our wonderful Survival Guide Editor!
***Please note, we are still looking for a WEBMASTER to keep up the site!***

During your first few months, we'll try and make sure there are more events to help you get settled in!

Something new for this year, is the "Miyazaki 60 Scholarship" that will send one Miyzaki HS student abroad for a year via AFS. We, local JETs and our Japanese friends started this to give back to Japan. Afterall, it's through the taxpayers that we get our big fat paychecks. It's about time we give back to our community! One kid at a time. Our target is to raise 500,000 yen in one year's time and finish the scholarship process to send a student abroad in the summer of 2008.

On a related note, nothing is totally impossible with dedication and friends. From June 16-18th, a number of JETs and Japanese locals orchestrated an event called MIYAZAKI 60, where two teams of Japanese university students and JETs played for 60 hours straight to break the World Record for the Longest Basketball Game. We not only gained the support of local companies and families, but we made national news! This means, if you want to do something in Japan, just go do it (within the legal boundaries of course). Or just try something new.

Hope you are excited to come to Miyazaki, there's something for everyone here. Please come back and check for new updates regarding upcoming events!

Cheers, Hilda