Countdown

"I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me" ~ Walt Whitman

Three days until I leave for Japan! I can't believe how fast time has flown this summer. I've been saying goodbyes to family and friends over the last month, which has definitely been sad. But, I try to remember that it's not so much a goodbye as a "see you later." This year will be the longest I'll ever go without seeing my family, so I'm trying to get used to the fact that I wont have them close by. I'm really glad I got to have a solid two months after graduation to spend time with family and friends and enjoy Minnesota as much as I could.

Overall though, I'm really excited! I know this experience will have its ups and downs, but I'm excited for the chance to learn more about Japan, people in general, and myself (as cliche as that sounds). This is a once in a lifetime chance and I mean to make the absolute most of it. My next post will probably be coming to you from Japan!

Yasugi-shi, Shimane-ken!

As promised, this post will be all about my future home; Yasugi-shi, Shimane-ken. The suffix "shi" refers to the city and "ken" refers to the prefecture.

Shimane is a long and narrow prefecture along the Sea of Japan coast on the island of Honshu. It is considered rural, with the population of the entire prefecture being 724,000. Compare that to Tokyo's 13 million! The capital city is Matsue, with a population of about 200,000. 

The city where I'll be living, Yasugi, is located on the northern most part of the prefecture and is right on the border with Tottori Prefecture. 

Yasugi is right next to Lake Nakaumi, a large brackish lake that is connected to the ocean by a channel. Nakumi literally means "middle sea" in Japanese. Lake Nakaumi is the 5th largest lake in surface area in Japan. There is also another large lake connected to Nakaumi called Lake Shinji. After living for 4 years in Madison between two big lakes, what are the chances of living so close to two lakes once again? 

The lake on the right is Nakumi and the left is Shinji. 

\Yasugi is a city of about 42,000 people and is about 260 square miles (420 square kilometers... gotta get used to that metric system!). According to my welcome letter from the Board of Education I'll be working for, Yasugi is known for its iron manufacturing. Yasugi actually consists of three towns, Hakuta, Hirose, and Yasugi, that were incorporated to make Yasugi city in 2004. Each town has a municipal JET who works at the towns elementary schools and junior highs, and there is one prefectural JET who works at the high schools in Yasugi. So a JET population of 4, not bad! 

I've been lucky enough to be in contact with my predecessor and she has been seriously awesome. I have so many questions about where I'll be living, and the schools and pretty much everything and she has answered all my questions in great detail. Super awesome girl! I feel really lucky because some JETs hear only the minimum from their predecessor or not at all. Here are just a few things I've learned from her about what my life will be like.

1. The three municipal JETs share the five junior highs and seventeen (!!!) elementary schools in Yasugi. I'lle be teaching at two junior highs and five elementary schools each week. At elementary, I'll only be teaching 5th and 6th grade, and junior high will be all levels. It sounds like I'll be switching schools in the middle of the day on some days and others I'll be at the same school all day. It'll certainly be busy but I'm really looking forward to having a busy schedule. The schools range in size too so it'll be interesting to see what working with different class sizes will be like. The thing I'm most nervous about is trying to remember all those kids names!

2. My apartment is fairly new and looks really nice! My predecessor sent me some pictures; one big room, with a kitchen and bathroom off to the side. I also have a balcony with a nice view of a rice field and some houses. It looks rural for sure, but beautiful!

3. I will most definitely be getting a car within the first few days of getting there. Yasugi is just too spread out to bike or walk. While I'm excited about the freedom having a car will bring, I'm a little nervous about driving on the other side of the road. We'll see how that goes.

4. Yasugi is rural, but it still has pretty much everything I need! There are some beautiful attractions, including the Adachi Museum of Art which has a beautiful garden. 

There are also restaurants and hot springs (three!) in the city. I'll definitely take advantage of those! I'm also really looking forward to enjoying Lake Nakaumi... walking, running, maybe even some canoeing if I can find it. 

I'll repost this link to some beautiful pictures that other Shimane JETs have taken of the prefecture. You have to scroll down the page a bit to see them. I'm looking forward to taking my own!