JET Placement: Hiroshima Prefecture, Kure City, Kurahashi Island

Time to share where I am living and "working" in Japan:

Here is a picture of the country Japan:

As you can see, the country spans latitudinally and has climates varying from that similar to Hawaii (Okinawa) ranging to that of Northern Minnesota (Northern Hokkaido).

Fun facts:

Japan is about the same size as the state of California.

Over ½ of Japan is uninhabitable because of how mountainous it is.

Japan has about half the population of the U.S.

So you can infer: Half the # of people that live in the U.S., live in an area half the size of California….Crazy

For the JET program, we do not get to chose where we were placed, however we did get to put 3 requests. I put: 

Hokkaido (cool temps similar to MN)

Nagano (snowboarding+relatively near Mount Fuji)

After already committing to the JET Program and only 1 month prior to departure we were notified of our placement location.

Here was my placement:

Hiroshima

I was quite surprised at how far south I was placed and worried about how the temperature was going to be, being a Minnesotan who <3s cool weather. 

I was also worried about how close it was to the Iwakuni Marine base and almost decided to decline the ALT position even after already formally accepting it. Seeing Hiroshima as the placement, I was also worried about how the local people would view American's with the WWII history.

However, I am very happy after choosing to accept now seeing where I live. 

More specifically the city within Hiroshima prefecture I am in is Kure city. 

By chance, it is actually the same city my Japanese teacher at the University of Minnesota Matsumoto-Sensei is from. 

Within Kure city, I am the furthest south on an island called Kurahashi. 

Kurahashi Island (my apartment is at the "A")

I spent much time on the computer back in the U.S. Google mapping Kurahashi and surveying the landscape. The island is 50km around and I was excited to try and run around it sometime.

After arriving in Kure city before going to Kurahashi, I asked my predecessor Ollie if there were any Starbucks there. He gave me a sly smile that made me nervous and made me realize there would be no Starbucks in Kurahashi. With the mornings not feeling like 120 degrees anymore, can finally brew own coffee and boy is that a treat with oatmeal in the mornings.

The rural village within Kurahashi I live in is named Uwagi. Always wondering what it would be like to live in a rural area, I think this is a good opportunity for me to see some of the unique benefits of living the inaka (rural) life.

Pros:
Get to see the same people often

Kind people

Save money

Lots of introspective time

Views

Cons:

No people that run (being here 2 months I have seen 1 woman running near the bridge connecting Kure city to Kurahashi Island)

No stores

Far and expensive to get to town

Not so exciting for friends/family to visit

Burning garbage

No young people

No girls in apartment (Board of Education Rules) {neighbors shouldn't be able to see girls come into my apartment is how I interpreted the rule}

Here are pictures of near the apartment:

 apartment is just to the right of the grave

bus stop

view from bus stop

path leading from ocean to near the apartment

Pics of the apartment:

view when walk in

living room  (view out this window in pic below)

living room screen view

extra bedroom for visitors

kitchen

It is much more spacious than I was anticipating and is only 1 year old so it has modern features such as:

when someone rings the doorbell a monitor in the living room displays a video of whoever is outside

can fill the bathtub and control the temperature of the water from inside the kitchen..

and some other fun features:

 largest shoe rack ever. except shoes don't fit 

trap door in kitchen to hide treats from myself

I am very grateful for a modern spacious nice apartment and look forward to making it more homey.

What is convenient about my apartment is that there is a Fuji-san grocery store only a few minute walk away and I visit there nearly everyday. Whenever I am bored or need human contact I find myself going there to just look around. There is a very nice cashier there named Hiraki-san and we always have silly small-talk.

After 4pm, the daily produce (sushi, sashimi, and other prepared foods) go on sale and at around 8pm you can find many foods for 50% off. It is unreal to be able to get 8 pieces of sushi for 2 dollars or 6 pieces of Daifuku for less than a dollar (back home 1 piece is almost 2 dollars at United Noodles.

Will talk about some of the foods I cook in another blog.

My apartment is about a 15 minute bike ride to one of my schools and a 10 minute bike to another.  It’s kind of funny how surprised my co-workers are when I tell them I bike to work. Biking does not seem to be as popular as it is back in hipster Minneapolis.

Despite it being October 10th,  today is 82 degrees and it is still super humid. Have became accustomed to the heat (doesn’t mean I like it) but am eagerly, eagerly, eagerly awaiting winter here. Kind of scared for the first winter without snow but plan on making a trip up to Hokkaido to experience a real winter. 

The views here are unreal. Am still taken by surprise everyday at how beautiful the mountains/sea look.
It takes me about 3 minutes to jog to the sea and want to try swimming and diving of some large concrete docks that they have.

not too far from apartment
Another thing I love about the apartment's location is that it is right next to the mini-mountain Hiyama. 
Here is a Garmin data post from one of the runs up it:

this was a 90'F day w/ 65% humidity. heart and lungs pounding!

Trying to see how many times I can get up it and am shooting for at least 100 before heading back to the U.S.  Average once or so a week but will be starting to do it more often with the temperature becoming bearable. Excited to do it 10x someday. With the days starting to be less humid, the views are becoming more and more beautiful being able to see more of the surrounding islands. 

super hazy day. yesterday was the clearest day yet but usually don't go up w/ a camera
1,200ish ft

It's been tough to blog since I only get internet at one of the schools I am at and the internet is streaming from my cellphone to my laptop so it's not the quickest. 

Will post more!

Haven't ran with GPS for over 3 weeks. Jogged once in a while but legs feel broken.