Finally Writing

Though it’s hard to believe, I’ve been in Japan for about a month now. I meant to start this blog before I left, but moving somewhere new is always an emotional rollercoaster for me, so I'm only just getting to it now! Because it's been so long, I'm going for quantity instead of depth. Here are some captioned pictures to give you a brief snapshot into my life!

First, though, a brief overview. I am working for the Nobeoka Bureau of Education (BoE), and I will be going to a total of seven elementary and middle schools. Aside from helping students practice for an English speech contest, I haven’t gone to any schools yet—that starts next week. Instead, I have been working in the BoE office, where all of the BoE ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers, a.k.a. most of the people who do JET) have desks.

From left to right: Carina, Samantha, Miki, and me

My first weekend in Japan, I went to a festival in Hyuga, a town about a half hour South of Nobeoka. All I knew about it was from this website. After eating some delicious fried food, we sat down for the parade, which had groups of dancers from all over Japan (although the majority seemed to be locals).

Kindly notice the adorable child who photobombed my picture.

Not all the dance groups had Spiderman in them. Only this one.

This stray cat is well cared for by the same woman who gave him the lion cut. His fur, I am told, was disastrous.

A few weekends ago, I went to an event at the Nobeoka Culture Center that had several Taiko performances. The highlight was definitely these incredibly talented children!

Jesse and I were very excited by this adorable giant dog stuffed animal at the Culture Center. Some little kids were taking pictures with it, and we proceeded to do the same.

I have seen the ocean before, but coming from the Midwest, I think of it as something spectacular that you only encounter on long vacations, and yet it was a 20 minute walk from the Culture Center. I’m not convinced that I’ll get used to the ocean. Certainly I’m no less amazed by the mountains than I was when I first got here, and I see them every day.

The other day I walked to a park about ten minutes away from my apartment. Initially I planned to find a nice shady spot to read my book, but I discovered that the park was a lot bigger than I’d expected. In addition to several athletic fields, there was a hiking path around this small lake. Despite the different plants and insects, it reminded me intensely of Minnesota's woods.

I. Love. Ramen.

I’ve never seen a praying mantis in real life before!

Nobeoka really is a beautiful place.