Moving to Japan...where in Japan are you again?

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I landed in Tokyo's Narita Airport on August 1st where I began a 2.5 day "Tokyo Orientation" for the JET Program, it really helped to smooth the transition to a new life in Japan. Most people think of Tokyo when thinking of Japan, my new home though is quite removed from the futuristic, modern megalopolis that comes to our mind when thinking of Japan. I'll post some photos in a future blog of my short trip to Tokyo, after Tokyo I flew to Tokushima Airport (1 hr) on the island of Shikoku where I met Fujimoto-san my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English), my BOE Supervisor Fuji-san (not the mountain), and Ken a fellow JET living in Miyoshi as well. From there we drove (1.5hr) to my new home in Miyoshi-shi (city of Miyoshi, actually it's a collection of towns). There is far too much to fully describe here so please allow me to outline the aspects of Japan that have stuck out thus far. First, where exactly do I live?

1) Where the heck is Shikoku?
While Japan's archipelago contains nearly 7,000 islands, there are four main islands: 1-> the northern island of Hokkaido (Sapporo beer comes from here). 2-> the largest island of Honshu (Tokyo, Osaka, Kanazawa). 3-> Kyushu to the south (Nagasaki, Fukoka). 4-> The very best island though is Shikoku located between Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. It was described to me by an IBM co-worker as the "Red Headed Stepchild of Japan" prior to my placement here. I live in the prefecture of Tokushima, with Osaka on the opposite side of "the bay." I couldn't find the name for this body of water that separates Tokushima from Osaka, but I think "Osaka Bay" sounds good. Here is a map of Shikoku where they show the different prefectures, clearly you can see that Tokushima-ken is the best:


Now this is a bit complicated, but here we go... I live in the prefecture of Tokushima in a collection of towns called Miyoshi-shi but my particular town is called Yamashiro (6000 people)! If you look closely on the map below you'll see Wakimachi, the closest McDonald's is there and it's about a 45 minute drive by car.

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Photos

Tokushima Prefecture
The closest McDonalds is in Wakimachi (60 minutes by car)