Kitakami Home

Successfully, I have lived in Japan for almost 3 weeks and I figured it was time to get started with this blog…you know, since I haven’t been evicted from my apartment or kicked out of the country altogether! This is how I define success.

Living in Japan is amazing! It’s hard to know where to begin, so let’s start with the vital statistics:

Kitakami city bird and flower

Location: Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture. It’s just one prefecture south of topmost Honshu (the main island). I’m about 50 minutes south of the capital, Morioka, and just about two hours north of Tokyo, so it’s a great deal! 

Living Situation: I live in an apartment in downtown Kitakami near a great shopping plaza, a poetry museum and park and not too far from the train station, eki. It’s a great place for a single gal: lots of storage and closet space, a desk, table, tv, fridge, stove, microwave, washer/dryer and standard bathroom. The neighborhood is quiet and safe (yes, Mom, it’s safe). I have a lot of shopping to do before the place feels like “home,” but so far, I’m enjoying having my own place!

Morioka City and mountain

Job Description: My official title is Native Speaker. I work with four junior high schools in the area teaching English as a second language. This last Monday, I went to each school and met the principals and English teachers. It was a terrifying and exhilarating day: each school encouraged me to “gambatte,” try my best. I nodded, did my best to mumble some courteous Japanese, sipped my tea and pretended every muscle in my body wasn’t inverting itself from tension. I’m very excited to work at the schools and a few of the principals already asked me to help with a few student activities including supervising after school cleaning, the soccer team and an upcoming English speaking competition! The competitions are a big deal in Japan, but more on that at a later date.

So, first impressions: living in Japan is exciting, but I have a lot to learn. At times, it’s simply overwhelming. The culture shock comes from all sides: they drive on the left, I can barely read anything, I stick out like a blemish because I’m such an obvious foreigner…I anticipated this feeling, but you can’t understand it until you’re entrenched in a strange new world. But for every uncomfortable moment or clumsy mistake, the sun breaks through and there’s a little victory to enjoy: communicating successfully with a local, finding my way through downtown, being smiled at instead of stared at in fear or confusion. And these  little victories that I cling to, the Mitch Hedberg limes that keep me afloat, these little bursts of light in an otherwise murky and disorienting cultural fog bank: they are my salvation.

I also owe a lot to my new friend Fujita Harue: she helped me and a fellow NS, James, move into Kitakami and when I say “help,” of course I mean she pretty much shepherded us poor little lambs through the arduous process of registering and becoming citizens of Kitakami. But she went so far above the call of duty, spending the whole day with us crazies and then showing us a great okonomiyaki place a block from my apartment!

Kitakami: beautiful in any light

For those first few days, due to a mishap, I was without a car. I spent two days exploring Kitakami by foot: I found some cool cafes, that beautiful poetry park and a shrine. Now that I do have a car, I have a ton of exploring to do outside of the city including going to the heritage village, Kitakami city museum and cherry trees across Kitakami River! Lots to do and I’m off to a good start.

I’ll be introduced to my schools in meetings and ceremonies starting on 15^th April,* then I’ll start teaching.

*Yeah, I have to write the date like that now: not because it’s how the date is written in Japan but because I’m endlessly harassed by peers if I don’t.