more on japan
Aug. 27th, 2006 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kodalaiIt's hard to put my overall impressions into words, but I'll try.
Japan: If you don't like the view, walk for five minutes. It'll change. You can stand in one spot, throw a stone in four different directions, and hit a rice field, a Shinto shrine, a pachinko parlor, and a convenience store.
Everything here is very small, and I'm not saying that as a jab against the Japanese's height. It's in the architecture, the streets, the buildings and gardens and little parks. You can tell just at a glance that this is a very small land that has been inhabited and civilized for thousands of years, and that in that time people have built over every habitable inch of it, and rebuilt, and rebuilt again into tiny spaces. There's no wasted space here; there's no sprawl.
Toyama: Nice place to live, but you wouldn't wanna visit here.
Seriously, there is nothing to go to Toyama for unless you live here. :) Sure, there's gorgeous scenery, but it's less dramatic and no more impressive than almost anywhere else in Japan. Toyama's major selling points are its pure drinking water, clean air, and healthy food. Nice, but not so much of a tourist pull-in. There also doesn't seem to be much in the way of shopping or entertainment, at least not for my age range; there's game parlors and anime stores enough to keep one satisfied on an individual basis, but nothing you'd flock to here.
However, it is a fantastic place to live. It's way out in the boonies, such that crowding (and traffic) are not too bad and the rents are very low. My apartment building is surrounded by rice paddies (rice paddies! five minutes from central downtown! I told you how close together everything is) and I'm told they're owned by the individual families who have houses around here. The city is small enough to still have that friendly small-town feel, not yet having acquired the big-city callousness. It really seems to be extremely family-friendly, a great place to raise kids.
dead winter,
miserably ask
"do I stay?"
On a more mundane note, I think I may be getting sick. :\ I'm sneezing, my throat hurts, and I have an awful taste in the back of my mouth. I'm also tired despite sleeping like a log all weekend. I hope not, or that it goes away quickly. Classes start this Friday and I'm not all prepared yet. :( Most of the teachers I'm supposed to work with were not in the first few weeks of August, due to summer break and obon, and then this week they were in and I was not thanks to a bunch of orientation seminars we had to attend. On Wednesday they made us climb a bleeding MOUNTAIN. My legs are still angry at me and I turned down the opportunity to go on the Mt. Fuji climb this weekend, which I rather think was a good idea.
However, I have internet! :D All is well.
burning trash
chamomile forest
smells of home.
Japan: If you don't like the view, walk for five minutes. It'll change. You can stand in one spot, throw a stone in four different directions, and hit a rice field, a Shinto shrine, a pachinko parlor, and a convenience store.
Everything here is very small, and I'm not saying that as a jab against the Japanese's height. It's in the architecture, the streets, the buildings and gardens and little parks. You can tell just at a glance that this is a very small land that has been inhabited and civilized for thousands of years, and that in that time people have built over every habitable inch of it, and rebuilt, and rebuilt again into tiny spaces. There's no wasted space here; there's no sprawl.
Toyama: Nice place to live, but you wouldn't wanna visit here.
Seriously, there is nothing to go to Toyama for unless you live here. :) Sure, there's gorgeous scenery, but it's less dramatic and no more impressive than almost anywhere else in Japan. Toyama's major selling points are its pure drinking water, clean air, and healthy food. Nice, but not so much of a tourist pull-in. There also doesn't seem to be much in the way of shopping or entertainment, at least not for my age range; there's game parlors and anime stores enough to keep one satisfied on an individual basis, but nothing you'd flock to here.
However, it is a fantastic place to live. It's way out in the boonies, such that crowding (and traffic) are not too bad and the rents are very low. My apartment building is surrounded by rice paddies (rice paddies! five minutes from central downtown! I told you how close together everything is) and I'm told they're owned by the individual families who have houses around here. The city is small enough to still have that friendly small-town feel, not yet having acquired the big-city callousness. It really seems to be extremely family-friendly, a great place to raise kids.
dead winter,
miserably ask
"do I stay?"
On a more mundane note, I think I may be getting sick. :\ I'm sneezing, my throat hurts, and I have an awful taste in the back of my mouth. I'm also tired despite sleeping like a log all weekend. I hope not, or that it goes away quickly. Classes start this Friday and I'm not all prepared yet. :( Most of the teachers I'm supposed to work with were not in the first few weeks of August, due to summer break and obon, and then this week they were in and I was not thanks to a bunch of orientation seminars we had to attend. On Wednesday they made us climb a bleeding MOUNTAIN. My legs are still angry at me and I turned down the opportunity to go on the Mt. Fuji climb this weekend, which I rather think was a good idea.
However, I have internet! :D All is well.
burning trash
chamomile forest
smells of home.
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Date: 2006-08-27 03:05 pm (UTC)I knew a guy who did JET a few years ago and I swear Toyama was were he was placed...
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