Where I am

This was originally going to be part of the About Me entry, but I felt I had enough information (and spiffy pictures!) that it could really stand on its own and keep the intro from being super long.

Okay, time for fun with maps! I live in Japan. Here is a map of Japan:

I live on the southernmost of the four main islands, called Kyushu. My prefecture, which is kinda sorta like a Japanese state, is Kumamoto. Kumamoto, or 熊本, means “Origin of the Bear”. I colored Kumamoto pink on this map for you.

This is a close up of Kumamoto prefecture. I live in the city of Amakusa, 天草, which means “Heaven’s Grass”. It’s dark green on this map. Amakusa is actually made up of about 9 smaller towns that incorporated a few years ago. They all still have their own names and branch offices of the city government and such. My town is Goshoura, 御所浦, which means “Emperor’s Palace by the Sea”. Goshoura is a series of islands (mostly tiny and uninhabited). The main one is circled in red. That’s where I live. The island next to it is part of Goshoura too, and is connected by a bridge, but since my schools and apartment are on the other island that’s the only one I circled.

Here is a close up of Goshoura. I also teach on the much smaller island of Yokoura. It’s so small it wasn’t even visible on the other map. You can see it here, above Goshoura. I can see it out my bedroom window as well.

I live in the inaka of Japan, 田舎, which means countryside, and it really doesn’t get more inaka than this. From my experience, the word has the connotation of being cut off and away from things. That is very much the case with me. Goshoura is only accessible by ferry. The ferries stop running at about 6 pm. After that, you can still get to the island, but only by taking a sea taxi. Yes, sea taxi. Their very existence continues to blow my mind. On my island, there are no bookstores or video stores or arcades or bowling alleys or movie theatres. We have a very small grocery store. Very small, and the prices are high because all the food has to be brought in from off the island. We have a small convenience store, that to me really isn’t a convenience store. It’s horribly cramped and carries a lot of things I’ve never seen at other conbinis but instead see at grocery stores.

But to make up for our lack of things you normally find in a town (I guess) we have dinosaurs. Yes, Goshoura is a thriving community for dinosaur fossils. Well, mostly shell fossils, but there have been some notable dino fossil discoveries here. We have a fossil museum and you can even rent equipment to go smack at rocks trying to find fossils yourself!