Back in May I finally graduated from Trinity with my interesting but completely useless degree in Japanese Art and Culture.  My thesis work consisted of an exhibition of artwork and photographs that I made before, during, and after living in Japan for a year as a college student.  I moved home and spent the summer working at the photo supply store near my house.  It was a good summer, although short (I still see myself as a student and therefore entitled to three month long summer vacations), but now the time has come for me to join the working world full time (that sounds kind of sad, doesn’t it?) and so I have taken a job as an assistant language teacher of English in a program called JET (Japanese Exchange in Teaching) which is coordinated by the Japanese government.

I live in a suburb of a city called Kakogawa, which is close to Kobe, in the south central area of the main island of Honshu, by the Japan Sea.  I work full time at a Technical High School near my house, which is old but pretty cozy and ride a bike to and from work.  Classes don’t start until September 6th, so I have been spending my time working on getting my living arrangements in order, writing emails and beginning to come up with lesson plans.

Apart from school I am exploring my neighborhood and city and have taken a trip to the nearby Himeji Castle, which many people think is the best one in Japan.  There are rice paddies all around my ‘hood and at night bats fly around while frogs and cicadas do their thing.  I have a small area surrounding my house that will one day be a garden - at present it’s a weed factory.  I have only met a few people so far, mostly limited to the people I work with or teach, but there is also the massive network of other JETs and of course my previous host families and friends.

Well, I will leave off here.  Peace to all