Hey guys! What’s good?

My name is Andrew and I’m a 2^nd year ALT in Ehime, Japan.

Ehime isn't really known to many people. It's located on the island of Shikoku (one of the 4 major islands), so you more than likely have to fly there if you are from outside Japan. If you are from Hawaii, you might have heard of it, as a few years back, a US navy submarine collided with and sunk a Japanese fishing boat called the EHIME MARU. Other thank that, Ehime is not really known outside of japan.

I work for the Matsuyama BOE.  Matsuyama is the capital city of Ehime and is also the biggest city in Shikoku. So I consider myself blessed to work in Matsuyama… kinda.

Actually, I live and work in a small town called Hojo. Hojo is a seaside town that has lots of farming fields… lots and lots of farming fields.  Its about 30 minutes by train north of Matsuyama city and about 40 minutes south-west from the next big city, Imabari. Its safe to say that Hojo is very inaka.

Hojo definitely gives off that stereotypical Japanese countryside feel.  Grandmothers are omnipresent, and every night you can here enka (traditional Japanese music) being sung by a drunk elderly from one of many small bars, scattered around the area.  The other half of the population here is young children. If I am not careful, I swear I could probably run over some small kid on my bike at any given moment.  There are almost no people my age living around my area (other than the other 2 ALTS in hojo).

 

Despite it getting a little lonely at times, life is pretty good. Food here is cheap, I am a regular at 2 restaurants (which I frequent way too often), and people are kind. I’m 10 minutes by bike from the ocean and the countryside offers beautiful sights close to home (cherry blossoms by the river and fireflies in the night were breathtaking last year).

I definitely think that time flies slower in the countryside, but I’m okay with that.  I love my little slice of the Inaka and love to take things slow, day by day.

Till next time…