Come Away with Me

Moving in

My supervisor drove me to the place which will be my home for the next year or so in Narao. He dropped me and all my luggage off and went to park the car. So i stood on the little slope leading to my house taking in the sight around me for the first time. This is a view of the slope from where i was standing. Frankly speaking, when i first saw my house, i didn't quite like it that much. It's a rickety old place, much older than i had expected. And 2 storey seemed too big for one person to live in and i was already wondering how i will spend my first night alone. And the sight of spiders both inside and outside the house, of different sizes and variety didn't make matter any easier.

I know before hand that the island is probably going to be rural so i did prepare myself mentally before coming. But to be physically on an island surrounded by mountains and seas with every turn of the road, it was really beyond imagination. The island is beautiful, there is no doubt about it. I've never seen this side of Japan previously. However, during the initial few days, the urban/rural culture shock still got to me a bit. Coming from a city with one of the highest population density in the world, where the roads are always noisy, of course it would take some time to get used to countryside living. Here, looking out of my window, i hardly see anyone on the streets and i really wondered if i am the only one staying in this town. Occasionally, you'll see an old lady with back bent almost 90degree shuffling her feet slowly up those never ending hills around the area. At night, the town is just silent with cicada chirping incessantly in the background.

I know that i will come to accept and like this place eventually, i just need a little bit of time. The previous ALT in this house, she was really sweet. She left me a folder full of information about work at school, people around the town and all sorts of useful contacts you can imagine. She grew to love this little old house and the town of Narao and i'm sure that i'll like Narao as much too.

This is a view of my place taken from the slope. There are 3 units in a block of this 2 storeys set-up apartment and my unit is the first one from the right. I have a lovely neighbor, she's the English teacher at my base school at Narao Junior High School.

posted by テレサ @ 11:53 PM