This post as of today is almost 1 month and 1 week late, but I want to make the official blog post about the placement for where I will be helping teach English for the next year!
Starting August 5/6 I will be living and helping teach English in the city of Aomori. Aomori's at the northern tip of Japan's main island, Honshu - just across the bay from Hokkaido's city of Hakodate.
From what I found out via Wikipedia Aomori is a small city, but also serves as the prefecture capital of Aomori Prefecture (Prefectures are sort-of like states here in the U.S.). It's got a population of roughly 300,000 people and averages almost 22 feet of snow per year!! most of which fall between December and Februray(V_V). It might sound unbelievable, but I'm telling you the truth. I will literally be moving from the no-snow San Francisco Bay Area to a city with one of the heaviest snowfall in the world. During those winter months temperatures will average about 30 degrees fahrenheit and between the snow and cold, I will still be expected at work -- so that will be an experience that I'll probably blog about later!
Aomori offers a lot of different opportunities to get closer to nature including many different hot springs in the mountains as well as visiting places like the Oirase River Gorge that eventually flows into Lake Towada - both of which are only a couple of the many places you can go.
In the nearby Hakkoda Mountains you can witness the crazy amounts of snow that my region gets. (It also looks very similar to the snow racetrack in Mario Kart 64!)
One of Japan's most famous festivals, the Aomori Nebuta Matsuri, is also held in Aomori City. This summer festival's held in early August and consists of giant lantern floats being carried around the city.
Besides the festival, and natural attractions the city has to offer, Aomori Prefecture is also known as the birthplace of the Fuji Apple - the first Japanese apple. It's the largest exporter of apples in all of Japan. In the city center itself, there is also a excavation site of a Jomon-era settlement, which they call the Sannai-Maruyama site. Despite being along Aomori Bay, I don't think the city's known for beaches.
One last interesting fact - Just like how people from Osaka or Kyoto speak the Kansai Dialect, people from Aomori tend to speak a different dialect - called the Tsugaru Dialect.
(NOTE: For those curious and those applying, I got my placement in an e-mail on May 13, 2015. A lot of applicants never really know when exactly to expect these kinds of information, but that was my own personal date that I received the placement e-mail.)
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