This Is Where I Live Now

In your wildest imaginations, here:

More broadly, here.

More specifically, here. On the island of Kyushu, Inside the bounds of Nagasaki prefecture (the black Nagasaki), in a city slightly to the northeast of Nagasaki city (the red Nagasaki).

Even more specifically, here:

Isahaya At Dusk

Nagasaki prefecture is famous for its international history of trade with the Dutch and Chinese during the period when Japan was otherwise closed to foreign contact. As such, it is the most Christianized prefecture in Japan. It is also famous obviously for the bomb, and for Champon, an amazing noodle soup that looks as if some Japanese-Chinese mixed family just pulled all the random things out of their fridge and threw them into a bowl.

Isahaya in particular is known for being a central trading area for the surrounding farming communities (i.e. rice fields). This means all the trains go through Isahaya, which is very good for me.

I will be teaching English at six different junior high and elementary schools in the surrounding countryside. Later I will post more about my “job”, but right now I will leave you with what is most important in life: my Japanese cell phone:

This is my phone, except mine is gunmetal and therefore better.

Needless to say much time has been spent appropriating numbers and emails through the magic of infrared. And yes, it says WIN on it, and yes, that is pretty great.