Japan has over 120 million people…
My city, Kusatsu, has 117000 people… that’s 1/4 of the people in Tasmania in one place!
Geographically, Kusatsu is on the edge of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan. Kusatsu is one of the fastest growing cities in the Kansai area of Japan.. probably because it’s so close to Kyoto city, but cheaper to live and more relaxed in atmosphere.
Most people near my house live in houses or medium size apartments. The closer you get to the train station the more apartment and mansions you see, the more high rise the city becomes and the newer the buildings are. many of the house in my area are quite old and more run down than in the centre of the city.
In my area I see lots of elderly people walking around or cycling.. mostly they cant drive cars…..they seem to be relatively new thing for Japanese. I see business men in suits riding to work early in the morning (from around 6am onwards). I see children walking to school with their matching school hats on – the children meet in their neighborhood and then are walked to school in a line by a parent or older student carrying a flag in front of them – like a parade – very cute. We live opposite a 24 hour childcare center so I notice lots of mums and kids running in and out of their at all hours of the day… many children are dropped off early and picked up late (8pm – 9pm), they spend all day at the childcare center, and sometimes all weekend too because both mum and dad are working.
On the road that we live, Nomura, their is a mixture of shops and houses… it’s a busy road in comparison so Tasmania, but probably not too busy by Japanese standards.
Each neighbourhood has its own community group, with community noticeboard and monthly meeting. I see the evidence of a group orientated society in many places, but this one in particular stands out to me. Every house belongs to a neighbourhood. Ben and I have not had much to do with ours yet on the advice of our missionary neighbours (who belong to a different neighbourhood)… because our particular neighbourhood group is responsible for the upkeep of the temple which is down the road from the house.. and also partly due to our lack of language.
The terrain in Kustasu is basically small city… it’s flat… there’s a river running through the middle of the city from the Lake…. Kusatsu itself is surrounded by farms and rural area… driving 5 minutes from my house will take you to rice farms etc.
At the moment it’s autumn here…. the autumn leaves are absolutely fascinating – the colours are so bright and vibrant, especially up in the mountains…next weekend we are going to an autumn leaf viewing BBQ day and on Tuesday we are taking a class excursion to Arashiyama in kyoto – famous for it’s leaves and monkeys!!
It is FREEZING already… I cant even begin to imagine how cold this winter will be.. perhaps I will have my first white christmas!
The past few weeks have been really busy… this week we had 4 tests on 4 different days at school so we spent the week studying and studying….. Am glad it’s over now and we can get back to normal classes though.
