Hello, Ishikawa!!

Yesterday I found out where I’ll be spending the next few years of my life at.

Ishikawa Prefecture!

I found out while driving home from work. At first, I was a bit disappointed because I didn’t know where Ishikawa was. I heard of it but I didn’t know where it was at. I mean, I didn’t get any of my placement requests (Kyoto, Wakayama, and Fukui). But once I got home, I found out that it was in the Hokuriku region and right next door to my third preference. It worked out in my favor! MOFA really did make attempts to pair me in an area that was within one of my requests.

I’m not a prefecture JET though. I’m actually a city JET. I’ll be in Komatsu and it seems like an amazing city. The second largest in the Ishikawa prefecture, to be exact. Very close to the largest city in the Hokuriku region, Kanazawa, and very close to Osaka and Kyoto. It’s very central, much like my town in rinky dink Florida.

From what I found out, Ishikawa Prefecture is like the Pacific Northwest of America. Very wet and very rainy. Apparently Kanazawa is the wettest city in an extratropical region in the world. Ishikawa Prefecture is also the third happiest prefecture in Japan. I also found it interesting that I ended up here with Kyoto being my first placement request. I brought up in my interview that I am highly interested in the Shinsengumi and Edo history and Kanazawa is called the Little Kyoto of Japan. So, if I wanted to stretch it, I kind of got my Kyoto 😉

It was pretty funny once I found out where I’m going. My friend is actually a JET in the next city over and a 20 minute bike ride away. So that was really a huge celebratory WTF. But on the flip side, a lot of my 2012 JET friends are very far from me. One of them is allllll the way in Hokkaido, with another in Fukushima, three in Gifu, one in Shiga, and one alll the way on Shikoku island. So I am a little sad we’re not close to each other. But we’re trying to figure out how to meet up this year. Probably in Tokyo since it’s the most central location for us.

The Ishikawa JETs have been great in answering my questions and getting me all informed on the general aspects of the prefecture and my future home. But I still have to wait for my pred to get in contact with me to really give me the detail on the situation. There’s 5 new JETs coming into Komatsu, with two being prefecture JETs, and none of the preds know who are going to replace them. So, I don’t think I’ll hear anything until June on that.

Its hard to find stuff on Komatsu, like pictures and what the apartments are like, but I found a couple of “street view” videos. It seems like the perfect town.

There’s an airport, so I can go plane watching. There’s also a karaoke box/game center so I can waste money! And there’s enough civilization that I won’t feel like I need to travel miles to get to some place fun and engaging yet quiet enough to really call it home.

My family is happy to finally know where I’m going. Frustrated it will take a plane, train, and maybe a bus or two to get to me. But, glad I’m no where unsafe.

I’m really excited to be coming to Ishikawa!! Is it August yet?