Information for those curious about the area in which we are living:

We will be living in Naruto, a town of just over 60,000. Naruto is located in the prefecture (basically Japan's version of a state) of Tokushima. The capital city of the prefecture is Tokushima City, our closest big city neighbor. There are about 260,000 people in Tokushima City. Tokushima Prefecture is located on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four major islands.

We're living in an area called the Inland Sea (Naruto is labeled in red.)The Inland Sea is supposed to have the nicest weather in all of Japan, with low rainfall, moderate temperatures, and little snow.

By crossing a few bridges, and the island of Awaji, we can get to the Kobe/Osaka/Kyoto metro area. It is about an hour and a half of travel time by bus, and takes us across the world's largest suspension bridge. There are over 18.5 million people in this metro area, making it second in size only to Tokyo in Japan. A bit further away is Hiroshima (about 3.5 hours away).

Some notable things in and around Naruto:Naruto is famous for it's whirlpools, which can reach up to 20 meters in diameter.

It is the start of the Shikoku Pilgrimage, a journery around the island to visit 88 Buddhist temples.

Naruto Kintoki sweet potatoes are famous around Japan.　　The picture is the regional Hello Kitty, where she is dressed up as a sweet potato.

Every summer, Tokushima City hosts the Awa Dance Festival, where people do choreographed dances while parading down the street. Many places in Japan hold dance festivals during this time, the traditional Buddhist Obon festival, a time for honoring one's ancestors. It's fairly similar to the Mexican Day of the Dead. The festival in Tokushima seems to be a little less serious than other dance festivals of its type, and Awa Odori is sometimes translated as "fool's dance." This will be our first major festival during our time in Japan, so I'm sure we'll take pictures of it.