Things I Will Miss about Japan #6-- Yanai!

Ah good old 柳井! When I first arived here I wasn't too impressed...it seemed in the middle of nowhere, there was no nightclubs, insects were making funny noises outside...but as i got used to the place, I came to realise that Yanai is fab-its the perfect size, being small enough to have the inaka charm and a sense of community yet big enough to have decent restaurants and a connection to civilisation. Thw white wall street is stunning and I love the 金魚ちょうちん (goldfish lanterns) that crop up all the time, especially when theres a festival! I was really lucky to be located here, I don't think I would actually change it with anywhere else in the ken (although i do love Hagi and Yamaguchi-shi too)
I'm beginning to sound like a tourist board but Yanai has a great selection of restaurants-yakiniku, yakitori, tonkatsu, pasta, chinese, sushi, curry and -woo!- foreign stuff too at Gotcha-Yanai's chief attraction i must say-one of the few places in the guch that's trendy and attracts a crowd of young j-peeps ^.^ The beach isn't bad either.
Oh and I spose I was pretty lucky in the selection of JETs that live close by too :-p
Sometimes when the sun is shining and its all green here I walk to my base school and think that I have a pretty damn idyllic life...I pass all the cute shogakusei (primary school students) who dilligantly say Good Morning to me and it's beautiful. It's ridiculously safe and quiet and pretty without being boring-basically about as far from my hometown Dukin"someone gets stabbed every few days"field as possible! Although i sometimes wished I was closer to the Osaka area, living in Yanai has let me visit Shikoku and Kyushu reasonably easily and its definitely given me a taste of authentic Japan. ^_^ I will defintely be back to visit, but in the meantime, I know Yanai itself is one of the things I'll miss the most.