The Adventure Begins!

About a year ago I was living in Córdoba, Spain growling at Serrano Ham, being baffled by the sun still being out and bright at 10pm, and going out until 6 in the morning to destroy my liver via cheap beer.

Oh, and in between all that I also managed to teach some elementary school kids some English. Sometimes it was fantastic, other times I want to ram my head into the wall. But, honestly I had a fantastic time, despite the hardship, the challenges, the never ending asking of Raul to sit back down in his seat and to STOP throwing pencils at the other kids ¡POR LA MADRE DE DIOS!

(Raul never really came around until I started taking away P.E. every time he was bad. Take away a kid's P.E., and they'll shape up real quick. It is something I will not hesitate using in Japan if I need to.)

So, a year later here I am, staring at a couple pixels on a computer that have changed my life forever. More specficially, this is what I see:

Of course my first thoughts are "Niigata-ken? I've never even heard of that. Murakami-shi? What is this place?"

So here I throw Murakami into Google and while there's all sorts of stuff on some author named Murakami and a painter named Murakami and some company based in southern California called Murakami Screen -- there's a whole lot of nothing about the tiny little city of Murakami.

Welp, that's okay, because while it might be a tiny little city, it's a tiny little city on the beach, and according to weather reports, it hits 80s in the summer, so maybe this won't be all bad! Well, what about the winter? Well let's just head right on over to Google and see what it has to--

.........

Let's get one thing straight. I have spent all 24 years of my life in a desert. A desert, mind you, that hits 110 very easily in the summer. I can handle heat.

Snow, however, I've probably seen FIVE TIMES in my entire life. So, frankly, if I manage to get through this whole thing without losing any of my limbs to frost bite, I'll consider all this a success.




Okay, okay, maybe that picture above is a bit of an exaggeration, and maybe after some digging I discover there are two ski resorts about five stations away from my city, and just maybe my apartment will have a sweet view of the ocean and if not, my city is only three miles wide, so I'll be able to walk there if I want.

All I know is that it's going to be an adventure, and if I've got this sunset to look forward to (which is a real picture of a sunset taken off the beach of Murakami) then, you know what? How could a year in Japan not be ridiculously awesome?