When I first heard about the area I would be headed, I tried to find some info, like blogs, videos, pictures. It was a little difficult to find more than just general info. Due to that, one of my goals while living there is to take many pictures and put them online (photobucket), and to make videos of the area, events, nature, weather. I am not talking about videos where I would just stand there and talk about stuff, I mean some sweet videos with just the area and all that, and some cool visual effects and nice editing. However, I need to learn how to use some video editing software and learn some after effects to add flavor to the videos; so that wont be for a while, but I'll get on it as soon as I can, and as soon as I get a camera to shoot with. The pics should start flowing as soon as I get there, even though my camera is a little old, 4.0MP, the battery doesn't last like it used to; but it should get the job done until I can find a new one. Would be sweet to get it before departure, so it doesn't die on me in Tokyo.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
A rural life for me.
I know I didn't give much info as to where I would be residing in Japan, besides that it is part of Niigata Prefecture. I decided to say a little more, I will be in a more rural setting; so no big cities or business districts. I also heard there are no trains in the area, only buses for public transportation, so I plan on leasing a car while I am there. One of my former Japanese professors recently told me that Niigata has a very strong dialect. I have done a little research on that, and found some reseources which I hope prove to be helpful. I will try to mix them in my normal Japanese study so that I will be able to decipher some of the dialect when spoken; and possibly impress some locals by using it myself. A few pluses that I thought about living in the rural area are, the possibility of running out in the open, that would be hard to do if there cars, trucks and people all over the place. Also, since it's not a big city, I'll have to speak Japanese more as a lot of the locals may not have the ability to speak or understand English. So hopefully that will improve my speaking and listening quickly.
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Hey- sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, I didn't see your comment until the other day. Sado is a different kind of corner of Niigata, due to it being somewhat isolated (being an island and all), so I don't know as much about it and the people there as I would like to. What I do know is this- that several people from last year on Sado have re-contracted (so they must like it pretty well), and that Sado has a pretty high density of ALTs for a smallish space, who also tend to be a pretty tight-knit group. I can't give you contact info just now, but I bet that they'll welcome you into their special Sado fold almost immediately upon your arrival. It's also ridiculously beautiful year-round, so you've got that to look forward to. Hopefully your predecessor will be in touch soon and better able to give you information than I. Good luck with packing and that!
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