Miki

View from home

We arrived in Miki today. It’s got a rural/industrial mix often found in Japanese suburbs, not unlike Harima-cho where I lived five years ago. We have plenty of affordable restaurants and all the necessities within walking distance. Some of the more interesting restaurants, shopping areas, and City Hall are at bicycle distance. Hopefully we get some bikes soon.

Rice patties abound in Miki

Becky will be working three days a week at Miki High School and two days a  week at Miki North. They’re both about 20-25 minutes by bike from our apartment and quite a bit farther going on foot and by train. 

Our local train

Miki is about an hour from central Kobe, which will be our home base for shopping, seeing movies, going to museums, going to church, etc. Osaka is another 30 minutes further, so that will also be a weekend option. 

In a couple of weeks, we’ll get our Alien Registration Cards, and then we can get cell phones. We already ordered Internet service, but it will probably be a few weeks before someone can come out. We prioritized buying a bike for Becky this week, and I will get one a few weeks from now. The new semester will start September 1 and free Japanese classes will also start in September at City Hall. All of this adds up to August being a little bit of a limbo month, so we probably won’t get into a regular routine until September.

Regular shopping trip on foot