My domain

As I said before, I live on the Eastern side of Tokushima. There's only one other ALT who lives on this side, but he's married and has a family so he doesn't really involve himself in the JET Programme. To all intents and purposes, it's my domain. Let's take a gander.

This view, looking west from my apartment building, shows the north end of the Suehiro Ohashi (Great Suehiro Bridge) crossing the Shinmachi river, with Mt Bizan in the background. There's a movie called Bizan set in Tokushima.

This picture was taken along Minato Koen (Harbour Park) heading West. It's a nice little walkway with grass and trees on one side that follows the river until it reaches the main 'island' of Tokushima (the rivers split the city into several of these islands).

 Head north and you can find this place - the former premises of Tokushima East Technical High School, where I used to teach two days a week. The school closed in March 2009 to merge with the main technical high school, which is where I now work. I really miss this place. The atmosphere was bright and friendly and the teachers didn't have to stress so much about the students' results or future careers. The students themselves were really friendly and usually worked hard in classes despite their difficulty with English. The sign in the window says, "Tokushima East Technical High School is closed. We thank you for your all your support."

North of there is my other school - my base school, Tokushima Commercial High School, where I work three days a week. It's called Tokusho colloquially, which is short for "Tokushima Shougyou". If you click on the picture you should be able to see a blue sign, which congratulates former student Kawakami Kenshin on making it to major league baseball in the US. Apparently he pitches for the Atlanta Braves.

Remember what I was saying about the state of English in Japan?

This is a great name for a laundramat. It would also be a great name for an Aryan Republic. Thank goodness we're in Japan.