Home Sweet Home (住宅)

Despite this being only my fourth night in Japan, it already feels like I have been here for ages. It’s been a whirlwind past couple of days and I am just now getting the downtime necessary to put my jetlagged thoughts in order.

Below you can see pictures of my new home, the KSS apartment complex. I am living in Ehime Prefecture, which is the large northwestern chunk of the island of Shikoku. Within Ehime, I live in a suburb known as To-on City (pronounced toe-own). I purposely hyphenate the name because for some reason whenever I see “Toon City” I think of Toon Town at Disneyland and screw-up the pronunciation of the word in my head.

The entire KSS complex is made up of only nine apartments, one of which is inhabited by me and one of which is inhabited by my fellow English language lecturer Cara. The apartment is positively huge compared to that broom closet in Tokyo. As far as I can tell, Japanese residents occupy the other seven units. I have said hello to my neighbor a few times. He appears to go cycling quite a bit.

I plan to write-up more in-depth impressions of To-on City once I have thoroughly explored the area. However, my initial impression is that there is simply not much here. The phrase “in the middle of nowhere” comes to mind. While I was not honestly expecting Little Tokyo, there seem to be only three types of buildings in this city; homes, apartments, and schools. So far, I can count the number of stand-alone eating establishments in the immediate vicinity on one hand.

By far the most immediately noticeable and hilarious thing about my new home is that it is located a mere 10 feet from the train tracks. This means that every hour on the hour, 15, 30, and 45 minute marks, the train whizzes by KSS and delivers a perfectly punctual earthquake. Since I am a soft sleeper, this phenomenon has made it so that I can sleep only during the hours that the train doesn’t run, from 11 PM to 6 AM.

Also located right next to the train tracks and our apartment is the To-on High School athletics field. Thus, if the train doesn’t wake you up each morning, the rehearsing dance troupes and order-barking team captains certainly will. Yesterday there was some sort of sports festival going on at the high school. One minute I was deep in slumber, the next I was shocked awake by circus music and synchronized cheering.

I am confident that I will get used to the train-quakes. And, the high school can’t have the circus come to town every night. So, all in all I think this will be a perfectly fine place to live. Wait a minute, is that me talking or is that the early makings of Stockholm Syndrome?

For all your Ben Whaley mailing and contact needs, my home address in English is the following:

Ben Whaley
KSS 201
1533-2 Minara, To-on City
Ehime 791-0211
JAPAN

OR in Japanese:

〒791-0211
愛媛県東温市見奈良1533-2
KSS 201
ベン・ホェイリー様