[steven]

There are a lot of things I like better about (this area of) Japan than where I came from. Where I came from was great too though.

I like the nature aspect of where I live now. There's natural water that comes out of the ground that is drinkable. The fish are fresh and taste good. The rice comes from here and so do a lot of the vegetables. I like that it's less crowded, too. The mountains are quite nice and, although I'm sure foreigners will not like it that I say this, but I like the seasonal stuff about Japan. In a sense, it's like living in 4 different places as it chagnes so much (compared with where I come from).

People are generally friendlier here. I also like meeting new people and hearing their stories. I was lucky to meet a lot of people into music and instruments when I came here, too... that was very lucky of me though. There's something really nice about living here too... like a feeling of relief. You know that people aren't going screw you over every chance they get (although those people certainly exist, just not as high of a percentage). You can leave a bag somewhere and look a person in the eye who's sitting near you and you know that they will keep an eye on it for you. There is a bit of the small town feel where everyone knows you and watches you, but you know it's mostly done with good intentions. I also apologize to religious people, but here you don't have as many people pestering about religious BS all of the time. I've had some door to door people come about 2 times, but that was it. I do see stupid "if you don't do this and that you're gonna burn in hell" written in Japanese- signs every now and then, though.

People around here actually make and produce things instead of just consuming them, which is something I like a lot. I've been trying to do a lot more DIY stuff myself since I've come here, and I think I can attribute that to the creativity of the people around me.

People also talk a lot about small housing in Japan, but the area I live in is a little famous for just the opposite. The houses here are huge and have a lot of land around them. There's something I love about that. I'm afraid that things may change when the shinkansen comes through here though.

The language here is also something I also like. There's something just completely different about it from English. It's weird because there are certain things that you just don't say in some languages even though it may be normal in others. I think Japanese has allowed me to be a lot more open about certain things (that's not to say English doesn't have better things about it than Japanese). A different language is really condusive to having a different perspective.

To be honest, though, the language that is spoken where I live is much different from regular Japanese and I'm almost uncomfortable when people speak standard Japanese to me... it's a different language and sounds really dry compared to what I'm used to.