Learning prefectures

I'm still on a quest to learn more about Japanese geography. Last year I bought a puzzle at Thrift Shop that is made up of all the prefectures of Japan (see it here). It's a bit awkward to have out all the time, so when I saw this poster on sale at our local 100 yen shop, I snaffled it up. Yes, it's all in Japanese, but the simple "alphabet" kind, so it isn't hard to read. Maybe one day I'll progress to reading the more complex "Chinese characters" that go with these places.

I've found that knowing your geography really helps when meeting people. "Where do you work?" was a question asked on Monday afternoon/evening as I interacted with people. It was great when I knew where Nagoya was, and that I've been there (camping), but awkward when I didn't know where Tottori was!

I did know approximately where New Jersey was (the place a visiting mission leader was flying back to the next day). And indeed my American geography has improved a lot since moving to Japan! We often pull out our atlas or Google maps to figure out where people come from.

Yesterday we had some little guests for the evening. They came after school and stayed till bedtime when I took them home and waited for their mum to return from a work dinner. We played with the puzzle I mentioned above. They didn't really have an understanding of prefectures, but commented on how small Tokyo was compared to all the rest of these places. Indeed! It is. All the more reason to explore other parts of Japan.

Alas no more camping trips for us for some time now. This Japan-summer is consumed with our move to Australia. Maybe next summer (though our "next summer" will really be over Christmas in Australia), really, "next summer holidays in Japan" which will be middle of next year. 

Confused? Yep, me too! Sitting in church on Sunday I had to think about what season we were actually in the middle of, literally work it through. Yes, Easter is coming up. I tell you, changing hemispheres, I didn't get jet lag, but it did exacerbate my usual "seasonal confusion". I still haven't completely adjusted back to Tokyo's winter temps, but thankfully some "warmer" days are in the pipeline (i.e. in the teens, rather than single digits).