It's just a month now until my ticketed departure and I'm feeling both excited and nervous. There are two eikaiwa (English schools) I 've been corresponding with, and I should know by the end of the week where I'll be going. One school is in a remote corner of Shikoku island in a small town situated on a large and pristine river called Shimanto-shi. The other is in Kobe, which is a large city in the Kansai area, a highly populated geographic region near Osaka and Kyoto. Kobe is an industrial center that is famous for its beef and the massive 1996 earthquake that destroyed a good portion of the city. If I get either position it's likely that I will postpone my departure date for a couple of weeks since the process of getting a visa takes about a month and must be done outside of Japan.

So, my dilemma now lies in deciding between two distinct and contrasting lifestyles: the fast pace of a city with all of its cultural benefits and metropolitan annoyances, or the quiet of the countryside surrounded by natural beauty but geographically isolated from the major population centers. Hopefully I'll be offered only one position and I won't have to deal with any nagging regrets in the back of my mind. Otherwise...