Welcome!

This a blog written by Beloit College students who are studying abroad in Japan in fall 2014. Some of us are living in Akita, the capital city of Akita prefecture, a regional city of about 320,000 people, surrounded by rice paddies and mountains in northern Japan. Others of us are living and studying in the Kansai region with easy access to two of Japan's largest cities: Kyoto (population approx. 1.5 million) and Osaka (2.7 million). Though we've all ventured from Beloit to Japan this fall, we know we will have vastly different experiences. This blog is our conversation about that -- a space where we can think and talk about the regional and urban spaces in which we live.

Each week we will write posts in response to a series of writing prompts that ask us to explore the city as concept, the city in practice, and the city as imagined by its inhabitants. We're glad you're here and hope you enjoy hearing about our experiences.