I was born and raised in a small seaside town with a population of tens of thousands. As a teenager, I longed for big cities and foreign countries and wanted to leave the countryside as soon as possible. From the age of 18 I lived in Osaka, a big city in Japan, for 10 years. From my 30s to 40s, I got married and we lived in three countries in Asia and Europe and raised three children. Then we moved to Tokyo, Japan’s larget city and and spent 9 years.
　At the end of 2023 we moved to Asuka, Nara Prefecture. After 40 years living in big cities in Japan and other countries I returned to the countryside of Japan, but unlike my hometown, Asuka is far from the sea and surrounded by gentle mountains. When we were in Tokyo, we have been looking for a place where we can enjoy life at our own pace, and after traveling back and forth between several candidate locations and Tokyo many times, we finally arrived here in Asuka.
　For me this is the 25th move since I left my hometown at the age of 18, but I think I’ll be living here for a long time. Because there doesn’t seem to be anywhere else as good as this. There are many places here where we can feel the old history and culture of Japan, we can enjoy the beautiful nature of the four seasons every day, and we have warm interactions with the people in neighborhood. Every morning when I wake up, I feel glad that we moved to Asuka.