Fukushima Prefecture is in northern Japan.  I live in Fukushima City.  That’s in northern Fukushima Prefecture.  Yep, we’re north!

Fukushima is hot and sweaty in  the summer, but right now it is winter, so it is cold and snowy.

I snapped these pictures while walking outside this past week.

Brrrr!  I’m glad I’m not a truck.

See that pink sign?  That’s a place where people can pay money and sing karaoke.

This is my favorite street in all of Fukushima.  If I were a truck, I’d drive on this street.  But I’m still glad I’m not a truck.  I think it would be exhausting!

If you look at a globe and put your finger on Fukushima City, then travelled east to the United States, you would run into Wichita, Kansas.  That’s where I was raised.  Fukushima City and Wichita, Kansas are approximately on the same latitude.  I also grew up with snowy winters and hot summers, so Fukushima’s weather is nothing new to me.

If you look at that same globe and put your finger on Fukushima City, then travelled south to Australia, you would run into Adelaide, Australia.  Fukushima City and Adelaide are approximately on the same longitude.

In the book that I’m writing, the main’s character’s name is “Haruka.”  If you look up the Japanese word “Haruka” in a dictionary, you’ll find that is says “far away.”  People around the world think of Fukushima as a far away place.  But is it so far?  We are all intertwined with each other.  You live far away, but you are reading this now.  And I was raised far away from Fukushima, but I live here now.   And Adelaide is far, far away.  But for the children in Adelaide, it’s not far at all.  It’s their home.  And they know of Fukushima and they’ve heard of Kansas….so it’s not so far, after all.