Welcome to Nara!¶
After your introduction to the Orient at orientation in Tokyo, you might be feeling a little disoriented. Not to fear! You have been selected to work in Nara Prefecture, an area rich in traditional culture and filled with friendly people. We hope this year’s handbook is helpful as you get settled in. We also hope it gives you the tools to go off on your own and discover this area for yourself.
How to use this book¶
Take a moment to read through the Table of Contents on pages 1 and 2. As you can see, the book is divided into four parts: (1)Living in Nara; (2)Travel and Recreation; (3)Exploring Nara Prefecture; and (4)Entertainment and Learning About Japan. Part I is intended to help you become used to living here; Part II explains how to get around and offers general recreation tips; Part III is a guide to the places and events of interest in various parts of Nara; and Part IV is a guide to, well, entertainment and learning about Japan. We suggest reading the entire book when you first arrive, then reading it again after you’ve been here for a few months; a lot of information which seemed confusing when you first read the book will be much clearer after you’ve been here for a while. There is also an index at the back if you wish to find information about a specific place or topic.
Several times in this book we have mentioned one particular company or service when others clearly could have been mentioned. In most cases this does not reflect any kind of advertising for that service–we just didn’t want to take the time to compile an exhaustive list. We encourage you to shop around and let us know what you find out!
This handbook is the product of many people’s comments, suggestions, and complaints, as well as countless hours spent in caffeine- and curry-induced confusion. There have been many hurdles, both technical and personal, but we think it’s been worth the effort. Our main concerns this year were revising and updating the information in last year’s book, making the book more user-friendly, and most of all including more information about Nara Prefecture. We like Nara very much, and we want you to like Nara, too; unfortunately, many JETs don’t do much traveling early on and discover only after months or years how beautiful and fascinating Nara truly is.
Furthermore, we see the handbook not as a finished product but rather as an organic process; each year the beast grows larger, and each year the beast must be tamed. Please tell us if you think there is anything to be added, fixed, deleted, folded, spindled, or otherwise changed.
That’s all we need to say here. Enjoy your stay, and we hope you have a good time exploring Nara and Japan!
Geoffrey JostEric Swanson- editors
