Karumai, Iwate

(Karu) (mai) (machi)

I"m living in a small town of about 6000 people in Northern Japan called Karumai. The characters at the top of this entry are the Japanese Kanji for my town. It means "light rice" with the last symbol (machi) meaning town.

My town has a tulip festival in the spring that apparently attracts a lot of tourists. As for why they decided to build an electric windmill and have a festival in the first place? I'm still trying to get a straight answer on that one....

Here are some links to give you an idea of what's around me....

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&addtohistory=&address=&city=Karumai&state=&zipcode=&country=JP&location=RmZK%2f0wmOSzSDhXQHmfKuiOYrmvTeoAe%2bZEOIDzG%2bSypwQPK6nW6tudfFqBZV%2bE48%2bcaEv4YU17lRftguakTI7f%2fhw5XVwDX&ambiguity=1 - A map showing the location of my town in Japan. Yes, it's actually too small to be labeled.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.town.karumai.iwate.jp/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=7&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dkarumai%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D - A Google translated version of my towns website

http://www.pref.iwate.jp/english/ - Here is a link to information on my Prefecture (Iwate)