Job Discussion Forums

[eko]

Hi All,
So Matty's English School has hired me. Lookin to be there by Dec.10th. Don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing yet. The contract looked legit. Anywayz, I'll be livin in the Shonan area. Any and all info you have on that region would be fantastic! peace out homies

[madeira]

I think I've told you before, I live there. I bought a house there because it's the best place I've seen that has trees/parks/beach access but isn't too far from our jobs in the city.

The area was developed about 30 years ago by Seibu co. as a suburb for rich people. Mostly large houses on large lots. Buildings are restricted to two stories, most lots have a 40% maximum building-garden ratio.

The large park on the mountain is mostly protected forest, and it's huge. There are a lot of Buddhist relief carvings on the rock faces near the paths... some quite good. Coloured, which seems unusual. One large Buddha. (Not old, but it looks old.) You can walk over the mountain to Zushi and mostly stay in the forest. Beautiful old temple on the path. It's a popular spot for rock-climbing. If you want to try, you need permission and possibly training.

You'll see a lot of wildflowers in most seasons, and you can find wild strawberries around Golden Week. Just before that, you should look for asparagus. There are some mamushi (pit vipers) in the mountains, but I've never seen anything but rat snakes. (Harmless.) Loads of geckoes and skinks, interesting birds like miniature woodpeckers and a lot I can't name.

It's close to a lot of other natural attractions. Jogashima is worth visiting, the next town, Taura, has a large ume park, there are other mountains to climb, and you're close to Kamakura.

Hakkeijima Sea Paradise is a nearby amusement park. Pretty good!

There's a decent grocery store on the mountain, but most shopping is downtown in Oppama. (15 minute walk). The large Seiyu is a cheap department store. Groceries, clothing, household goods... and a really good 100 yen kaiten-zushi in the basement. There are 3 coffee shops in Oppama, a large video store, a new comics/internet cafe, a pretty good Chinese restaurant (the chef won an iron chef competition), quite a few Brazilian retaurants, 2 fish markets, 4 or 5 izakayas, 3 flower shops, 1 coin laundry, the first winery in Japan licenced to make wine with imported grapes, assorted other shops, about 3 pachinko parlours.

Unfortunately, if you want cilantro, basmati, tortillas, decent cheese, etc. you have to go into Yokohama. (20 minutes by train.) Ditto for English books and fashionable clothing.

The people in Oppama and Shonan Takatori are pretty friendly, sometimes in kind of a crazy way. You'll find out... Downtown is quite run-down, but it has a funky feeling.

Taxi fare from downtown to Matty's should be 660 yen. Any bus from downtown that says 'Takatori' will take you there for about 200 yen.

Anything else?

[eko]

Thankyou Madeira. Very informative. Much more then expected. Thanks again!