Why Lucky Isle?

I live in Fukushima, Japan. When Fukushima is written in kanji (福島), the first character literally means “good luck”, and the second character, “island”. While Fukushima isn’t exactly an island, and it’s still up in the air to see if it’s lucky, it still sounds good. Lucky Isle it is.

At the time of this writing, I’m a 22-year-old graduate of Purdue University who has recently begun his first year as a Fukushima JET.  I serve the role of a junior high school ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) and travel between four schools depending on the whim of my board of education.

One of my main hobbies is riding around this are of the prefecture on my 36″ unicycle. It’s like a bike… but not. If I’m known for one thing in the city it’s probably that I’m the foreigner on a big unicycle. Most of my journies of any distance by cycling will be on the unicycle.