Vanuatu which is to the south of japan

It’s been 39 days(over a month) since I arrived in Vanuatu.

Everything is new such as food, environment, people, culture...literally everything.

“Every day is a new day. “

So, feels like time flies.

As a member of JICA,

(You could learn this if you have a textbook from grade six. Basically, we support developing countries. We go there, teach Japanese technologies to people, and think about their future together. )

(In my case, I go to a school far from the capital, teach math, and discuss how we can improve education of the country with other teachers.)

The country I went to is “Vanuatu”.

This country is to the south of Japan.

The upper arrow symbol shows Japan, and lower one shows Vanuatu. Here.

Vanuatu had been colonized by UK and France. In 1980, Vanuatu became independent from them.

In terms of age of a country,
Japan is 2679 years old.
Vanuatu is only 39 years old.

Vanuatu is also an island country(Japan is an island country as well) including 83 islands.

The area of the country is approximately 12,190㎢ in total. (This is almost same as Nigata prefecture. )

The population is approximately 276,000. (By the way, if we look at the population of Shizuoka prefecture, it is 3,751,000, and the population of Numazu-Shi is 197,000, we could see how small Vanuatu is. )

Their main industries are agriculture and tourism.

They export Yam, Taro, Copra, Cocoa and beaf. And also Vanuatu is famous for the beautiful nature, so there are many tourists especially from Oceania.

Vanuatu is still not that famous in Japan but if you walk in the city, you could find many tourists from Australia and New Zealand, and also many Chinese who sell cheap Chinese products.

In the capital, Port Vila, there are way more tourists, citizens, and products.
Heavy traffic. Busy busy place.

So far, an impression of Vanuatu for me is

「They might not be hungry because they have a bunch of fruits and vegetables.

And they live their relaxing lives with amazingly beautiful ocean.

They are a bit shy and very kind people. 」

I’m so excited to live here for one year and eight months.