What do you get when you cross three towns (one of which I live in?)
+ 
+ 
=
That’s right! My little town of Chunan has merged with two other towns (Kotonami and Mannou) to form… Mannou. I now live and work in Mannou town. (Some of you might be wondering why, if we merged, we took the name of one of the towns. Well, it is complicated.. not really but anyways…. the old Mannou was spelt 満濃 (chinese characters) whereas the new one uses the phonetic alphabet まんのう)
The opening ceremony was an exciting affair involving a crazy man on a loudspeaker denoucing the merger, the rope breaking on the unveiling ceremony, and the sheet covering the new town logo tearing after the rope had been fixed.
I am now working in the Mannou town office which is a 15 minute drive from my home. I absolutely love Chunan. It is a fantastic place to live and everyone at my office was very nice. That being said, I am also looking forward to working in Mannou. They treat me the same as the other employees complete with name badge, official swearing-in ceremonies, and a new computer. Yeah for me!
At any rate, Kiko and I are still recovering from our jetlag ordeal. We will have a ton of pictures (and dear I say it…? a new website???) soon!
Love, David and Kiko.
Mannou Town, March 20th, 2006