Hiraka

I've been placed in Yokote City in Akita prefecture. Things I know about Yokote:

• It's a "city" of 100,000 people formed only two or three years ago from the merger of 5 small towns. I'm placed in one of the smaller towns, Hiraka.
• It's known for its Kamakura Festival in February, in which people build dozens (hundreds?) of snow forts and eat mochi, drink amazake, and pray to a water deity.
  
• There is very heavy snow coverage from December to March. It's cold.
• There will be about 8 other JETs in Yokote.
• There are lots of rice paddies.
  

Heres's a gallery of pictures from Hiraka from a JET who once served there. This same individual has several Japan galleries with Hiraka content, actually, and also shares his thoughts on being placed there:

A month later I received a letter informing me that every effort was made to match my requests, and I would be placed in Hiraka (the characters can literally be translated as 'Flat Deer'), a town of 15,000 in Akita prefecture. Upon reviewing a map of Japan (which I might add that Hiraka is not even on), I found that this is just about the FURTHEST point from my three requests, and has one of the heaviest snowfalls of anywhere in Japan (and evidently the world - it's those fun Siberian winds that come blowing across the Sea of Japan).

After reading the rest of his entry, it turns out I'll be living in the same house he did six years ago. It's attached to an English cram school. Who knew?

The place was small but incredibly cute. It was one big room with a small counter separating the living room from the tiny yet cozy little kitchen, and two doors at the back. One door led to the toilet, and the other led to two more rooms, the outer one containing a washer AND dryer (a rarity here in Japan[...]) as well as a nice sink/mirror set, and the inner room containing my bathtub and shower. A very nice setup indeed, and I haven't even gotten to the best part. Between the two doors at the back of the room and I stood a set of wooden stairs leading up to some unknown destination. Being the observant, intelligent young man I am, I noticed that there wasn't really any place for me to sleep downstairs, and it immediately occurred to me what awaited me at the top of those stairs: MY VERY OWN GAMEROOM! I rushed up the stairs and kicked upon the door (nearly breaking the flimsy Japanese thing in half), expecting to find a pool table, full entertainment system, a mini-bar, and hot, scantily clothed Japanese women waiting to greet me with cold beers in hand. Instead all I found was a bed, a nightstand, and a lamp. Oh yeah... my bedroom.

So! This is perhaps tedious reading for some of you. Apologies! It's about all I know about where I'm headed in 20 days time, so it's quite exciting for me!