"Yamagata-ken" a Yamagata-ken Travel Page by Teledude

First off, it's true I live in Yamagata-ken but in a small village in the western part of the ken called Asahi-mura. The whole region where I live is called the Shonai region or plain. Don't bother looking on the map...it's not there. Asahi-mura's population is about 3000 in town and 6000 total spread out over a great area. It's the largest village in the prefecture with the fewest people. Which suits me fine. It's very mountainous and lush with the industry mainly consisting of rice farming. The people are amazingly friendly and even though I speak very little Japanese, I get by alright. I am learning the language quickly as anyone does living in an area where you are in the extreme minority but I wished I had studied a little more. Also, the local dialect is hard to understand for people living outside of the region.