My New and Old Hometowns My hometown is Yokohama City, Japan. I was born and raised there. I thought we’d live there for my whole life before I got the news that we had to move to the US because of my husband’s job. Now, I’ve been here “Mountain View” for two years. I can say, Mountain View is my hometown too, because I am getting used to living here recently and I like it. If I compare both cities, there are many differences. Yokohama City is a beautiful and convenient city. I’ve missed my hometown so much. There is enough nature, such as a pretty green park. It is also easy to get to Tokyo where I used to work. However, it is kind of noisy and crowded. People who live there are totally different from Mountain View. If you travel to Yokohama, you may not see foreign country people very much, except tourists. But, if you walk just five minutes in Mountain View, you will see international people. It is such an international city, because companies such as Google, Apple, and Meta are hiring regardless of nationality. You can get wonderful opportunities to see different countries and cultures easily. That is what I like to do here the most. Yokohama city has four seasons which are spring, summer, fall, and winter. I don’t like the weather of my hometown very much because it rains too much from May to June and is very humid in summer so you may feel uncomfortable during the end of spring to end of summer. However, in spring, you can enjoy seeing beautiful cherry blossoms in many places. There are many parks, sidewalks, riversides, and landscaping. I have been enjoying seeing cherry blossoms for many years in my old hometown, so now I feel I'm missing something. But, Mountain view has beautiful nature as well. In spring, you can see garden trees turning green and flowers bloom in your neighborhood and also, in the summer almost no rains so you can enjoy hiking. Now, let’s compare the safety of the two cities. This is a big different thing. My old hometown, Yokohama, was very safe. Even if you walk alone at 12 am, you can go shopping. Besaide, any transportations is very safe. Even a 10 year old child can take a bus to get anywhere by themselves. However, Mountain View is not a very safe city. One of the big reasons is that it is quite dark outside at night and not many people walk around because it is suburban. Children cannot take a bus or train alone. There are many differences between the two cities though, little by little I started to feel love for my new hometown. I learned the English language, made new friends, and started a job. These things made me a resident of my new hometown. Without friends, neighbors, coworkers, and teachers’ help I couldn’t make it work to try new things. I really appreciate that and don’t know how lucky I am. I will continue to study English and try anything new from now on. Baku is a student in the Advanced ESL class in the morning
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