Emina

[my processing of this image is bad, but the focus is great!]

This is my friend, Emina. She's a yo-chien (幼稚園) (kindergarten) teacher on Zamami. The woman before her got pregnant six months ago, opening the position for Emina to move here (and live with her boyfriend). Emina lived in New Zealand for six months and her English is comparable to my 1.5 years of Japanese. Emina has a great (quirky) personality and has thus catapulted into one of my best friends. Of the things I love about her, these stand out: she doesn't care how her hair looks nor does she dress up, and when I tell her she's beautiful or smart she says, "I think so."