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ようこそ！
I'm not a JET but I have more or less the same job. I work directly as an ALT for the board of education where I live. It's easy, rewarding (depending on what you put into it) and leaves you with a lot of time to do other things. Are you going to be working in a high school?
If you really want to live in the iin one of the major cities I suggest you put up with Akita for a year and then find a job in a private school in Tokyo or Osaka once you've finished your contract. I think the JET people may try to convince you that you can only work for them on your visa, but that isn't true. Once you're in the country you can work for whoever you please.
I've only been through Akita on a train before, but it looks nice. I spent much of last summer in Aomori-Ken (which I think is just to the north of where you'll be living) and it was incredible. Hirosaki and Aomori (City) are really cool towns and I think are only an hour or two train ride from you respectively. I managed to see Shonen Knife and some decent local bands in Aomori-shi, so there seems to be at least some sort of live music scene there. Also while it's miserably fucking hot and humid in the rest of Japan during July and August, Akita and Aomori get a nice cool breeze off the Sea of Japan. I think you could do much worse than Akita. At least you're not in Ibaraki prefecture or some waste of space like that.
Hat and Bread's guide to Tokyo coming shortly...
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