First Post! 19 Days Before Departure

I’ve decided to make a blog so I can share my first international experience easily with friends and family. I have never had a blog before, and I’m excited that my first blog will be on an interesting topic, so maybe people will actually read it!

As it stands today, I have 19 days until I leave for Japan. I have never been on a flight longer than 6 hours, so this 11-hour flight will be an interesting experience for me. I am not the best flier, but I have a CD case filled with around 25 DVD’s, so I think that’ll entertain me for most of the flight. 

I’ve discovered on a recent flight to Minneapolis that as long as I have something to entertain both my auditory and visual cortices, I refrain from staring out of the window every few seconds to make sure the engines aren’t leaking smoke and the horizon doesn’t look any higher or lower than it was five minutes ago.

I have never been to another country before (unless you count going to Victoria, Canada for one day on a week-long outdoor education field trip in 8th grade). Japan will be quite an experience. 

Many people ask me why I chose Japan, to which I always simply reply, “It seemed like the coolest country in the EAP handbook.” Japan seems so different from the United States. I wanted my first international experience to be in a place that was completely different from here. I’m glad that I will still be in an urban center in that of Tokyo. I greatly look forward to city life there, and seeing how it is similar to and different from San Francisco. I look forward to the nightlife, and exploring the many streets awash in the neon glow of numerous street signs. I look forward to discovering true Japanese cuisine, even though I have never been much of a fan of seafood. I look forward to living in a country in which English is not the main language, and having to make my way nonetheless, as so many others have done in this country.

As excited as I am to live in Tokyo, I also plan to explore the rest of the country. I want to see the shrines and temples in Kyoto, and the magnificence of Mt. Fuji. I’d like to stand in humbled reflection at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, and I’d like to see just how fast the bullet trains go.

I am all set. I have my passport, my student visa, my round-trip plane ticket (special thanks to my Aunt Ann for helping me with that), and my UC fees paid (thanks to financial aid). 19 days left in the United States, and then my 90 days in Japan begin. I can’t wait!