Hey, this is a blog that I started to keep my family/friends abreast on what I'm up to while I'm in Japan this summer. For anyone who doesn't know my history with Japan/Japanese, here's a quick run-down: In 9th grade, a guy I knew named Tony Tran went on a summer exchange to Japan and I thought it sounded cool. I started to teach myself Japanese, starting with just hiragana and katakana but eventually getting pretty into it with kanji and all that good stuff. My Japanese learning was revolutionized at the end of the summer of 9th grade (2007) when I discovered the site alljapaneseallthetime.com. Using Khatzumoto's method, learning Japanese became a veritable obsession. I've stayed pretty faithful to my studying regimen, with a couple of breaks for things like exchange trips to Germany and studying for exams. During this time, I started sporadically showing up at the Japanese Saturday school in town and taking part in the high school discussion class. The picture above is me (the one with curly hair/天パ) and a few of the other students at the class Christmas party.That, and a variety of other Japanese-related experiences, have been a lot of fun. But, I've never had the chance to actually go to Japan. That changes this summer thanks to a program called YFU (Youth for Understanding). I applied for the summer exchange in December, interviewed in January, and found out I got the Japan-US Senate Youth Exchange scholarship in April after a seemingly endless wait. I leave June 7 for San Jose and spend three days at an Japan-specific orientation there. On the 10th, it's off to Tokyo! The only problem right now is that I have no idea where I'm to go after that. I haven't received my host family information yet, which is kind of anxiety-inducing. To be fair, though, YFU said we may not find out until the day before departure -.- Hopefully I'll know soon.
Until then~
