10 Days

I must of run out of interesting things to blog about, so I guess I'll talk a bit about how I feel about Japan. With each passing day my eagerness grows. My restlessness has become overwhelming.

10 Days from now I'll be on a plane, in the air, and on my way to Japan. Along with this fact come many emotions -- excitement, curiosity, even a little fear. I'm excited because I know it's going to be alot of fun to live in Japan again, even though it won't be like last time with Thirsty everynights and catch last train madness, or stay up all night at some club then almost fall asleep on first train (Which was hella fun even if it was in Arty Farty hahaha). Something else that will be exciting and even rewarding is working with kids. Although I never put serious thought into working with kids I think that I somehow do really well with them and I will really enjoy it.

My curiosity stems from just how many paths the trip has to take in that my experience can be so different, I suppose depending on what I do, and who I talk to/hang out with. In this case there is no usual route. I found out there are 3 other ALT's in my city from Joytalk. Theres two guys from New Zealand and one girl from Canada. The thing is the majority of my interaction, at least during the week will be with my coworkers and not with other ALT's, especially since we're all going to be a different schools. So I'm very curious to see what my social life will be like, if I decide to try and hang out with foreigners or Japanese, but hopefully it will be a good mix. I'm also very curious as to how much my Japanese will improve. One of my goals for the trip is to come back and be able to watch a movie or read a magazine in Japanese and fully understand it. If that's possible I have no idea, but there's a chance that when I get back I might consider Grad school and take Japanese. There's so much to wonder about, but when it comes down to it, you just have to wait and experience it, so I've tried to limit myself about thinking of the possibilities.

As for fear I believe that will go away once I get there. Some of my fears are living on my own for the first time. I've always had someone else living with me, be it family or a roommate. I guess it's not the best idea to start living on my own in a foreign country, but it will give me confidence that I can do it anywhere if I can do it there. I don't really like being alone that much, and I feel if my house can sustain it I'll try to have friends over alot of the time. Also it'll be the first time I'll be virtually friendless on my birthday (since its on the 22nd and I get there on the 15th), and familyless on Christmas. I don't really mind my birthday because I don't really make a big deal of it, and I'm sure by the time Christmas rolls around I'll have enough friends that I'll be fine, and there's even a chance if I make a really close friend that I can spend my Christmas with a Japanese family.

There's tons that Japan has for me to experience. The people there are amazingly nice and will go beyond what's necessary to help me at times. I believe that this trip will be similar to my last visit in that it will once again be a love hate relationship with Japan, the love obviously outweighing the hate. Only time will tell.