Tomorrow morning, at approximately 4:45 a.m. I will be waking up to get ready to leave. First I have a flight up to San Francisco International Airport, and from there I will get on my 12 hour flight to Japan, arriving there at 3:30 in the afternoon, though my biological clock will tell me it's 11:30 at night. Twelve hours...at least it will force me to read the book I have to read for the program (Yes...I have yet to do that and no I don't feel too bad procrastinating). I did spend a good deal of time in Border's yesterday looking up and buying books for my flights to and from Japan (it's only ten hours back! Oh joy!). Hopefully I'll be able to sleep on the flight though, otherwise I might end up falling asleep during orientation by the time we finally get to the hotel. I figure it will be an hour to get out of the airport, through customs, and then an hour and half in the taxi to the hotel since I'm landing in Osaka and have to get to Kyoto.
However, the part that I'm least worried about is getting there and orientation and hanging out with 30 other students I don't know. I'm still nervous about meeting my host family. Actually, today I got an email from my host father/grandfather, all in Japanese. After spending a few minutes translating, I figured out what was being said. :) Basically, he said that the family got the introduction I sent to them via the Center. He and his wife are currently living on their own but their two daughters and son (from what I could read, they are all married), live nearby. I figure this means that I'll probably meet them during the course of the quarter (which could be fun; hopefully I'll have some Japanese mastered by then). They don't have any pets, but they are excited to see me on April 3rd. So I'm a little less nervous and a little more excited now.
I also spent some time (well, actually a lot of time) yesterday reading up on all sorts of Japanese etiquette and customs, and reviewing various Japanese kanji characters. I think I'll spend some time on my flight going over basic grammar structures (I'm bringing on my old textbooks onto the flight with me) and preparing some stock sentences to memorize so if I have trouble because i'm so nervous at least I can just spit something out instead of looking like I'm completely struggling (which will be inevitable at some point in time). I also spoke a tiny bit with my mother's Japanese friend on the phone today in Japanese. While it was just basic conversation, it made me feel a bit better about going overseas and trying to communicate in a totally new language.
Here I am though. About to embark on a trip I've wanted to go on since freshman year. It's still hard to believe it's finally here. I'm sitting on the floor of my room, writing this right now as Princess and the Frog is playing, frequently looking at the clock to see what time it is, and how close I am to Japan. I remember the first time I heard about the Kyoto program Stanford had and knew that I really wanted to go. I remember the shock I got when I received an email in fall quarter saying I had gotten off the wait list and was now slated to go to Kyoto in the spring. It was I think the second week of the quarter and I was walking to Japanese I believe in the early morning, and I called my Mom to tell her the news. And just after the conversation, I started crying I was just so happy (and over emotional, haha). Kyoto was my favorite part of my Japan trip in my senior year of high school and I'm so excited to go back. I'm finally so excited to go, even if I'm still a bit nervous.
Well, the next time I write, I'll be far across the ocean, in the land of rice paddies, sushi, otakus, pop idols, shinto shrines, buddhist temples, and lots of tofu. I'll be in Japan. Wish me luck!
Time to fall down my rabbit hole!
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