明日は、出発。

This time tomorrow, I will be on a plane heading to my destination faraway lands. I've got my camera, so I'll be able to make this blog colorful and exciting when I'm there. So that's good.

I gather there may be some difficulty people are having with commenting on my blog. What you need to do this, is a google account. You can get one by going here. You don't need to use gmail or anything, you can keep using your old email account, but you need to have a google account. Then, you sign into it, and you should be able to leave comments, no problem.

Anyways, I may not see this for a while, because I have a bit of an adventure in store already. See, my plane arrives on April 1, but Oberlin can't accomodate anyone until April 2. So, I've arranged to stay with a friend of mine who's living near Tokyo for the first night. What this means for me, is that I get to wrestle with the Japanese train system immediately after getting out of customs, while still jetlagged.

I'll make another post as soon as I'm back and situated in Japan. Until then, さようなら (goodbye).

ホームステイの家族がいますよ！

Oberlin finally got around to doing the various things I need them to do before I arrive. I now have a shiny new Certificate of Eligibility which will allow me to get my VISA, and I know the name, address, and email for my homestay family. No kids, no pets, no smoking. I've sent an olive-branch-extending email to them in something resembling grammatical Japanese. Hopefully my intent will get across.

I asked my friend who lives in Hokkaido to interpret the address I'll be living at. Apparently I'm pretty far out there, 45 minutes by train from downtown Tokyo. What I'm near, though, is the Oberlin campus. Also, Costco (yeah, they have it in Japan. Who knew?).

17 days until departure.

私は、日本へまだ行きませんでした。

So this is my blog for my study abroad trip. I'll start posting interesting stuff at it when I actually leave.

The general info:

• I leave on March 31st, and come back in early August.
• I will be attending Oberlin University. It's just outside Tokyo.
• I will be primarily studying Japanese during my stay, but I might be taking other classes. I don't know yet.
• I have requested to do a homestay with a family in Japan. I haven't heard back from them about this.

I think that's it for now. If I missed anything, I'll add it later.

Now, here's the important part:
If you want to recieve postcards from me while I am in Japan, please comment on this post with your name and address. I need the whole list in one place so that I don't forget anyone.

As a side note, I apologize if I use Japanese and don't explain it at any point in the blog. I'll always be doing it for the post titles; interpreting them is largely unnecessary, but has been left as an exercise for the reader.

お休みなさい。(Good night.)