Imma be rockin tokyo

Okay, so there is not much standing between me and tokyo. Only a matter of 48 hours and one looooong plane ride. But there are a whole bunch of thoughts going through my head right now that is making me a little antsy and nervous.

One of the biggest concerns running around in my head is the fact that I am going to a country where the majority (and literally majority...pretty much everyone I will see is going to be asian) I am going to feel like a big outsider! Also I am feeling pretty nervous since I don't know the language. I will be at a big disadvantage because I can't even read the characters. こんにちは is pretty much the only word I can recognize.I have been working on learning the Japanese characters, but I haven't even finished learning the hiragana, and haven't even started with the katakana. I can already tell I will be very exhausted the first few days since I will be encountering a number of new experiences.

Another thing that I have had to decide on was how to handle my finances. Some people (Bastiaan) consider the Japanese banking/finance system to be very backwards from the U.S. This is because the Japanese hardly ever accept credit cards. The reasoning is because since there is such low theft in Japan one is able to carry around cash freely without the fear of being robbed. Additionally, it prevents people from incurring unnecessary amounts of debt. I have also discovered from friends that traveler checks are not readily accepted around Japan. So I guess I am just winging it. Opening an account in Japan and I guess get used to the idea of hauling money around with me instead of a plastic card.

And I have recently found out that I will be staying with two different host families. I will stay with my first family only for a week while my original host family is on vacation, then I will move in with the host family I was initially placed with. I feel pretty lucky because some people didn't get any host family, and I ended up with two! Hopefully it will not be too difficult transitioning into Japanese home life. I really dont want to upset my host family or anything.

I am really excited to begin my trip on Monday morning. Once I board my Japan Airlines Flight I will be pretty much beginning my Japanese experience.

I don't know when I will be able to update this next (as I don't know my internet situation) but I can promise that when I do update it I will be in Japan!!!! And hopefully have some exciting news to share!