Japan

[Varia]

Well, a couple of you know about this, but for the most part, it's on the downlow shhhh.

On March 31st (Thursday morning of this week), I leave this country for an awesome adventure to Japan. Now I bet you are thinking I am some kind of loser who likes anime and stuff like that. I probably don't even know any Japanese! Hah! Who does this...this VARIA character think he is?

Varia thinks he is a guy who doesn't like anime, and has been studying Japanese by himself for over a year and is pretty damn good at it.

Why did I choose Japan? Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I will be going to Japan for 3 months, studying abroad. I guess you guys would call it being an exchange student. I'm not an exchange student because there is no student from Japan coming here in my place. I'm just going over there. I will be going to a Japanese high school and living with a Japanese host family. I will be living in Gifu prefecture. I'm not too keen on that idea right now because it's pretty countryside. The city I'm going to be living in has 58,000 people. I am used to 4 million. Needless to say, it's going to be quite different.

My goals in Japan are to create friendships, learn more about the history culture and to improve my language skills.

As I mentioned before, I have been studying Japanese by myself for over a year. To be honest, I don't remember why I began studying Japanese. But through Japanese, I have met some really awesome people, have gotten job opportunities and a number of other things. Keep in mind I could have chosen a multitude of things instead of Japanese. The important thing (one of them anyways) is that I picked something and I stuck with it, and I got good at it and I am reaping benefits. Well, reaping isn't a good word to use, but you get my point.

My mom just came in and started talking to me and I forgot what I was trying to get at.

Oh yeah.

I encourage you all to explore the world. Of course North America is a pretty cool place (most of you are from North America, (Canada and the US) so don't start stuff) but the world is huge and there is so much to see. I haven't even been to another country save Mexico, which doesn't really count because it's 20 minutes away. But just through studying another language and making friends from other parts of the world, ((insert race)-Americans don't count. At all.) I feel like I am a well-traveled person. I mean, you don't even have to learn another language (I do, however, encourage it). Most people nowadays can speak English, so there shouldn't be any worries.

This was inspired by the American population's general lack of interest in other places. I think it's really lame that Americans are so ignorant that they think their country is the only one worth going to on the entire globe. I know I am going to have an awesome time, and I would like to see more people with an interest in other cultures, histories, places, languages etc.

So during my 3-month stay in Japan, I have no idea what my internet/computer situation will be like. I'll probably be able to get internet access whenever I want, but I'll lack the unhealthy amount of free time I have been having these past two months. I'll probably be posting a few times from Japan.

Keep it real. And I want to see a garbage bin that doesn't suck by the time I come back.

PS Send me some $$ because it's kind of expensive over there.