"Mr Karachi...?"

I have now arrived in Japan! Unfortunately there is no internet in my dormitory at all, and there won't be for another couple of weeks, so I'm going to try to keep in touch with everybody through the occasional email and maybe facebook during the small bits of free time we get to disappear off to the free computer room in the International Student Office. Even though we have the weekend free, we can't get in because we don't have any student cards yet. Ah well.

For now, this is just a quick hello to let you know that, even if I haven't sent you a message so far (and thank you for sending them all!) I will try and get back to you as soon as I can. Jet-lag is a curious thing, and I'm currently up at some late hour typing this to try and train myself the hard way.

The flight. It ended up lasting around 19 hours, leaving the UK around 2:30pm, arriving at Dubai for 00:20am (UK time 10:30pm), then heading off to Nagoya a couple of hours later on a different plane arriving at around 5pm (UK time 11am). Interestingly, Nagoya Centrair Airport is one of Japan's engineering marvels, having been built entirely at sea, so please read more about it if you have time. Upon arrival I had to submit my fingerprints and have my photo taken, and be sniffer-dogged to death by the cutest drug-addicted canine in the world. After that I had my suitcase taken apart by the security staff, either because I didn't answer fast enough or because they hadn't done it to someone in a while and were getting bored. Once they were convinced I wasn't carrying anything deadly or illegal like raw meat, they let me through where I met up with the NUPACE (Nagoya University Program for ACademic Exchange) and was led by subway and train to the International Ohmeikan, my dormitory for the next 47 weeks.


PS. "Mr Karachi" was the name of some poor gentlemen whom it seemed had escaped from the Dubai airport staff, who themselves were running around shouting his name all over the place trying to recapture him. Bless.

Leaving Party

This is just a quick thank you to everybody who came to my leaving do (and those who were coming but couldn't make it) - I had a wonderful time and couldn't have asked for a better send off, thank you all so much for both your presence and your generous presents; I was very grateful for both. I hope that you'll all have an awesome time while I'm away, and be sure to keep some time in late August free for catching up.

Happy 21st Birthday to those who's birthday I will unfortunately miss, and best of luck for the coming academic year to everyone else!

Intro

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.”

After two years of hard-learning, sink-or-swim exams (half of our original number have either dropped out or changed courses) and nervous expectation, I am finally going to make it to Japan, the country I have studied and heard so much about but never actually personally experienced. I'm setting of next Tuesday (23rd), and the suitcase is still empty, but this will be soon rectified.

This blog exercise is an off-shoot of its Japanese counterpart (found on the right), ever since I realised that most of my readership would probably not be able to read it. It is interesting equally because I have never kept any blog, diary/journal whatsit before, certainly not one that could be read by whoever feels passingly like reading it.

So, whether you are from the UK, Europe or elsewhere, whether you've known me from university, high school or clubs, or whether you're a relative of mine wondering where I've disappeared to, you can find out with me whether this will turn out to be a successful venture into personal reflections and experiences, and I hope that this blog will keep you informed, reassured and, hopefully, entertained with whatever antics may find me in Japan.


Some fun facts about me:

Name: Simon, Sim, Si, aka Sarcastic Git.
Status: 3rd Year Undergraduate at the University of Sheffield.
Favourite colour: Blue.
Quest: To seek the grai.. I mean, to get the most concentrated language practice as possible out of the year abroad.
Cats: Two.
Answer?: Forty-two.
Destination: Nagoya University.
Drink of Choice: Umeshu!
Favourite word: Syzygy.
Others: Just ask!

English Version Up?

Will hopefully be able to flick between these two during the year, so that all my friends and relatives will be able to read something about what I'm getting up to while I'm away.

It's also a small test of my brand new laptop from which I'll be typing all these things.

Huzzah!