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| My Japan coloring book. |
So be prepared for some awesome pictures, videos, and stories as I explore JAPAN for a month and if you follow me on social media, I'll be posting there too. I'll hopefully try to make some cool blog posts commenting on what I've learned doing research for The Messenger series vs what I observe while in Japan. Hopefully, I'll learn some cool things that can really help the books and maybe the trip will help clear up some things I've been confused about (research will only take you so far folks).
I'll be in Kyoto for three weeks and then Tokyo for a week before heading home. While in Kyoto, we'll be visiting the golden pavilion, seeing the Gion festival, taking a class on Japanese literature, art, and culture, and lots and lots of other stuff!
The Top 15 things I'm most excited for! (In no particular order)
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| Some guide books I rented from the library |
- JAPAN
- The Bullet train
- Seeing the Imperial palaces (or touring through the gardens)
- Visiting the Fushimi Inari Temple (its a temple famous for its hundreds of red torii gates). Excited for this because kitsunes are the fox messengers of Inari.
- Touring Japanese gardens
- Gion district (that's where the geisha are)
- Tokyo skytree
- Japanese cuisine
- Visiting other temples
- Golden pavilion
- Kabuki theater
- Museums
- Shopping! All the shopping in both Kyoto and Tokyo!
- Heian shrine
- hot springs and public baths
I've always wanted to go to Japan because I think its just so different from America in many ways and that if I was going to study abroad, I may as well do it in a place I'm really excited about. It also so happened to be that the timing was just right this year so its the perfect time for me to go.
I knew that I was going to study abroad this year because it was a goal of mine in college and that this year was the last year I could really could. And at first I was considering some other options from my school and although they would have been cheaper, they weren't going to places I was super thrilled about and they weren't studying topics I was super thrilled about, nor was I sure the timing was going to work out. But with the program I found, although its a bit more expensive, its going to somewhere I'm really interested in, and studying something cool as well.
Anyways, I'm really excited to go on my trip and I'm excited to share it with you. If you guys have any tips for traveling in Japan, traveling in general, or if you know of any things I should try or see, please comment below! Also make sure to follow me on social media and this blog and check in to see all the exciting adventures I'm going to have.
That sounds so cool! I hope you have fun! Tokyo is on my list of cities I really want to visit.
ReplyDeleteDo you speak some Japanese?
Thanks! You definately should if you get the chance! I've heard such good things about it.
DeleteI don't really speak a whole lot, but I've been teaching myself some for a couple months now. So hopefully I'll learn a lot more once I go there.
I'm hoping to visit within the next couple of years before I go back to university.
DeleteYou'll pick it up faster while there. Immersion really helps with learning a language because you have no choice but to learn.
That would probably be a good time too. Its my last year of college this year, which is why I jumped at the chance to go for a month because after I graduate, who knows when the next opportunity like this will come?
DeleteThis is true! I doubt I'll become any sorts of a good speaker without some kind of formal study, but I think it'll definitely at least help get me to basic conversation level.