Departure in 9 Hours

Dear Diary,

I've decided to keep a Blog for my first couple of weeks in Japan as I will be too busy and important to write to e-mail any of you individually. For those of you who haven’t guessed yet, I’m going to Japan. I am flying to Vancouver this morning (Saturday), spending a couple of days there, then flying to Osaka, spending a year there, then flying back to Halifax.

I’m going to be teaching English in Osaka with Nova, a conversation school. That's the majority of what I know so far, so I probably can't answer any of your follow-up questions.

People keep asking if I’m nervous and the answer is no. In fact, my decision to go was so last-minute that I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and contemplate all the horrors that await me, but off of the top of my head I can predict a few --- Earthquakes, Ninjas, Godzilla attacks, battle royale(s), and likely a lot of "Hello Kitty" kimono-wearing. Anyway, it’s sure to be an interesting year.

I just finished packing and am now going to try to get a few hours sleep so I can come up with some more ideas of what to bring with me. I'll update this whenever I get the chance, so please check back frequently and leave comments!

Love Ryan