This story may start out typical, but I hope by the end, it will be one that is unique only to me.

The first encounter I had with Japanese culture was reading Dragon Ball, Sailormoon, and Doraemon, to name a few. I had a knack for drawing at the time, so I started sketching the characters in those stories. It remained a hobby throughout my childhood. As I immerse myself in the world that is manga, I had some silly but amusing ideas. Since Doraemon loves Dorayaki, a popular pastry snack in Japan, I soon developed a craving for it as well, and I would ask my father to get me some next time he comes to visit [I was born in Vietnam, and due to circumstances irrelevant to this story, my father was staying in the US for the better part of my life there]. Naturally, he was clueless as to what I was talking about, and thought I was referring to a hamburger or something of the sort [dorayaki does look sort of like one].

Skipping forward to when I finally arrived in the US. Over here, I was bombarded with more Japanese stuff, and I was completely overwhelmed! And yes, I admit, I took the Pokemon bait, hook, sinker, the whole thing! I found other [read: better] anime, manga, and most of all, I found out about Japan as a separate entity from anime, something most of my friends can’t comprehend/accept.

Since the anime thing runs in the family, my sister also has her shares of obsessions, from which she found the motivation to teach herself Japanese, specifically the hiragana/katakana. This was fascinating to me, realizing that there is more to know about Japan than what I’ve been accustomed to. After I started college, I decided to take a stab at Japanese class offered at my school. After making an A in Elementary Japanese 1001 [and a B in English, how ironic], I was motivated to continue onward. That is when the real challenge began.

Since the campus where I took Japanese 1001 was not having the next level the following semester due to the teacher leaving on the study abroad trip to Japan, I was forced to transfer to another campus to continue learning, fearing that if I take a break I would be too distracted to regain the momentum. Unbeknownst to me, the other campus used a completely different textbook [a much better one as  found out later]. Going from the first book to this new book was like learning to crawl then immediately become an olympic runner. Needless to say, I felt stupid in the new class. But as time went on, I managed to catch up, and this past semester I finished Japanese 2002, the highest level offered at my school [with an A at that ]. During the midst of all this, I found myself making friends with the folks at the study abroad office, who guided and encouraged me to take part on my own study abroad trip.

After much procrastination and dealing with other things in life, I finally applied and got accepted.

So here I am, updating my preparation as I go along. This will be it for now, as I just got off work and need to rest. Until next time!