I know there are still people interested in reading this.

and I know i:ve been terrible about posting lately.

Problem is, my computer is broken and I:m working on getting a new one.

I will get to another computer soon and update on everything since the last time I posted!

thanks for your interest!

My mom's friend is an 生け花　Ikebana teacher and took me to one of her school's shows: Below is a picture of me with two of my mom's friends. (The woman on the left is the one who arranged the ikebana behind us) For more info on Ikebana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikebana


My mom is visiting from the US now and so this weekend, my aunt picked me up from school and took my mom, my grandmother and me to Shuri Castle: (for more info on Shuri Castle: http://oki-park.jp/shurijo-park/english/)



Tomoya, Bridge of Nations Bell at Shurijo...


Big Tuna at the fish market


Koza music festival in honor of Terurin, a pretty famous Okinawan musician that got his start in Koza, There were many famous Okinawan musicians there to honor him.


The boy across from me and I were in first grade together and practically grew up with each other here in Okinawa. He and his mother are visiting Okinawa for a little bit and my mom and I were able to meet up with them for lunch.


Every year the Okinawa Kenjinkais all over the world, with the support of the Okinawan Government, sponsor a two week trip for children of Okianwan descent to come back to the island and stay first, one week with their families and the next week touring the island learning about their culture and OKinawa's past history of immigration/emigration. They also bring in Okinawan students who live on the island to come in and share their stories with the nikkei students. I took part in that tour in 2005 and kept in touch with one of the OKinawan students from the tour. I let him know that I was back in Okinawa, and he got two of the other girls from the tour together to come meet me! It was amazing to see the 3 of them after 4 years! Apparently, there are still about 15 of the Okinawan students on the island and we are planning to have a get together with all of them soon.

Below is a picture of me with Erina, Tadami and Shoko.

Everything is wonderful here: We've hit rainy season so it's been a little cold and dreary here but we've also had some really beautiful days as well. I'm keeping pretty busy with studying (still trying to find a good technique for remembering Kanji), visiting family and just enjoying Okinawa.

Here are a few pictures since the last update!

We've had a few field trips for my Okinawa Culture class, the first was to Okinawa-shi (Gate 2 street and Chuo park avenue) to learn about American influence on Okinawa and the mixing of Japan and American cultures to make Okinawa what it is today...



The second field trip was to a traditional Okinawan house (Nakamura house: http://www4.ocn.ne.jp/~knaka/ and then to the Nakagusuku Castle Ruins.
Below is the food storage building. Notice the traditional Okinawan Roof:

Below is a group picture of my Okinawan Culture Class (all international students)


Below pictures are of the Nakagusuku castle ruins:




A few other big things have happened since my last update:

First, my cousin had his first baby (My grandmother's first great grandchild) Below is a picture of me meeting the baby at 1 week old:

And then we went to a fish market for lunch:


The second big thing to happen is that the Kempi winners had a meeting with first the Zaidan sponsors and then to meet the assistant governor:

Back row L-R: Zaidan, Argentina (Geidai), Hawaii (Geidai), Brazil (Geidai), Canada (Ryudai), Taiwan (Ryudai), America (me!!) (Ryudai), Taiwan (Ryudai), Zaidan
Front row L-R: Peru (Ryudai), Peru (Geidai), Brazil (Geidai), Zaidan, Zaidan, Argentina (Ryudai), China (Ryudai)

And then we met the Assistant Governor of Okinawa (who was very nice and friendly!!)

Below is a picture of the conference room we met her in! We all were a bit intimidated doing our じこしょうかいs but this room made us feel very very professional!!


Tomorrow I'm going with mom's friend to see her flower arranging display, which should be interesting! I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures and post them as soon as I get a chance!

Once again, thanks for looking!!!

During the last couple of days of Golden Week, some of the International students arranged for an overnight trip to Kouri Island in the North of Okinawa. Years ago, it was a seperate island but a few years ago (4, I think the cafe's おじさん　said) they built a bridge linking Kouri Jima to Okinawa

We each payed $35 and they rented a couple of big vans and those along with a few Japanese students' personal cars allowed the 35 of us to get there. There we swam, had a barbecue, and swam some more. The water was beautiful and this trip allowed many of the international students to get to know each other better. It was interesting to hear all of these students from different countries all speaking Japanese to one another!!

at a rest stop on the way to the island:


At the rest stop, they were selling pieces of sugar cane to eat. It made me think of a time when I was really young (when my family still lived in Okinawa) and I went on a girl scout homestay at an Okinawan house in the "country" so to speak. We were out in their sugarcane field and the おじさん cut each of us a piece of sugar cane, peeled the outside off for us and let us just chew on the fibers!! It's so so yummy!!!


This is the place we all stayed: it's really just a small cafe by the sea but some of the international students were friends with the owner and he allowed us to sleep here for free.


sunset from across the street of the place we stayed overnight:


Thomas and me across the street from the place we stayed:


THIS is the Okinawan life!! :) minseong (Korea) relaxing in a hammock with an ocean view...


In my hands is a starfish that some of the boys found out in the sea. In this picture from L-R: Japan, Japan, Thailand, US, Canada, Peru, China, China, Taiwan, Taiwan


BEAUTIFUL Okinawan Water:


This is the entire group of us (minus 1) right before leaving to come back to campus.


Hope you all enjoy!

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with this every single week, it's been pretty crazy here!

I'm still doing great and enjoying everything here!! There's so much to see I keep having to remind myself that I'm here for one year and that I should slow down!

The big excitement lately has been Golden Week (basically a bunch of holidays that the Japanese celebrate resulting in almost a full week off of work and school and everything else. We had off of school on Wednesday, 4/29, had classes Thursday, Friday and then off from Saturday, 5/2 and went back to school Thursday, 5/7.

Wednesday, we decided to take a road trip up to Nago and went to the Churaumi aquarium (world famous when a couple of years ago, the first sting-ray born in captivity was born here)

This is all of us at a rest stop on the way up to the aquarium.

In the picture: Boys from L-R: Thomas from Hawaii, Tepei from Japan (Yuki's tutor[each int'l student is assigned a tutor to help with homework as well as important documents or government papers we need to take care of upon arriving here]), and Yuki from California Girls from L-R: Me of course, Naki from Argentina (Kempi), Angie from Peru (Kempi) and Erina from Osaka, Japan (Erina is one of the girls that lives on my floor in the dorms)~~






Here is me having a conversation with the turtle!! :) ~~


Saturday, 5/2, I met with my mom's friends (who were like aunts to me when I was growing up) for lunch and one of them brought her niece, who teaches English to small children. After lunch, I went with her to her classroom and helped her out with them. They were adorable! A couple of them are so young they can barely speak Japanese but their English pronunciation was great!! ~~



Monday we went to the Dragon Boat Festival. Sadly, we missed the actual Dragon Boat races, but the まつり　(festival) and 花火 (fireworks) were fun!

In this picture: from L-R: Tatsuya (the guy) is a Kempi from Canada, below him in the picture is Naki, me, Misae (one of my other floormates) and Angie. ~~




Update on weekend in Kouri Jima to follow in the next entry...

Below is at a "nagashi somen" party Friday night held by the International Student Sanshin and Eisa club. The somen is dropped into poured water down those long bamboo chutes to mimic washing the noodles in a river. Then, whoever wants some simply reaches in with their chopsticks and grabs some. Very yummy!

Below are a couple of the members. The vice president of the club is Hota, the guy in the middle. He was a Bolivian kempi scholarship winner a few years ago and ended up staying at Ryukyu Daigaku to finish his degree. In fact, he used to have dual citizenship (the Japanese government makes you chose one or the other when you turn 21- I had it and chose US recently) and last week, he went to the official office and became a Japanese citizen so he is in Okinawa for good now!


Below is the current Kempi student from Hawaii (he goes to Gei-Dai, the art school). The two girls in the picture have an interesting story. Their mother was a Hawaii Kempi student years ago and ended up meeting her husband at Ryudai and staying on the island to become an Okinawan wife. Their daughters spent all their summers in Hawaii while they were growing up and speak both Japanese and English fluently (and without accent).


Below is one thing that absolutely amazes me about Okinawa. My grandmother took me to lunch with her friends (my grandmother is the one on the far right).

Every single one of these seven women are over the age of 80 (my grandmother is 82) and all are very healthy. None use a walker or cane, all stay active, get together for lunch with each other once a month...

My grandmother for example, wakes up at 5am every day, takes a walk around the neighborhood, does laundry, does some gardening, cooks for everybody and three days a week, spends the hours of 9am until 4pm at the pool (in her younger days, she was a champion in the "crawl"). On the days she doesn't go to the pool, she takes the bus to various places and just "plays" as she puts it. A couple of weeks ago, she told my cousin, Yurika, and me to work hard while we're young so that we can "play" when we're her age.

From what my grandmother told me, these 7 women knew each other in elementary school, all seven were nurses in World War II and all came back home, got married and found each other again.

There's been a ton of research on the health of Okinawans and weather it's the weather, the food, the lifestyle, it's simply amazing to me...

Kokusai Dori is a long shopping street. It's full of touristy shops on Okinawa and on Sundays after 12noon, it is completely closed off to cars. On these days, there are usually a bunch of street performers and we ran into quite a few!

I went with the Kempi winners from Argentina (Naki) and Peru (Angie) as well as an International Student from Korea (Hisop). We also met up with the Kempi winners who are going to a different college on the island (the art school). One is from Argentina and the other 2 are from Brazil.

(L-R, Naki (Kempi from Argentina), Me, Angie (Kempi from Peru)in front of the Naha Monorail


Street performers in traditional Okinawan Bingata (for more info: http://www.jahitchcock.com/bingata.html) Their singing wasn't that good but they looked cool!





A high school was performing Eisa:






International students: L-R: America, Argentina, Brazil, ARgentina, Korea in front of the covered part of Kokusai Dori


Frog purses... kinda sad...



Sexy Shisa (hard to explain in English, it just doesn't translate right but if you know Japanese, it's hilarious)



Okinawan dance costume


Shisa: (for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shisa)

Goya benches: (more info on goya: http://www.wonder-okinawa.jp/026/e/column4.html)


Habu Sake (yes, that's a real Habu snake in there...) The man in charge asked if we wanted to taste some but we politely declined...



And all of us (expect me) at the end of Kokusai Dori:




When I got back from Kokusai Dori, My "Floormates" had organized a takoyaki party!! (Takoyaki is Octopus dumplings... yummm.) One of my roommates is from Osaka, which is famous for their Takoyaki and her mother sent her a bunch of the mix so she prepared it for us.

Here are a few of the girls who live on my floor:







Ok, I'm sick so I need to get some sleep now but I think you are all updated now. Hope everyone is well!

So I've been slacking a bit with the updates in here, I've been so busy since I got to RyuDai!! Now that I'm sick though, I have a bit of time to post an update.

I think the last post I put in here was right before Shiimi (I think). Shiimi was fun, I helped Obaachan and Kazuko Obasan (Grandmother and aunt) prepare the food for the holiday.

For those who don't know, Shiimi is basically a day celebrated in only Okinawa (moderated from the Chinese version- different families do it different days all throughout the month of April) when families go to their family tomb and have a picnic there. When we first arrive, we each light incense and give our ancestors an update on our lives. We then sit down and eat a picnic lunch and just visit with our family. The main purpose is to show our ancestors that we are doing fine. (for more info: http://www.japanupdate.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11264)

Here are some notes I wrote down while I was helping my grandmother (Obaachan) get ready for the day:

"Obaachan asked me to put the mochi away in bento boxes but insisted I make sure to put only 7 in each row (3 rows all together). Later, when she was putting other boxes together, she put only an odd number of everything in. I asked her why and my aunt explained that even numbers are already paired up but with odd numbers, there something for the spirits to attach onto (pair up with) to travel with so they won't stay in our world.

They later told me how Shiimi came from China so they don't celebrate shiimi on the mainland which further shows Okinawa's past as part of both China and Japan. The bento boxes also have to have the food lined up in certain positions. The kamaboko (fish cake) and meat are always in the middle with the vegetables in designated positions around it. I asked them why but they said they don't know, it's just supposed to be like that.



After they finished setting up these bento boxes, I watched as Obaachan knotted some paper towels and placed them on top of the boxes. I asked why she did this and she said that it's to keep homeless spirits from not entering or eating the food."



******These are just from my understanding of what they said but keep in mind my Japanese is still not completely fluent so I may have mixed up somethings or not quite have understood the complete meanings behind their explanations...*******

I don't really remember what exactly I have posted in here so far so I'm going to just post a bunch of pictures and explain them. :)

Below is my dorm room (as taken from the doorway)


Below is the walk from the dorms to school (those buildings are on the Ryukyu Daigaku Campus. It's about a 15-20 minute walk to campus each morning.


Below is a sign on the Ryudai Campus. The school used to be near Shuri Castle but was recently moved to its current location.


Below are some pictures of a couple of weekends ago when my cousin Yurika and I went to Chatan and nearby Sunset Beach:





The school also has a ton of clubs (they call them "Circles"). They have a huge variety such as Sports, dancing, Ryukyu (Okinawa is the largest of the Ryukyu Islands) culture, everything. My friends are doing diving, wind surfing, Tennis, etc. I have joined (along with a few of the other Kempi students and another American boy) the "International Students Eisa dance group" (for more info on Eisa: http://www.rhythmuseum.com/japanese/Eisa.html) as well as the Ryukyu Circle which specializes in Sanshin (for more info: http://okinawasanshin.googlepages.com/) and Ryukyu Buyo (for more info: http://rca.open.ed.jp/web_e/city-2000/ryubu/index.html) I, along with the girl from Argentina, am doing the Ryukyu dance. I used to learn this dance in the US from Grand Master Kazuko Chibana but haven't taken lessons in years. Also, my school was the Aharen Honryu Keisenkai. This is a different style)

During the month of April all the clubs are open to join. Also, Throughout the first month, the existing club treats all new members to dinner after the meetings as a welcome into the club.

What I like most about these groups is that they are ENTIRELY student-run. No adults, but everything runs completely smoothly and seem very well organized. The Eisa group has only about 20 people in it but the Ryukyu club has about 50.

This is me learning how to play "Happy Birthday" on the Sanshin. I think I'll stick to Eisa, but it was fun to learn Sanshin!!


In Thailand, there is a ceremony that is for celebrating the new year. In Japanese it's called "mizukake" (in English, I think it's "water giving" ceremony, not sure what exactly it's called in Thai) On this day, the elders are sat down on chairs and younger people take turns pouring water first on Buddha and then on the hands of the elders to show respect. The international house at Ryukyu Daigaku held this ceremony in front of the house this year and I was lucky to attend. There was dancing, games, the actual ceremony and then a water fight afterwards.




And the water fight:


Taco rice: invented in Okinawa: all the taco fixins put on top of rice. yummmmmmm. Below is Yuuki, an International Student from California (here on his own) and Naki, the Kempi scholarship winner (same program as me) from Argentina




So far, I'm having a great time.

Sunday, I went to Kokusai Dori, a huge shopping market street with a couple of the international students and took a ton of pictures: ((I will put them in another post as there are many many))

When we got back from Kokusai Dori, though, my throat was hurting. The next morning, it was still hurting and I went to class but then after class, I was starting to feel sick so I took a nap and woke up with a fever. My roommates took my temperature and it was 39.5 degrees Celsius so they rushed me to the hospital and I was given medicine. The doctor said it's just a really bad cold and to take it easy a few days so my aunt came to pick me up and I stayed at my grandmother's house a couple of nights. Today I'm back in my dorm room but although the fever is gone, I'm coughing a ton and feeling very drowsy from the meds. I may take off from my class tomorrow (just one) and spend the day relaxing and catching up on homework and then go back to classes on Friday.

I can't believe it's just the second week of classes and I already got sick and had to go to the hospital.

The nice thing was that my roommates and the Kempi girls from Argentina and Peru really took care of me, bringing me drinks and pads for my forehead to soak up the heat from the fever, etc. I'm glad I had them here and wasn't completely on my own. I can't say that I didn't get homesick though...

Anyway, pictures from Kokusai Dori to follow.

i just found out i have a free two month trial for internet in my dorm room. now i can use skype and update this more!!

it's 12:30am here now and i have class at 8:30 but I will post pictures and an update asap.

good night!!

I wrote this at my dorm from the first day until right now- I saved it to a usb and decided to just copy and paste it into here:

Hope you`re all well...

4/8/2009

Got in last night- flight was late so I arrived at about 10:45 at night. Waiting for me were 2 of my uncles, 2 of my aunts, my cousin Mariko and her husband. There were also 3 people from the zaidan, including Sueyoshi san there to meet me and take me to my dorms.

The flights were so long! The first flight was not bad, I intermittently slept and listened to music that entire flight. The next one was looooooong!! 12 and a half hours! I couldn’t get an aisle seat so I was stuck in one of the middle rows. Honestly though, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The woman next to me was very friendly. She was traveling with her teenage daughter to visit her family and two sons who are attending University in Tokyo. (She lives in Philadelphia). She was friendly and we had a nice conversation during the meals (which were horrible, by the way!! :p) The last flight was late getting to Narita so I was at the airport for about 3.5 hours. I ended up paying $6.00 for internet and managed to talk to mom and matt on skype for a little bit.

Ok, have to go take my language proficiency exam, will write more later.

Continued…

When the flight finally got in, my family and the zaidan were waiting. The zaidan all introduced themselves to me as well as to the other Kempi scholarship winner from Canada. My family then took me to the University and one of the zaidan (Sueyoshi san) showed me to my dorm room.

It’s on the 5th floor!!! And absolutely no elevators! :p So even without any excersize, I better lose weight from walking up and down those stairs multiple times each day!

My room is tiny! About enough space for a bed, a bookshelf and a desk. There’s a balcony though!! With a clothesline to hang clothes that need to airdry- as there is a washer and dryer on the floor.

There are about 12 girls living on the floor but the floor is separated down the middle by the bathroom and kitchen. There are two living rooms, one on each side of the floor- the girls on my side are very friendly and showed me where the showers were and how to get in.

The showers are a whole other story!! It’s basically the typical idea of a public bathhouse! You walk in, get undressed and there is an open space with multiple showers around. There are about 4 stalls with shower curtains but that’s it! Otherwise, it’s out in the open! I’m sure nobody is paying attention but it may take me awhile to get used to this- and even in the end I’ll probably still be sneaking in and crossing my fingers for an open shower curtain-ed stall!

Anyway, yesterday, I took my language proficiency exam and then met my tutor, Haruka- who is extremely nice. She took me to the town hall office to get my id card and then we had lunch at the food court mall afterwards.

The food court mall in Japan is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like a food court in the US!

We ordered soki-soba and it was so so yummy!!! Everything is clean and they have water machines so that you can help yourself to free water and the food is not fast food at all, it’s healthy, delicious meals!

Afterwards, Haruka dropped me back off at my dorm and I met up with the Canada int’l student and we decided to explore the area around Ryudai.

Have to go to the health center for a health exam. Finish this later…

Tat (Canada student) needed shampoo and stuff so we decided to find a San-A store, we asked the school security guy where it was and he gave us directions but in true hoko-onchi style, we got lost. This turned out to be a good thing though, because we ended up at an internet café and decided to stop in so we could update some things and send out some quick emails.

It turned out to be about 450 yen, (about $4.50) for an hour, but you get a private room and free drinks such as ice tea, OJ, water, and slushies. I asked the guy there where the San-A was and it turns out, we were just around the corner from our destination. So I will probably try to get back there again to update things as well as my livejournal. (right now, I’m writing this on my laptop in my dorm room and will save it to put online when possible).

We got food at the school cafeteria after that and I have to say, American school cafeterias are absolutely NOTHING compared to Ryudai’s cafeteria!! They had choices of Okinawan soba, ramen, etc as well as rice bowls with fresh tuna, hamburger (Japanese hamburger) with onion sauce, okra salads, etc etc etc. It was YUMMY!!

(mom, I know what you’re going to say…) I have to make sure not to eat out a lot though… it can get expensive. However, this is only the first week so I don’t feel too bad about spending some money until I get settled in a little better.

Today (4/9/2009) I met up with the two Taiwan Kempi scholarship winners and we were to go to the health center for our health exams. We ended up having to ask directions on the way there (this is apparently the third largest college campus in Japan) and turns out the two girls we asked for directions, are Chinese International students. They said that they’ve also met an international student from Indonesia as well as another Taiwan student.

After that, I showed the Kempi girls how to get to the internet café near san-A and we made the walk and spent some time there. Turns out, Tat and I took the really, really long way around and in reality, the school is only about 10 minutes walk from the net café and the San-A supermarket- which will be good to know in the future so I can buy groceries and make things at my dorm.

Afterwards, I got back and 3 of my floormates were sitting in the living room talking so I sat and spoke to them a little bit. They gave me some snacks from their country and so in return, I gave them some 6.8oz giant Hershey chocolate bars (Thanks for making me bring them, mom!!). We then talked a little bit- they said they would help me with my kanji if I could help them with their English- I found out one is from Hokkaido, the other two are from other parts of mainland Japan.

I also spoke to Muneo Ojisan (uncle) and Obaachan (grandmother) and they said that Obaachan will pick me up from campus tomorrow so that I can spend time at her place for the weekend. Yurika (my cousin) will pick me up Saturday to hang out, which should be fun!

Obaachan also told me to bring my laundry to do at her house which will be nice.

So far I’m enjoying things and meeting a lot of new people- I just hope I can remember everybody’s names!!

I’m heading to lunch now but I think I’m pretty much updated on everything that’s happened so far.

Hopefully I can get this on livejournal soon- but I apologize for my grammar, I’ve been writing this any small free time I can get so the sentences may be a little bit choppy.

at the Tokyo Narita Airport right now.  Still have one more flight to go- running out of computer battery- will update more later but I'm safely in Japan and about 3 hours from Okinawa.

Thanks for all the well wishes everyone!!

Yesterday we went to the Okinawa Shin Shun Kai in Virginia. I got to see Chibana sensei and Kay dance and I was able to meet Blaine-san and Itsuko-san.

Here is a picture of Kay and me after her Okinawan Dance performance of "Naginata"


Here is Grand Master (and my Okinawan Ryukyu dance teacher!! :)) Kazuko Chibana's performance of "Iwaibushi"


It was a lot of fun and the food was delicious!! Being around so many Okinawans and watching the dance and eating the food made me more and more excited for Okinawa!

President Blaine-san even announced my name in reference to winning the Kempi scholarship so I stood up and said a few words. (You can tell that I was nervous by my posture and how fast I'm talking!!)



My mom spoke with my aunt in Okinawa today and she said that Shiimi is going to be the second Sunday in April so I will get to go see my entire family only a week after I arrive. (for those that do not know what Shiimi is, visit the following link for info: http://www.japanupdate.com/?id=3925) I haven't been to Shiimi since I was a kid so it will be nice to experience it again.

Also, my cousin is looking into cellphones for me so hopefully she and my uncle or aunt can get me set up with that as soon as I arrive- which will save me a lot of headaches!

I'm practically ready to go now! I have my suitcases packed, my ipods updated, my pet snake safe with M and most of my business

 Lemi emailed me back yesterday with a long, long, email about what to expect in Oki.  She must have put a lot of thought into it as each paragraph had a heading with things like "living situation," "shower," and "environment."  

Basically, she said, I'll be living in the women's dorms on a floor with about 12 girls.  We each have our own bedroom but will share a 2 living rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen.

There are communal showers in a nearby building and each floor takes turns cleaning the showers for a week.

She gave me advice on internet use, transportation and cell phones.

It's really helpful to hear from her and I wish I had had this type of advice when I went to spend the exchange year in Romania back in 2003!!

In other news, I'm running out of time... Today is the 14th, I stop working on the 18th, I'm planning on going to PA on the 25th.  That doesn't give me much time to get things done.  

I've spent this week going through the things that I had stored at MJ's place from the last time I moved and have sorted through most of it and packed up everything that is going back to PA to be stored at mom's place.

After I stop working on the 18th, I'm going to spend 2 or 3 days straight packing up everything in my room in Medford.  

I'm still waiting to receive the information that I need to go get my student visa.  I just hope I can get this all done soon and not have to worry about it anymore (and just get excited to go!!).

Monday I'm going to try to get to AAA for passport type photos for the visa.

I can't believe that in about 2.5 weeks, I'll be in Okinawa beginning school!!!

I don't think it's hit me yet that I will be going to Okinawa in less than one month.

I just grabbed a bunch of boxes from work today so that I can begin to pack up my room in Medford. I think the hardest part will be sorting out what I actually need in Oki, what I need to pack up to take back to Gburg and what I want to get rid of.

I'm planning on heading back to Gettysburg around the 20th so that I can spend time with mom, drop off my things and maybe even get to the Okinawa kenjinkai so that I can thank them (and especially Itsuko san and Blaine san) for their support through the process in not only this but in the Junior Study Tour I took part in back in 2005.

I'm very excited to experience a Japanese University, to improve my Japanese, maybe learn a little bit of Okinawan Hogen, and also to reestablish ties to not only my culture but to the island in which I grew up and spent most of my childhood.

I'm also very excited to spend time with my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins.

I can't wait to see where this year takes me.

I have a ton of questions and still am not sure quite what to expect. I've emailed Lemy (the current Kempi scholarship winner) but have not heard back from her yet. (I'm sure she is busy with getting ready to come home and saying goodbye to her friends, etc.)