My last day in America!

It feels so strange for me to be writing a blog. Ever since middle school I've been adamently against blogs because I always felt it was impersonal - people learn about your life through monologues instead of conversations. But the next two weeks will call for drastic measures! I'm not planning on bringing a laptop with me to Japan so I'll have to survive off of the Rifare computers. I hope I don't regret this decision!

Things have been sort of busy but I've been holding off on the most important thing - packing. I was able to bring home a whole year of Yale by myself in a suitcase (and a backpack, and a purse) so I figure packing for 2 months will be no big deal. I have a lot of exciting things planned for Japan so I'm psyched! My favorite Japanese band (The Back Horn) will be performing in Kanazawa while I'm there. My family will be visiting me in Kanazawa for about a week. And then at the end of it all, my boyfriend's coming up and we're going to Tokyo together for a week! (Hopefully with my friend Cristina too if she's free).

One weird anomaly though. My Japanese grandfather recently passed away and my family is holding a memorial service for him when PII goes to the Noto peninsula. Since I'm in Japan, I should really go (you know how important Japanese family obligation is), so I'll have to miss out on one of the coolest parts of PII. The memorial service is going to be really fancy and the Empress's sister is coming. I get to be in the meet-and-greet line so that'll be really interesting.

Now to get myself packing! I hope I don't pack anything too obscene for Japanese standards. A good guide for travel and culture that I use for everything : Wiki travel!