And so it begins...

Hello, greetings and salutations!

To the many people who have requested to read my year abroad blog- this is it!

I decided long ago that I would have a record of my travels but have been keeping them personal up until now. However, now in my 20^th year, I shall take a giant leap and travel across the world to study my third year as a University student at a University in Japan! I am probably the last person in my class to start a travel blog this late in the game (even though I will be the first to go), I am pleased to begin!

Whenever I tell an unrelated person about my course I usually get asked the question “Why do you want to study Japanese?” Then I calmly explain that I want to go to Japan. Usually they then ask why. For many, I never realized it might not seem as obvious as it does to me. To me, Japan is the land of my dreams, and Asia is my continent of potential and good memories.

Perhaps I shall explain?

I am a person whose love is currently split between four different countries. My mother is English, and it was in England that my twin and I were born and were meant to grow up. Fate on the other hand, had other plans and our family soon moved to the land of my father, Sweden, in which I grew up and spent most of my childhood. My brother and I used to Joke that we were ‘Swinglish’ from our dual heritage. However, I was not to live out my school days in Sweden either, as one fateful crisp winter morning on the moors of Yorkshire, our parents announced the decision of moving us to the distant India, right across the world. I was 12 years old and all that came to mind when I heard the word ‘India’ was a lot of brown people, elephants and tigers. As it turned out, I saw all three of these.

While India at first had me very scared, I reflect back on how much it truly changed me from being just an ordinary girl from the suburbs of Sweden, to a third-culture kid and eventually a world citizen. My family lived out three good years in India, travelling to many different parts of the nation and beyond, as many times as we chose to spend our holidays and savings on exploring the many fascinating parts of India and Asia. Travel, I never forget, is a luxury and privilege, and it was appreciated by my parents which in turn has definitely rubbed off on me.

Without a doubt, those years spent in India opened my horizons and ignited my taste for exploration and adventure. A gate had been opened and lighted a passion within me to see more. I never stopped to think how lucky I was to see so much of the world at such a young age. It was also at this stage, roughly at the age of 13, that a fourth country came onto the scene.

Japan had been a country which I knew was cool and technologically advanced, but there was nothing that took my personal interest until one day at a scout camp I picked up a friend’s book which looked much like a bound Donald Duck comic book from my childhood on the cover. Upon closer inspection I realized not only there was no colour and that the characters had very strange angular faces with un-proportionally large eyes and heads for their bodies, but also that the book started from the opposite end of which it was suppose to start. Nonetheless, I became hooked on the series, and the style (manga) and soon sought out more, and I quickly learned that there was more, much more of where it came from.

Later, a much broader interest in Japan’s ancient and modern culture arose. Coupled with an appreciation of its unique cuisine, innovative technology and intriguing political and economic status, made it an ideal country to delve my interest into. My parents often said it was a passing phase when I expressed my interest in anime and manga and wanted to learn Japanese. Little did they know it was far from the truth.

It is no understatement when I say I love Japan and have been dreaming of experiencing life there as a student for a very long time. While my goals have changed over time to become more grounded, my ambition to further my education in Japan has remained the same. Let me just clarify; not a day has gone by for the past two years where I have not thought, daydreamed and revelled about the day when I would finally set foot on the land of the rising sun.

So here I am! Born in England, a child in Sweden, teenager in India, turned 18 back in England and will celebrate as a young adult of 21 in Japan! Three days before lift-off and only a few things are packed! Let’s begin this new adventure!