The Yamasa Casa

A recent picture of the sunset in Okazaki

In a little less than eleven days, I'll be flying to Japan with my elder cousin, Greg, and both of us are extremely excited. ^-^ He arrives in Dallas the 16th of July and we leave for Tokyo the next morning, and then take another plane to Nagoya. After all of those plane rides, we'll take our hour long train ride to Okazaki, where we will be staying for an entire month, attending Yamasa SILAC program. Once we get there it'll be the 19th (skipping the 18th because of the International Date Line, like the time travelers we are) and we'll probably be totally exhausted from total boredom. The next morning we will take our placement exams, and even though I've studied my butt off, I'll probably end up in the beginner course because I've never actually taken a Japanese class, and everything I know is entirely self taught (oh dear XD). My cousin has convinced me that even if I die of massive brain overload, I'll at least be applying myself to a good cause. Plus, he's going to get an ear full from me anyways, asking questions and whatnot. But in the end, we'll have loads of fun and learn lots of Japanese :D

I'm not only excited for Yamasa, but for our trip to Tokyo. We get to go to a concert Friday night and Saturday, Greg and I are going to the Sumida River Fireworks Festival. :D The weekend before that, we are going to Kyoto (which will be the first weekend we are there) and we'll probably purchase Yukatas to wear to the festival. We're also staying long enough for the Bon Festival, which, AGAIN, I am super mega excited for. It'll be a whole new experience for the both of us.

At Yamasa, students are expected to study 3 hours a night. At first, when I heard that news I thought that would be dreadful because I'm in high school and I don't even study for those classes DX. But then I realized that studying 3 hours a night is absolutely nothing in comparison to the amount I study now, and such a task would be no problem at all. So, those worries are gone, but I'm still really nervous about the placement exam. DX I REALLY don't want to bomb the first test I ever take in Japan; although I think that might be impossible because I'm not exactly sure how one would fail a placement exam. I've read that the students taking the exam all were placed perfectly through blogs, but I've read nothing about the actual exam itself... So I suppose I'll be one of the few who do post anything about the exam^^;

In the mean time, I'll study my hardest until the day comes~　さよなら！

... As for the title, it rhymed XD No other reason for choosing it other than I'll be living at Yamasa short term.