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メリー　クリスマス！

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas so far. I got a new camera, and lots of stuff for my exchange trip. Anyway, I thought I'd just share this picture which shows my flight path to Japan.


It's probably too small for everyone to see, but if it bothers you, I've also put it on my Facebook.

I got the final itinerary details for my flight over; after arriving in Narita, I'll have to take a 3 hour transfer (by bus, I'm pretty sure), to Haneda Airport. I don't actually know where that is, because when I Google-Map it, it tells me that it's right next to Narita. But I don't expect it to take 3 hours by bus to go across the road...?
Anyway, I arrive in Hokkaido around 2:30pm on Sunday January 24th. From there, I don't know how long it takes to get to Eniwa.

It's finally sinking in that I'm leaving. It still feels unreal, but it's sinking in.

Also, I had an email from one of the teachers at my school in Kitahiroshima; she was telling me how it was -7ᵒC with 20cm of snow in Sapporo, and that they're expecting it to be much colder by the time I arrive. The coldest I've been in was -15ᵒC, in China during January, and that was literally painful for me. I wonder if it will get that cold lol. I can't wait for the snow though!

29 days :) I'll update again after New Years.

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As you can see, my last blog says I posted it today which is true, but it's from November. I had since changed my email address and the old blog account didn't want a bar of it. So here we are on this blog now.

An update since November; I now have only one month and 2 days until I fly out of Sydney International. I depart at 3:40pm, stop over in Kuala Lumpur for a couple of hours at 11pm and then arrive in Narita International at 7:15am the next morning. I'm yet to find out how I'm getting to the actual town I'll be living in.


I attended a second Rotary briefing weekend in Cooma NSW, where we did some presentations and speeches and had our photos for our Rotary Exchange business cards taken. My photo turned out to be terrible, so I had the photo changed. This is now the final product;

Yay for me.

I've slowly been packing up my room into big plastic tubs, seeing as though when I return I'll be heading off to University. Mum gets a bit sooky whenever I remind her that, after this year, I won't be living in this house anymore. I have a big list of things I'll need to pack for this exchange, but I still have a whole lot of shopping to do, for clothes, electronics, things like gloves and socks and "real" shoes... there's alot to be done, and this last month is already picking up speed.

I've also been in contact with my first host family, as well as hearing from teachers from my school, and (i think it's) my second host mother. I'm having my school uniform tailored for me, and it will be ready by the time I arrive. That will definitely be interesting, to see how that turns out...

Okay, this is a long entry. I'll update again after Christmas or New Years or something. :)

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Ok, so I began this blog about a month ago, but then had some trouble with changing email addresses. So I've copied and pasted my first blog, dated November 6th 2009.

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Yesterday I got the long-awaited email telling me where I'll be living in Japan. Turns out I'll be residing in a large town/small city called Kitahiroshima, which is about half an hour south of Sapporo (in Hokkaido).


It has a population of about 60,000 people, and is apparently very green, with lots of forest surrounding.

I'll be attending school at Hokkaido Kitahiroshima Nishi Koutougakkou.

I'm so excited now :) So there you go. It begins - I know where I'm going - I leave in 2 months and 2 weeks, on the 23rd January 2010. :)