The Japan Plan

I have already received my airline tickets. I am will be arriving at Kansai International Airport via San Francisco on August 20th, 2009. At which point I will be trapped on an island until December 21st, when I make my return.

Despite all the paperwork, study, and preparations for the trip it still seems a little surreal. After spending most of my life in the DC bubble (and more recently the Elon bubble), I am about to crash into the culture of Japan-land head on. I have come to the realization that no matter how much I study I will not be able to decode all 3 of their crazy alphabets by august. I am hoping that the person I meet through the speaking partner program will provide me with translation services needed for survival.

I am considering joining a club or circle (chiller club) when I get to Kansai Gaidai to meet students and hopefully have some fun. One of the disappointing (and ironic) things that I found out is that the American Football Club is not open to Americans. This was definitely a bummer, but I saw several others that could be worth joining such as basketball and judo. As far as I can tell from youtube videos and wikipedia, Judo is pretty much the same as wrestling just with cooler outfits. Joining the basketball team would be cool too because I finally won't be the shortest person on the floor.

If anyone has any other suggestions as to what hobbies/activities I should take up in Japan I am all ears. I was also going to join their movie making club, but considering most japanese movies end up like The Ring or The Grudge, I would probably be scared to step on the set.