First of Many

So this is my first entry here, a new blog I've created for the express purpose of documenting my one year long stay in Japan, starting towards the end of March this year. I decided I really wanted to start a public blog whereby I could keep memories and let all my friends and family here in Australia keep posted on life as an exchange student in Japan, this said it'd be great if I could draw readers in that may be considering taking part in an exchange or just curious about life in Japan! As such, I guess I'd best start from the beginning and do a little back tracking.

As you've probably gathered, my name is Kaspar. At the moment I'm 17 years old and just last year I graduated Year 12 at Kelvin Grove State College in Queensland. About a year ago I began seriously contemplating the idea of taking part in an exchange as a Gap Year between graduation and starting University, the idea was just floating up in the air for awhile and was nothing more than fantasy due to the financial aspects that could be a problem. After attending a meeting with Student Exchange Australia, my parents seemed pretty sold on the idea, and I am really thankful to them for supporting (And not to mention financing!) the whole thing. I am really lucky to have such a supportive family.

SEA (Student Exchange Australia) seem to boast a fairly great reputation as far as I've gathered, and their team has been really supportive and great with updating me and my family on the situation. I applied for a Language Scholarship worth a sum of $3,500 to go towards my exchange about midway last year. The whole process involved writing an essay (In English) on my motivation to learn Japanese; after writing and sending this off I was stoked to find out I was short-listed. All the short-listed applicants were given a moderately lengthy phone interview (Entirely in Japanese) to assess their abilities, and I was absolutely ecstatic to find out that I was a winner of one of the scholarships! Winning this meant I could at least save my family as much money as possible.

So here we are today, in the meanwhile I've had to deal with school and grades and applying for passports, but for the past month or so I've heard little news on anything at all. I'm still waiting on the news of a host family and where I'll be spending the next year, so that should be a surprise (Be it good or bad, I'm sure it'll turn out fine in the end). In the past few weeks the nerves and excitement have really been settling in. I guess it just finally clicked and I've been thinking "I'm going to be spending the next year in Japan!”. I can't even begin to imagine all the things I'm going to experience, the bad and the good, because I know I am picking myself directly out of my comfort zone.

I hope that I can keep you updated with exciting stories and photos directly from Japan this year!