I guess it’s time to get a start on blogging.

Ahem…as you can tell my name is Angelica and obviously I intend on living in Tokyo.  In October, I will be a student studying at Yosida Japanese Language Institute.  It is a two year program that provides intensive language instruction.  I will also be supporting my studies through part time work (most likely not teaching english, though it is a popular choice that pays well)  and soaking up as much language and culture as I can.  The school’s goal is to educate students in the Japanese language to the point of fluency where they can attend universities or grad schools in Japan.  I just graduated from university so I might consider grad school but most likely will use my hopefully newfound fluency to work in Japan for at least a couple of years for international work experience before returning to the United States to hopefully continue on in my career whatever that might be. I also in the future would like to start freelance translation and/or interpretation. And, Chinese language (whether mandarin or cantonese) will be my next goal as well as some frequent trips there. 

Have I ever been to Japan before?  In a short answer, yes.

Here’s a short timeline:

July 2005- August 2005 Yamasa Language Institute Okazaki, Japan

As you can probaly guess I studied Japanese language and culture there for a summer.  I had some previous exposure to the Japanese language, but this was probaly the first real intensive experience I had.

It was also during this stint that I went to Tokyo to meet a pen pal I had met before leaving for Japan.  I really cherish that friendship as it convinced me that I wanted to study in Tokyo despite all of the cons involved (i.e. high costs, long commutes,  etc).

August 2006- Short visit to see my pen pals again and meet some new friends.

June 2007- Same idea except this time I visited some language schools as I was nearing graduation and needed to really start prepping for it.

January 2008- Found a homestay in Tokyo and went to visit her house.  Loved it and also met some new friends from Mixi.  One of my friends mentioned Yosida and how her boyfriend went to the school and now he was a university student in Tokyo and always recommended his friends go there to study Japanese. Speaking with him one on one and also hearing his Japanese made me feel confident.

 I was hesitant at first but the staff of the school was wonderful and prompt will helping me with all the visa issues.  Plus, I heard other such great things about it and even alumni visited it quite often because of the closeness of the students.  It sounded great.  The location also seemed great also.  Hopefully I will be able to put my own review of it up soon but I am pretty sure either way I will have a great time.  No school is perfect in everyway but I will take advantage of the experience.

School website: www.yosida.com

Which brings me to now…

September 2009- I will have my visa at the end of August and plan on entering in Tokyo in mid-September to get prepared for my course which will start October 2009.

I will try to update as frequently as I can but I admit I get lazy sometimes. 

I will miss everyone back home but I really think it is time for me to get out and travel.  Hopefully, I will figure out what I want to do in life along the way.