You Can't Take It With You

(Me and my cats- I will miss them!)

Ten days before I fly and I can barely believe it! I've been in the process of packing for weeks, but I'm still not done. I've decided to bring two suitcases and a carry on.(my backpack)

As far as I've been able to find out, the weather in Japan is a lot like here in Memphis: hot summers and fairly cold winters. Though, it is more humid there, like 90% humidity instead of 70% like here... I'm packing like ten shirts (mix of long and short sleeved), six pairs of pants and two "nicer" outfits. I'm still not sure how many pairs of shoes I'm taking.
Beyond that I've been trying to cover the basics: socks, underwear, toothbrush, makeup, winter things like scarves, gloves and hat...The hairdryer proved to be a little tricky. I ended up buying a duel-voltage one just to be safe. I'm bringing some school supplies as well, mostly pens, pencils, paper and spirals.
I'm bringing my laptop too. I know they don't have wifi at Seminar House, but I hear you can hook up with a lan-cable.

Lately I'm been stressing out over the "omiyage" or small gifts that you're supposed to bring to give to people who will give you small gifts as custom. They say to bring small things like candy, postcards, T-shirts, caps, nifty little souvenirs from your area. I've been having a hard time finding things made HERE. Everything is made in China! I read on another blog that you shouldn't give gifts in 4s (associated with death) or 9s. (associated with suffering) Tomorrow I'm heading downtown to the Peabody Hotel and Beale Street area to look for something to bring. Hopefully something was made here. Knock on wood...

Oh! And I found out who my speaking partner is! Her name is Chie Sakai and she is two years younger than me, a Chinese and English major! I feel bad that I don't know that much Japanese to speak with her. I've only had one semester of Japanese and the summer break has been slowly dragging it out of my brain. So mostly our emails have been in English...

I'm not sure if this post has been productive or not. My thoughts are kind of scattered and I'm so excited I can hardly contain it. I had to sit down and sketch something to relax...hence the self-portrait up top... Ten days! Tomorrow my countdown will be in the single digits! Wow! Just wow...