Start of blog!

Hi all.

I've created my blog for my summer trip to Japan that a few people were looking forward to.  The trip will be about 9 weeks long.  The first 6 weeks I will be enrolled in Japanese language classes at the University of Konan in Kobe, Japan.  I only have 1 year of prior language experience and the 6 weeks are supposed to be the equivalent of another year of classes that I would have taken at my college.  But there's still much to learn, so it'll be an adventure.  Luckily though, I will be traveling with my friend David, and other people from the University at Buffalo will also be in the program, so I won't be totally alone.

After the first 6 weeks, on July 15th I will be traveling around the country for an additional 3 weeks.  So far the plan is to travel to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima.  Expect to see lots of pictures from famous or cool locations that I find along the way.  And maybe a bunch of pictures about stuff I buy.

 I'm not in Japan just yet - I head for the airport on May 31st.  I will be arriving on May 2nd due to layovers and long plane flights.  So, I guess I don't have any pictures or stories to share yet.

Keep checking back and I will make sure to write about anything interesting that's going on, as well as post pictures.