At last! Going to Japan!

Ten years ago, I went to Japan to visit family living on the Iwakuni military base. That trip had left a lasting impression on me as a teenager, and when I returned, I took Japanese lessons outside of school with a private tutor. I continued my studies casually for the next few years, as I finished my associate’s degree in and my trade certification in Jewelry Design. After completing those two milestones, I realized that my heart wasn’t totally in it. I was missing something. And after a long, grueling 2 years of I came to the realization that studying Japanese was the missing link, hiding in plain sight all along. So to get to my goal of exploring Japan, and becoming fluent, I started working and attending night classes at Howard Community College. I worked at a local Japanese Café, where I got some speaking practice in occasionally, and then after moving on from HCC’s curriculum, I transferred to the University of Maryland’s Japanese Program. I’ve worked as a temp for two summers at Shimadzu Scientific Instruments, a Japanese company based out of Kyoto, and thoroughly enjoyed my time working, growing, and building there.  

I have a plethora of hobbies, but one that stems back from childhood is collecting dolls and puppets. They’ve always had a special place in my heart, and the fact that Jim Henson graduated from my university is one of my favorite little factoids about my school. When I heard about the Tonda Bunraku Summer Program from my Sensei, I jumped at the chance. This is the perfect opportunity! I can practice my Japanese with a host family for two months and cultivate a long-time hobby. Needless to say, I’m incredibly excited for summer, for the chance to play with and to learn as much as I can.

The program coordinators suggested I stay a week or two after the program finishes to explore Japan. So, this is why I made a little funding page. I’ll be staying an extra two weeks after the program ends to go backpacking to different parts of Japan. been ten years, might as well explore and get as much out of this trip as I possibly can, right? I will need help with funding things like: My rail pass ($426USD)Food ($500)and lodging. (cheap hotels are abundant, I averaged it at roughly $55/night, with some wiggle room just in case… so around $800.) Japan has these nifty little traveler’s train passes for foreigners. Since I plan on crawling all over the country, I figured it would be cheaper to buy one of those instead of a bunch of separate tickets. My itinerary so far is not set in stone, (I just got my acceptance letter yesterday) so keep your eye on this space for updates. As of right now I am compiling a huge list of and will whittle it down into a fun-packed 2 weeks. Every little bit of help counts, seriously! ありがとうございます。 (Image courtesy of Holidify (dot) com)

Interested to learn More about Bunraku? check out here and here!