So here I am; the day has arrived and I’m off to the airport to start my adventures in Japan. The past few days have been filled with a never-ending stream of advice from my parents about travelling and staying safe, and I have packed everything I could ever think of needing in any potential situation, including three bottles of mosquito repellent and two pairs of sunglasses (you know, just in case). Naturally I’ve been feeling both incredibly anxious as well as overjoyed at the prospect of getting to volunteer in a country I have always longed to visit, but right now I feel calm and confident about the next few weeks. Here’s hoping that feeling stays with me – especially on the 12 hour flight tonight. Travelling to Japan is nothing to be sniffed at; I have the exciting prospect of 16 hours worth of flights to look forward to in the next couple of days. But if that’s the price I have to pay for an experience that’s sure to stick in my memory for life, I can safely say it’s a fair trade off. My only regret right now is not brushing up on my Japanese before leaving – having taken Languages for All Japanese up to elementary level, I have a big book of notes at home I could have referred to, but I’m hoping that when I’m finally there it’ll all come flooding back to me. Yeah, maybe not…<\/p>\n
I’ll post an update when I can, but for now that’s all I have to say. Thanks for reading and see you in Japan! \u307e\u305f\u306d\uff01<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So here I am; the day has arrived and I'm off to the airport to start my adventures in Japan. The past few days have been filled with a never-ending […]","protected":false},"author":1368,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[270],"tags":[93,205,56,58,18,91],"class_list":["post-2377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summer-programmes","tag-asia","tag-cuabroad","tag-summer-programme","tag-travel","tag-travelexperiences","tag-volunteering"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4QQbz-Cl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3625,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/the-ultimate-summer-holiday-checklist\/","url_meta":{"origin":2377,"position":0},"title":"The ultimate summer holiday checklist","author":"Kimberly Field","date":"July 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Travelling soon? 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