And so it begins ...

It's the middle of September, three months before any imagined trip overseas could ever happen, and I'm already anxious to leave. This is not good.

I spend far too much time searching for cheap airfare to Japan. I'm announcing my planned ... imagined ... visit to Japan to far too many Japanese friends. After all, I tried this last year. I told many of the students I had worked with in the summer of 2004 that, yes, indeed, I really wanted to and planned to visit Japan during my winter break. Money? Eh, no problem! I'll figure something out.

What I figured out was that I did not have any money. The 2004 trip was scrapped. I lost touch with most of them. They - the 39 students - are from the Human Studies Department at Meijo Univeristy in Nagoya, Japan. They came to Oregon in 2004, a required trip abroad, to study language and culture at the English Language Institute at Oregon State University. I work with them, as a program assistant, which basically means I get paid to be their friend. So when they go home after three weeks, sadness occurs. I want to meet them again, let them show me around their native land.

So here we are again. The 2005 "them" Was 38 people, and they went back about a week ago. Again, there was sadness. So I email them a lot. I can email their cell phones and get a reply within minutes. I've already announced my plan to go to Japan in December. What could stop me?

This year, things are looking better. I now live at my father and step-mother's house in Corvallis. This means I will save loads of cash. No rent. Food mostly paid for. So much is paid for and taken care of, I can actually save money.

And for me, naturally, that means it will be spent promptly.

So I plan to go to Japan some time on or after December 11, shortly after my best friend from high school Pat marries his high school girlfriend Kim. I'll be in the wedding. I'll trade the tux for a passport and skip town as soon as they embrace in that love-sealing kiss.

This is the plan.

And here, on this blog, I shall log the planning. The search for airfare. The quest to sleep for free at the homes of my network of friends in Japan. My money savings efforts.

And, even more exciting ... when I get to Japan, I plan to rent a ketai (cell phone) so I can post to this blog via cell-phone e-mail. If I'm lucky the rental will be armed with camera, providing even more exciting bloggings.

For now, wait with me through an entire three-month academic term. I must focus. I must get decent grades. I must finish. Soon.