Rising Sun

Excerpt from an email sent to my brother earlier this summer while I was in Russia:

On Jul 30, 2009, at 6:59 PM, Alex Michaelson wrote:
I had a thought today, regarding some more reasons why I want to go to Japan. The culture absolutely fascinates me, and I feel drawn and connected to it. For one thing, I've heard many times that Japan as a nation is having a sort of national identity crisis, and that intrigues me in my own search for identity. The class I took called Introduction to Japanese Culture was fascinating, and the journaling I did for that class did a lot for me. [Moreover,] there are themes in [many] of the cultural products I've seen that I really like and feel drawn and connected to--the human drive toward happiness, [intense psychological confrontation], a penchant for random silliness, a sensitivity for wonder and romance, and technological awesomeness.


I've always known that I would study abroad, and Japan became my choice for several reasons, not to mention many of the wonderful and intriguing cultural products themselves. As I've grown to know myself better from perspective and experience I've gained this summer, I look forward now to Japan as a fantastic opportunity to continue doing what I set out to do--in simplest terms, to develop a confident, secure self. That comes from perspective, experience, personal space, self-reflection, and conditioning.

Everyone says it's going to be amazing, and it should be good for me too, whatever that means.

But I don't worry about what that means so much as I used to. I'm concentrating now on living my life the way I want to live my life, not on what may or may not be "good" for me.


Visa: obtained.
Flight: confirmed.
Housing: confirmed.
Airport transportation: scheduled at both ends.
Orientation schedule: received.
Shopping: almost finished.
Packing: in progress.

Six days.