Yeah, it’s all a little more real! It should be really interesting with such a big family, too… you’re going to be really busy for those first two months getting to know them. xD The host sisters in my host families range from 16-17 years old, if that sheds any light on their ages (and year placing, etc), although it could be completely different with your families! We’ll look forward to finding out. 8D

Please do post a link if you make a blog! I’m thinking of setting one up myself, although it’ll need a bit of tweaking. By the way, what kind of ‘projects’, or hobbies, do you think you’ll be doing in Japan in your spare time? As in, do you think you’d play a musical instrument, or write a travel diary, or draw (etc)? Apart from club activities and Japanese study, I mean. :>

Yeah, it still feels like there’s stuff to do, but I can’t put my finger on anything. Ah, well! Studying Japanese is always good. I wouldn’t say I’m ‘confident’ with my Japanese , but I should be able to blurt out some vocab and wave my arms around a bit (whilst butchering every Japanese grammar structure there is! Woo!). I’ve studied Japanese since Year 8 at school, and managed to pass last year’s JLPT Level 3 exam (although… it was pretty hard for me xD). My Kanji is shocking though! I think it’ll be very difficult… but that’s part of the challenge, I suppose! I always get tongue-tied speaking Japanese, really, like I’m scared of making mistakes. But hey, that’s what exchange students do – make mistakes with the language. That’s how you learn, so… I think it’ll be okay. xD

How about you? How long have you been studying for? How are you feeling about speaking Japanese? And oh! Are you thinking of taking the JLPT exam in Japan?

Yeah, it'll be interesting I'm looking forward to meeting them all!

Could you post a link to your blog too? As for projects, I'm taking some knitting (I'm not really any good, but can manage scarves i.e. rectangles) and a scrap book-type thing with me. I'm really awful at music! And my hobbies in Australia are reading and dancing, which are anti-social or hard to take with me. How about you? What club(s) are you thinking of joining?

I've been studying Japanese from about year 8 too (I did about two months in years 6 and 7 'cuz the school wanted a varied language program or something). Yeah, I get all tongue tied when I try to talk, too, I think because I don't think what I'm trying to say through. My grammar's ok (I butcher it when I try anything complicated but I know lots of structures) but I'm really not confident with my vocab. I guess learning is what we're there for though!

I do want to do the JLPT, to have something to work towards as much as anything. I think the old level 3/new level 4 is roughly equivalent to my exams last year (which were really hard, but I passed. And having a set vocab/kanji/grammar list will make a nice change), so I guess I'll try for the new level 2 or 3, depending on how much practice I can do Are you going to take it?

Mmm! Of course! I’ll post a link up when I’ve set it all up!
Knitting sounds like a good idea! So does scrap-booking… I’d like to do a bit of that myself, what with all the interesting things you can find in Japan (crazy leaflets and advertisements and beautifully printed paper menus and everything! While wielding that trusty glue-stick, no loose flap of paper shall be left unstuck!). And wow, dancing! I’ve always been envious of dancers, since I admire dancers but personally have the dancing ability of a lump of spaghetti twirling limply off a fork (uh, I guess it’s Strange Metaphor Night tonight! ) but I’m sure you’ll be able to incorporate it into your exchange somehow. How about joining a dancing club? Or Cheerleading, or baton? What kind of dancing do you do, btw?

And reading, now, that’s something I can relate to! I want to take a few books I’ve been itching to read with me, but unfortunately they’re pretty thick, so today I decided to leave them behind to save on luggage weight. But I’ll be taking my little sketch book and a travel diary to write/draw in a lot (as well as the laptop for writing) in my spare time! (... now that you mention it, all of my hobbies are the antisocial kind. D’oh! )

As for clubs, I’d love to try something traditional (tea ceremony looks interesting, as do the martial arts clubs and archery clubs… although the girls on the website look so professional, like they’d snap my spine !). Then again, to get into shape, Soccer Club would be great. Or a drawing/art club. I guess it depends what they have, though, and how intense the training would be (eg. I wouldn’t want to get into soccer and have to kill myself every day to excessively train so much that it takes over my time with my host family or something). How about you? What kind of club would you like to join?

Oh, how's your local area, too (is the actual area called 'Teikyo')? :> Learnt anything cool/new about it?

I can’t believe we’re less than two weeks away from flying out now! @__@ We’ll be speaking Japanese soon enough! Mind if I steal some of your Japanese Grammar Power whilst I take some of your Plane Courage?... alright, alright, I might be being a bit greedy there! 8D

And yeah, I agree that the JLPT is something to work towards! I think I’d like to try for Level Two… or the new Level Twoish one? Level… 2.5? Anyway, one of them! And yeah, I agree, after last years exams, I’ll definitely welcome the change, after all that writing. Did you have to study Spirited Away, by any chance? xD

Whoops, there were a whooole lot of questions there! I think I'm too excited, haha. xD

Still hoping to see some more people on the forums! Is there anyone out there?

Haha, it's ok, questions give us more to talk about anyway. And I know what you mean about excitement! Only one and a half weeks to go!

Last time I found knitting to be one of the few non-anti-social things I could take with me to do, so I'm bringing it again. Yes, we shall glue down Japan! I like your metaphor! I do ballroom dancing! If there's a dancing club I might well join it, and cheerleading sounds interesting too...

Leaving books behind is so sad... But it's so hard to switch between reading English and speaking Japanese. So I'm only bringing one of my manga (written in Japanese). Books are so heavy! You draw? That's really cool, I have to say my artistic ability is non-existent XD

I agree the level of club commitment is important. I really don't want to have to train for hours six nights a week, but on the other hand having something more than once a week would be nice. I think something "Japanese" would be good to join, maybe tea ceremony or a traditional sport... I'm not very good at sports though! Still, I'll see what clubs they have.

The local area (around the school) is Itabashi ward. I haven't actually looked into it that much, just Tokyo in general, but I really should! I shall make it my goal to have something interesting to say about it next time I post XD Have you learnt anything interesting about your area?

Haha, you can have some of my Japanese Grammar Power and Plane Courage, if you lend me some of your Japanese Vocab Mastery

As far as I can tell (from internet research), the only real change to the JLPT is adding in an extra level in the middle and putting an 'N' before the numbers of the new levels. So 1 & 2 are unchanged (as N1 & N2), and 3 & 4 are now called N4 & N5 respectively. The new level is N3, which is halfway between the old levels 2 and 3.

No, we didn't study Spirited Away, though that sounds rather more interesting than 'recycling'! (which we spend a lot of time on). I did manage to do my final oral exam on Death Note though

Where is everyone else? There's meant to be 20 of us, right?

I guess the others are a little shy? xD But I guess we’ll meet them all in… a week and three days!!

Hahaha, “glue down Japan” made me laugh. Sounds like a plan!

Ballroom dancing, whoah! Do you do competitive ballroom dancing, or just as a hobby/classes? And I wonder if you can find ballroom dancing activities in Japan (I’m sure there would be somewhere)? :> Anyway, I’m sure they’d have something to do with dancing at any school you go to, so I think you’re pretty safe (along with the traditional clubs… I agree, those sound like great ones to join!). ;D And likewise, I’d love to be able to move/dance… but all I can do is bop up and down and nod my head a little, pigeon-style, when music plays, haha.

Yeah, I have a whole recently-bought collection of Neil Gaiman books I want to finish (have you heard of him? :>, but unfortunately, I think they’ll have to wait (graaagh! Ah, well, as my mum put it, “Would you rather go on exchange, or read those books?” xD Good point). I wouldn’t mind trying to read Japanese books, actually (maybe elementary school level books or something) but I think, with all the kanji, they’ll be waaay, waaay too difficult at first (and here’s me, without much of a lick of Japanese, saying “I want to read Japanese books”, bah)! Which is why I agree with you, reading manga in Japanese will be great (with the pictures to help with the vocab, and such). It’s such a handy resource, isn’t it?! What title are you bringing along with you from Australia, by the way? XD Which manga?

I’m looking forward to hearing what you say about Itabashi Ward! I’ll have to look it up too and have a peek (I know it’s not my area, but just… looking at where everyone’s going makes me more excited! ). I haven’t learnt too much more about my area, beyond that it’s the “gyoza” capital, and it’s quite cold there (and in Tokyo) right now… occasionally snowing, apparently (which has caused me to buy some new warmer jackets)!

I say deal on the Plane/Grammar/Vocab swap! xD

And thanks for the info on the JLPT… my gosh, it’s still awfully confusing, isn’t it? 8D I’ll get my head around it, though (eventually). So they’re basically wedging another level in between the old Level 2 and Level 3, and that’s N3? Alright, got it (so it's not that confusing after all! They only make it appear so with all their Ns everywhere. ).

Wow! How did you manage to do a final oral exam on Death Note? xD I’m interested to hear how you got to do such an awesome topic! We also had to do something about the environment, and technology, and something along those lines (I’m forgetting our topics now!). So now, even though I can’t tell you much in Japanese about, say, how the weather is, or phrases to use in an emergency, I can tell you about “global warming” and warble on about the "generation gap" or something! 8D Hooray!

Oh! Something really exciting happened tonight… I got an email from my first host sister. :’D She said that they received my information today. So, with only a weekish left to go, I guess our families will be finding out/have found out who we all are now! :’D Even getting our pre-departure packs was exciting. I still can’t believe the time’s almost come to pack our bags and get on the plane!
I’m a little nervous. Not that I wasn't before, but... sdhsgff xD