[Aether]

Been a little while since I posted here, but just wanted to say that I made it to Japan. I would like to say thanks to everyone who posted here for every little bit of advice helps when going to a new country.

Things have been going more smoothly than I expected since I arrived. When I first got to the airport, my university sent a student to help me take the trains to my homestay family, and since then, my homestay family has been very helpful with aiding me to get used to the country and do such things as setingt up a bank account and getting a cell phone. As for gifts for my family, I brought chocolate made in Minnesota as well as books with pictures showing animals and different areas of the state. My host mother seems to really like the pictures.

One thing I would recommend for those who are planning to study abroad is to get Skype. I tried using it today, and I was able to call my parents at home, and it only cost about 20 cents for 5 minutes.