紹介しようか。/ INTRODUCTION

こんにちは、皆さん！

You've just stumbled across my collection of observations from seven and a half months in Japan as an exchange student at Sapporo University in Hokkaido from May through December 2009.

Keep in mind, this blog isn't an anthropological study of Japanese culture; it's just the result of a 21-year-old American's experiences as an exchange student.

If you're interested in reading through my blog entries, I'd suggest starting from my entries from January 2009 (which explain the process of applying for admission to Sapporo University, available scholarships, and how I passed the time until I left) or from May 2009 (when I actually arrived in Sapporo).

A FEW NOTES:

+ I use a lot of native Japanese words in my blog entries, but I've tried my best to either explain the words immediately after mentioning them or by providing links to other sites that can explain them better than I can. For some words, I don't feel as much of a need to explain (like anime, for example) because they've become much more mainstream recently. If you still don't know what it is, just look it up on Google.

+ Unless otherwise noted, all photos were taken by me.

+ Many Japanese language students are huge anime and manga fans. I am a fan of Japanese animation as well, but my major interests in modern Japanese pop culture are in Japanese dramas and pop music. Throughout my blog I reference popular Japanese television shows (news shows like "News Zero" and variety programs like "Arashi no Shukudai-kun/嵐の宿題くん"), and at the end of each entry I list what song I happened to be listening to while I wrote that entry. If you have no interest in this part of Japanese culture, feel free to ignore those details.

+ Along the same note, my blog titles are often quotes from dramas or lyrics from songs. The title of this blog, as seen at the top of this page (unless you don't have Japanese enabled on your computer, which means you see a bunch of random symbols instead), is also part of the lyrics to Arashi's "Tomorrow's Memory." Translated, it means: In the middle of the ever-changing seasons, what color tomorrow will we draw?

Please enjoy reading!

Sarah