4 days to go...

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I've been made to write a blog

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So I've had a few requests for a blog and thought since I'll be away for a year, it's pretty much the thing to do.

Anyway, I'm at home still for now, with a suitcase weighing in at around 19kg which is pretty good since 20's the limit and finally started to feel pretty excited. I've spent the evening at the Falcon and listened to top tips from Hilary about onsen etiquette (onsen being the public hot spring baths where you have to be nudey in front of countless random Japanese people) and thinking if I get enough asahi down me I might have to give it a go, one day.

I think I'm doing well on the organisation front, I made my trip to London on my birthday to apply for the 12 month Japanese visa at vast expense and it came through the post the other day as a 15 month one, so at least they liked me and i must have done something right 😊 or terribly wrong perhaps...but at least it's done.

I've also received a letter from the grandmother of my host family and she sounds very sweet so I'm looking forward to meeting them. I'm living with a grandmother, mother and 20 year old daughter-all good so far 😊

I now have 4 days to build up as much excitement as possible, think of what I could possibly fill the remaining kilo of my suitcase with, and maybe start learning some Japanese...

Below may or may not be a photo of my visa, just because it's a really fun thing to have in my passport, and also to see if I can get photos on this thing.

Anyway I'll try to update this whenever I do anything different or exciting

Mary xxx

p.s ok i got a warning through saying I shouldn't put a picture of my visa up online because it has all my personal details on it etc which is a fair point..so you just have to believe me that it's really cute and see a picture of my suitcase instead. it's big.

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