Wednesday 10 June 2009

Tokyo, here I come....

Well exams are over and summer is here so I can officially let myself get massively excited about going to Japan now! I've been trying to learn some Japanese over the past few weeks (in between hoping back and forth from St Andrews to Edinburgh, clearing out my student flat) and it's really quite tricky. And that's without even trying to teach myself how to read/write it - I think I will stick to conversational Japanese just now...

I don't know a huge amount about exactly what I will be doing when I get there but I will be working within the Markets Division, hopefully with a different department each week. I recently found out where I'll be staying: I have a studio apartment (aka one room) in Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku. I've seen pictures and it looks perfect - and it's right in the centre of Tokyo! Fantastic! In fact, I think it's about two metro stops from RBS, which is in the Shin-Marunouchi Building, Chiyoda-ku. I wonder how long I'll have been there before I experience my first earthquake :S

What I'm going to try and do is keep a daily (or at least bi-daily) log of my experiences on here. Part of my contract with the Saltire Foundation is to keep a weekly blog on their website. This has to reflect mainly on the work aspect of the placement (for obvious reasons, really...) but I want to be able to let everyone at home know more about the social side of things and will also try to post photos. (I plan on buying a new camera in Akihabara!) Hopefully, by posting regularly on here, I'll be able to then use that to cobble together a more sensible post for the 'official' blog (and let my mum know I'm still alive :P). I'll put a link in the right-hand bar for my other blog when I get it started.

I leave on Saturday 11th July and cannot wait to go! All I need to learn now is how to say, "Can I get a free upgrade?" in Japanese.