I've been planning my trip to Japan these past few months, with the help of this study abroad guidebook from KIT. I'm flying Japan Airlines from Boston to Chicago, where I'll meet up with Xander and Shella. We're traveling together so that we won't be bored for the 15 hour flight to Tokyo and 5 hr train ride to Kanazawa.



The guide also recommends making business cards (in English and in Japanese) for the time in Japan, because they are exchanged frequently. So I ordered business cards (which also meant I had to finally get around to registering a domain so I could put it on the business cards), and I translated it into Japanese with the help of one of the Japanese professors.



As part of the KIT program, we'll be staying with a host family for a night, and we should bring them small gifts like souvenirs as a thanks. I'll probably bring several small things along incase I want to give gifts to anyone else while I'm there, gifts are apparently exchanged a lot in Japan.



After the program, we're staying for a few more weeks to travel, because what other chance will we have to travel around Japan? We hope to visit Sapporo, Tokyo, and Kyoto, if not more. I'll have more information as the trip gets closer.