Pre Trip Thoughts and Conceptions

Well, I am off to the great orient in a week or so after first visiting my long lost or rather, long taken off and never came back father. I'm planning on spending a year or so teaching somewhere in Japan. That's the theory anyways. I feel very under qualified seeing as I have never taught anyone in my life, let along a bunch of beady eyed five year old children. When I went to India last year I spent months planning, learning and dreaming about the place before I ever set foot on it. On the other hand, I don't even know how to say hello in Japanese and I don't have a clue where I am going when I get there. I guess I never have felt very attracted to Asia and I don't feel to connected to the place. It seems rather unworldly and inhuman....I donno but for some reason I am not to worried..Lets see....I have started putting down my preconceptions of a place before I get there so I can look back on them and see what an ignorant fool I was....preconceptions of japan..... raw fish-lots of raw fish, mini sized cars, hotels, everything, polite, small and unemotional people-lots of em, shy girls, dragons, obsession with hygiene, big paper fans, sumo wrestlers, clones of business men in suits, bath houses, weird animation and violent martial arts flicks.....so that's what I know of Japan....The next post will come from Japan and will hopefully be slightly more enlightened. Until next time.....