An Exchange Student in Japan: Blog.

Hi there.

I'm Ashley, and as of March 2012, I'll be an exchange student in Japan. This blog is for my family, friends, co-workers, teachers, managers, whatever, to read while I'm gone to Japan, and also for anyone searching for everything they can on Japan and exchange students(because I know there's a lot of you.)

I'm going with a program called ASSE. It's been a bumpy road along the way. To summarize, I applied with an initial application in late December, and in January I received my full application in the mail. After about a month or so of running around getting letters, signatures, pictures, making a collage, writing a letter to my host family, and getting a physical, I was finally able to send the full application to ASSE in February. (I want to say around the 16th.)

In March, I was afraid that I wouldn't be accepted to go to Japan, because of everything that was going on there. My worst nightmare came. I called ASSE around... April when I hadn't heard from them for a while, with some questions I had been wondering, when Grace, the girl at the head office, said they were not running their Japan program any longer. I was completely devastated, and quickly started searching for another program that still had Japan.

I found one, and just as I did, I received and e-mail from ASSE saying their Japan program in March of 2012 is still going. I was ecstatic!
In June, my acceptance letter came in the mail, and it was set in stone that I was headed for the land of the rising sun in March of 2012.

Since then, not much with the exchange has happened. Last week or so I received some information letters about the exchange, an information letter guide and a country fact sheet about Japan.

And here I am, with only six months left to go until I leave. I'm super excited, super nervous, super everything you can think of.


Well, thanks for reading!!

-ashley.