Japan?

I received good news last week. I got accepted into the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program, which means that I will be going somewhere in Japan in August for at least 1 year. For those that don't know, the JET program is a really good program to be a part of. The program has a good reputation (has been running for 20years) and is organised by the government of Japan and their embassies/consulates in other countries to get 'young' people (under 40y/o) to live in Japan and promote 'internationalisation' in Japan. They run the application process once a year and the process is not easy and is rather long and tedious - submit written application by December, notification of interviews in January, interviews in February, notification of acceptance/rejection in April, notification of placements in May/June and fly off to Japan in August).

I'm really excited that I got in, because this is despite the fact that I have little background in Japanese language/history/culture. Rob and I started learning Japanese last year and I'm really enjoying it. I'm serious! For some reason I really enjoy learning languages. I really should continue with French and Mandarin..

Anyway, obviously there are lots to organise between now and August (like what to do with all our stuff?). And although 95% of me is really excited about living in Japan, the other 5% is a little apprehensive about leaving friends and family and living in a different country (main concern at the moment is the availability of food - yes, always thinking about my tummy, as one of my friends pointed out - we get so much variety to choose from in Australia, what about Japan?). But I've been itching to do something like this for a few years now, and this is an opportunity far too good to pass up. I won't know where in Japan I'll be placed until May/June, and I'm really hoping that I won't get some rural village..

In the meantime, I'll be treasuring what little time I have with my friends and family from now til my departure in August. Oh, and I'm also gonna take opportunity of the variety of food available here and try as many different recipes as I can and go to as many different restaurants as we can afford.

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Updated to add: Apparently there were 60+ JET applicants that were interviewed in Perth, and only 30 who got short-listed and approximately another 30 who are placed on the alternate list (alternates are those that are on the 'waiting list' to take the place of those that drop out from the shortlist). Knowing this, I feel so thankful that I was chosen as one of the 50% interviewees who got on the shortlist.