Calvin's Pre-trip Perspective

Calvin, Age 12

What are you looking forward to on the cruise?

The food and the shows and doing all the activities.

What are you looking forward to in Japan?

Walking around, seeing everything, some of the food, and going to see Nintendo things.

What are you nervous about?

The weather in Japan. They have a lot of earthquakes and tidal waves.

What do you think about Japanese food?

I like rice balls and I want to try takoyaki [fried octopus] and the super cheap vending machine foods. They have heaters inside them so they can have pre-heated food.

Why are we going to Japan?

Because my mom and dad have wanted to go there for a long time, and there was a good deal on a cruise to get there, so they booked it.

What are some Japanese words/phrases you already know?

Watashi wa karubin desu / My name is Calvin.

Can you read in Japanese yet?

Yes I can read Hiragana (ひらがな) and Katakana (カタカナ) but not Kanji (漢字). 

Hiragana and katakana are more like letters but kanji has a specific thing for every individual noun like instead of writing tree with t-r-e-e it is just one thing like spelling tree t.

What makes Japanese difficult?

If you translate a sentence from English to Japanese it will be backwards like if I say "Hi, my name is Calvin," it would be "Calvin, hi my name is."

How do you think you will be different when you come back to America?

I will have been to another continent and whenever I talk to a Japanese person I try to talk clearer and slower so they can understand me so I'll have to get used to talking faster again.