What are you looking forward to on the cruise?
I'm looking forward to all the free time I'll get! We'll be at ports for 5 days and completely at sea for the other 11, and we also gain an extra 8 hours for going west a lot! I'll have fun eating at the Windjammer buffet, hanging out with new friends and watching shows at the theater, but I'm also hoping I can use a good chunk of my time to read and memorize more of the Bible.
What are you looking forward to in Japan?
Going to all the Nintendo places that aren't in America! I like Nintendo video games a lot, and I've only been to one official Nintendo store in the US (and there's only one other one.) But Japan has several Nintendo stores, Pokemon centers, a theme park, a museum and more! I'm most excited for the giant controllers in the Nintendo museum, where you might need more than one person to hit all the buttons!
What are you nervous about?
Mostly just being somewhere where most people around don't speak my language. I also hope I can make some good friends at our bilingual church.
What do you think about Japanese food?
I like ramen and onigiri, but not sushi, so I hope I find some more food I like while we're there. But if all else fails, there's American restaurants there!
Can you read in Japanese yet?
I can read all the hiragana, so I can read a word and say it, but I don't know a lot of kanji or what most words mean.
What makes Japanese difficult?
Lots of the letters look similar to each other, many of the Kanji have 6 lines or more, and there's no spaces between letters, likeifyouwerewritinglikethis.
How do you think you will be different when you come back to America?
I'll be heavier (with over 16 days of cruise buffet), but other than that I guess I'll have to find out! It'll definitely be interesting living over a third of Earth's diameter away from home, and I hope I learn things I won't forget!
