Wednesday, May 20, 2009

It's Official: Kanazawa, Japan

Yup, I just checked my email and the district chair for my Rotary district's exchange program sent an email my way with a file attached that (FINALLY!) gave me a bunch of info from Japan.

My official home away from home will be KANAZAWA, JAPAN!


The basic info from Wikipedia:

Kanazawa sits on the Sea of Japan, bordered by the Japan Alps, Hakusan National Park and Noto Peninsula National Park. The city sits between the Sai and Asano rivers. Its total area is 467.77 km².

There's a LOT of info on it. Basically it was one of the few major cities that was spared of bombing in WW2 so there's a lot of old architecture preserved and it looks BEAUTIFUL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanazawa,_Ishikawa <- go there if you want to read more Also, as of right now it looks like I'll probably be flying out August 21st so that's when this blog will (FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY) kick off into an EXCHANGE blog. The email also told me a few other things:

1. The trip costs are only around $250-260ish! It's especially awesome because Rotary over there pays for the other two thirds of the cost (yup, it's actually $750ish)

2. I'll get a monthly allowance of 15000 yen. (~$180 CDN) That's quite nice for an allowance (I don't spend lots of money so yeah...)

3. My first host family will be the Sugano family. No email was given :( It didn't mention any children but there was no space marked for children on the page anyways so I'll have to wait and see.

4. It had my Japan Rotary counsellor's info as well.

I'll update as I learn more :)


5 comments:

Resa said...

That's great! It's sorta weird they didn't give more info on your host family though... Did you try sending an email to your district chair in Japan? He/She could probably give you info. (Your councilor could probably help, too).

You lucky guy!!! 15000 a month?! And trips only cost $250? I get 10000 a month and my trips are 100000 yen. They pay for my RIDICULOUSLY high school tuition, though ^^

I just got in contact with my first host family. They seem sooo awesome!!!

You're leaving on the 21st? Me too! What airport are you supposed to fly to before Narita?

Bytheby, I'm Teresa from facebook ^^

Jared Stryker said...

Ah ok I was wondering who this was. The probable reason is that my district here has a 2 day info session this weekend and that's usually when they give everyone more info about everything (incl. host families).

I'm not sure about airports and stuff, I haven't booked the flight yet but it's pretty much guaranteed I'll be flying out that day unless something comes up. I'll fly out from an int'l airport in Toronto though.

colettemasu said...

Kanazawa is so beautiful! I think you will really like it there. Your Rotary allowance is A LOT! lucky

emmaelizabeth said...

yayyyyyyy
you will have SUCH a great time
and i am willing to bet you will spend your money.
but thats okay - experiences are worth it

love yaa <3

Unknown said...

You will love it there. The closest I got to Kanazawa is Kyoto, also an old capital that was spared damage in the war. We flew AC 1 direct from Toronto to the Narita airport. The trains in that country are amazing! The day we flew home, we were in Kyoto and took the Shinkansen bullet train to Tokyo Station and then the Narita express to the airport. Our train left at 10:22 from Kyoto and we were at the airport 600 km away at 2 in lots of time for our flight. Have fun!