Bridge to Japan

After a brief three year hiatus I felt the urge to dust off the travel blog and continue documenting my adventures and sharing my experiences.  Its not that my recent past has been mundane, in fact, the opposite is true.  In the intervening years since my last post from my exchange in Slovenia I have had the opportunity to jet off to far flung places and carry on in my ambition to see the world.  It was partly because of these not infrequent travels that made the decision to pursue a Masters degree in International Affairs come with mixed emotions.  Of course it was a necessary and exciting step towards my dream job, but it meant that time and money would have to be further diverted from my other aspirations.

So when I learned of an opportunity to travel to Japan and represent my school, on their dime, I did not have to think twice.  There was such lack of oversight in this decision that I didn't even stop to think that the trip coincided with the end of the semester; the most hectic point where even at the best of times I would have been spending countless hours in the library.  But although meeting deadlines has been a greater challenge, twenty years from now I'm not likely to remember anything about those essays I wrote.  A week in Japan on the other hand, well that's a different story.

Tomorrow I set off to Tokyo with a group of 19 others.  Ten of us from Carleton, ten from the University of Ottawa who are all graduate students in international affairs.  The trip is called the Kakehashi Project, meaning "bridge" in Japanese.  The stated goals are to promote mutual trust and understanding between the people of Japan and Canada, and to showcase Japan as a destination for travel, study, and work.  Part of the focus will be to gain an understanding of the current North Korean nuclear crisis from the perspective of Japanese people; a unique viewpoint no doubt.

Needless to say, I am excited to learn about a new place and its people and to get to know my fellow travellers, but i'm also looking forward to good sushi and to living life on the road, even if just for a while.

 My aim is to post regularly over the next ten days or so and I hope you will enjoy following along.