Nooo! Not Needles!!!!

I'm scheduled to get vaccinations next week and I'm freaking out over it. Why am I getting vaccinations? The reason is because I'll be moving to Japan with my husband for 3 years! x3 I have to get the JEV vaccination, which seems to be mandatory. There's no way around it, I can't skip out of it like I did with my flu shot last year... (horrible, I know... I really don't advise people to skip out on their shots). But, I'm so excited and I can't wait to go, so I don't mind having to suck it up for this opportunity. :P It will all be worth it in the end. :3

I've always wanted to go to Japan, as I have family there (not family I'm extremely close to, but family nonetheless) and I just really love learning about different cultures and I have always wanted to travel and see how people from different parts of the world live, but I never thought I would actually get the chance to actually experience something like this. It's like a dream!  I've lived in California all my life and have never ventured outside of it. Still, even though I am really happy and feel so lucky to be able  to finally travel somewhere and stay there for awhile, part of me can't help but feel nervous.

California has always been my home and has become something like a security blanket to me, and parting from it for so long seems crazy, especially since it also means being so far away from my mother, whom I have a very tight bond with. I've grown so accustomed to my life here. Everything here is familiar to me... It's what I'm used to. It's kind of scary going to a place that I know so little about, which in a way is sad since I should know more about the place where part of my family heritage lies. I've been working hard though to learn more about Japanese customs and etiquette... Speaking of learning, I feel so much pressure to try to learn the Japanese language and to memorize each character in their writing system (well, more like systems, since there are 3 different scripts). I've only managed to memorize a handful of the hiragana symbols so far.... I feel like I'm a child all over again trying to learn the alphabet. @_@ What makes it worse is that we have to leave for Japan in July, so I have only 3 months to learn as much as I can.

I hope that I'm just worrying too much and stressing for nothing. Maybe I don't have to rush myself or push myself so hard. In fact, it may be better for me to take my time. Who knows? Maybe living there will be the best way for me to pick up the language and culture than looking at flash card after flash card and trying to learn random phrases here and there or trying to google everything. I need to remain positive!