Introduction

     Hello everyone! As seen on the left or as known by, hopefully, almost everyone reading this, I am Gregory Weaver, a 20-year old male residing in Virginia Beach, VA during real life-time, and in Charlottesville, VA attending the University of Virginia on college-time. I have created this blog to chart my adventures during my study abroad time in Tokyo, Japan. From April 1st to July 31st I will be attending Sophia University which, as you can see on the map, is surrounded by a lot of city and a lot of Japanese.


     At Sophia I will be participating in an intensive language study and will be enrolled in one or two other classes, but that's all for the course load, thankfully. Many of my main goals divert away from immensely improving my Japanese skills. Since this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I intend to milk Japan of everything I can so that I can not only immerse myself in the language, but also in the culture.


     Some of you may know that I'm not doing a homestay and that I actually shied away from doing such, but may be confused by that paired with the last sentence. My experiences in Japan so far have already lead me to do two homestays, both of which I absolutely loved and would love to do again. But, I decided this time that I wanted to be free of any constraints that may befall upon me through homestays, such as the feeling of commitment to being with my host family whenever I'm out of class. I'm the type of person that would feel very anxious if I felt that I was taking too much personal time out of the trip instead of being with my host family, so I wanted to live elsewhere. This way, I can experience everything on my own watch.


     A handful of other students that are participating in the program and I will be living in a place called The DK House, which in all likelihood stands for The "Donkey Kong" House (how sweet is that!?!?). As a side note, beware that website link... the pictures may look pretty, but the text is all over the place... you'll understand while my friends and I don't REALLY know what's in store for us there. Anyway, this place will be super exciting for a reason that I didn't originally anticipate actually really being exciting, and that is, I don't have a meal plan and have to force myself to learn to cook! When first hearing of the DK House I was really turned off by this idea because I'd have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen stressing over figuring out what I need to buy for my meals, how to make them, and, more importantly, how to read food labels. In fact, I'm still a little worried about me accidentally stumbling upon nuts in my food... but worry not! I've never had a problem in the past, and I'll be carrying PLENTY of EpiPens around with me.


     Aside from the cooking challenge, Tokyo also presents to me the idea that I will be living in one of the most populous cities on Earth according to two out of three ways of figuring such a claim (check out this and this for cites). Normally I would say that I could never find myself settling down in a large city for long periods of time, but through this trip I really want to test that idea. It's not that I think that my feelings on the matter will change drastically on this matter, but living in such a city will be an experience like none other--one that living in suburban areas will definitely not provide.


     To finish up this long post, I will present a goal that inspired the title of the blog moreso than my regular use of the sax pun: I intend to divulge deep into a study of Japan's music, more specifically, but not limited to, jazz, scene. From the first week or so I will set out on a quest to first get up with a student group in Tokyo to play and essentially observe any differences in the way that they react to jazz while playing and while not. I also plan to do this with the general population, conferring with the Japanese populace within and outside of jazz clubs, and even with my peers. This way I can interview those of all age groups and backgrounds and get a plethora of useful information. I think that playing over there will be extremely exciting, and to be able to look under the surface of the idea that "Japan really digs jazz" will be even more so.



     The trip is still a ways off, but stick with the blog! I will be providing helpful information on pre-departure woes and experiences from time to time, as well as information from my home experiences that will allow those participating in Jeanette's blog project, you random blog-reading internet folk, and the people that just don't know that much about what I'm doing right now get to know my current self a little better before you start reading all about me in Japan.


Until next time...!