a month until japan

I only have a month left in Oberlin before I head to Japan.
It's pretty confusing, I don't really know how to feel about it. I'm nervous. I've never been away from home for that long and I've never traveled alone. I am also excited.
Soon I'll be talking in Japanese, eating a lot of sushi, sleeping with the best pillows on earth, smelling tatami mats, eating mikan, drinking Qoo apple juice and riding on shinkansen. Not to mention visiting my family and friends.

The part that worries me the most right now is buying a train ticket and using it. Since America has hardly any public transportation, I'm not used to the system. Going to big cities like NYC would be good practice, but hopefully I can quickly adjust to the intense, bustling train stations.

I'm not yet concerned about what I'm going to do. Mom and Michael will be going with me to Japan for a couple weeks. They are doing their own trip but we will be visiting family together at first. Right after that I will go to my first WWOOF farm for a couple weeks. We will just see what happens after that!

I've heard mostly good things about taking gap years to go abroad, that those who do come back are more focussed and dedicated to school. Other people say that gap years are bad because people get a taste of freedom and never want to go back. I'm already excited to return to Oberlin College, I have my heart set on cinema studies.