What will it be?

I've been studying Japanese for two years now, but I still don't know what I should expect of daily life in Japan. During my study, I've realized that it's useless to maintain the attitude of surprise and awe, fitting the foreigner who's interested in Japan on a base of exotism. I also started my study because I thought Japan was so different from what I was used to, and I was facinated by all those unkown phenomena, but now I want to go beyond that surface and see Japan through its own eyes. In essence, there's not that much difference between Japanese or Dutch people - just the conditioning is different (the surroundings where they live in and the things they learn). To me, it seems too superficial to just focus on this difference of conditioning instead of trying to find out what it means to live in Japan as a human being. Accordingly, it would be too easy to keep looking at Japanese culture as an exotic phenomenon instead of looking at it unprejudiced. It's like determining the essential characteristics of something, of das Ding an sich. What remains of Japanese culture if you leave away the blinding colours, the deafening sounds, the intoxicating smells and the tastes that leave you craving? (What is culture anyway?) I hope to touch the true core of Japan or at least Tokyo during my stay, but I wonder if it's possible at all. However, I'm sure I have a better chance to succeed while living there than if I would stay in the Netherlands and keep looking at it from such a distance. It's probably not possible to describe such an etheric subject, so I won't learn it from books and I won't be able to tell about it myself, but I'll try to describe the experiences I have on my exploration through Japanese life.

Three days before take-off it seems like nothing ever changes. After preparing for my stay in Japan the past year, I still don't fully realize that I'll change Holland for Japan in a few days. I already left my student's house in Leiden yesterday, after celebrating my last night there in The Hague. (Thanks to everyone who joined me there, you really made it a joyfull night!) However, here at my parents place everything's still the same old same way and seems to remain like that forever, but for me a big change is about to happen. Now let's wait and see.