As my loyal readers (all three of you) may recall, several months ago I wrote about my application for a Monbusho Research Scholarship to study in Japan [Link to that entry]. Hoping that the Monbusho would become a big part of my life and that I’d eventually write numerous entries about it, I even gave “Monbusho Scholarship” its own blog category, as you can see to the left of this entry.

For months one lone entry inhibited the “Monbusho” category, because for months I knew nothing new to report. The application process was long and there seemed to be no end in sight. But just this week, I received final confirmation that my bid for a Monbusho Scholarship was successful! Yippie!

I’ll be leaving for Japan in April, for a period of two years. I’ll be living in Tokushima City, studying at Shikoku University. This is an incredible opportunity, and I can’t say how thrilled I am to have been selected.

As I mentioned in the first entry about the Monbusho Scholarship, I intend to write in detail about the application process and my approach to it, in the hopes that such an account might be useful to future applicants. But it’ll probably be at least a couple months or so before I get to that, so interested parties should check back later this year for that.

So now I gotta start getting ready to go to Japan–I’ve only got six weeks to get everything in order. Yikes!

In other news, I’ve just recently gotten copies of Tonoharu: Part One in. An entry about that, as well as details on how to purchase it, will come next week.