The Beginning

Brisbane, Australia
Greetings everyone and welcome to An Australian Scholar In Japan!

From the get-go, I feel morally obliged to tell you that this is NOT an official JAL or JAL Foundation Blog. I don't want to get anyone (including me!) sued for defamation or somesuch because I went off on a drunken tangent.

What this blog is intended for, and should be taken in the context of, is to keep updated anyone and everyone who is interested in what we get up to in Japan while we're over there. Obviously we're going to be doing certain things that aren't approved by JAL (no one's perfect!) so I'll figure out a way to report on those happenings without getting my ass kicked by anyone in power.

So Katelyn, Monica, and I (I'm Adam. Cool name. Cool guy. Winning combo!) are off to Japan on July 4 to shack up in the land of the rising sun for around 22 days. We'll be experiencing so much culture and enriching our views of the world that it'll just get to ludicrous stages of knowledge.

I'm sure that my compatriots (travel mates? Study buddies?) will agree with me when first we thank the other participants down in Sydney on April 19. I can honestly say that I have never before clicked with a group of people so quickly, so for that experience alone I thank you. We all challenged each other and made ourselves better people for spending those few hours together, and I hope that this blog will keep you updated on the things you can expect next year when you enter the scholarship competition and are selected as our worthy successors! ;)

We'd also like to thank JAL and the JAL Foundation for offering us this opportunity, and I'm severely excited about the journey even three months out! I'm just gonna be a bundle of fun and mentos come July. Pity help Katelyn and Monica!

To the crew at the JAL offices at Sydney, thanks for the well-organised day and for flying us Mexicans down to Sydney. Muchly appreciated, and you're definitely getting some good PR from me!

To the judges who came along to check us all out, thank you. The personal interview was the highlight of my day; never before have I been challenged to question and explain my attitudes and opinions in such a thorough manner. I wanna do it again!

And finally, I'd personally like to thank Mentos: The Fresh Maker!, because without them my day and everyone else's wouldn't have been quite as exciting. Ya'll know what I mean!

The blog will be updated more as the time comes closer. We have some other studies to focus on currently, but here's hoping July arrives faster than any of us could ever expect. I have three months to learn passable Japanese...lil bit of help? Anyone?

Hope to hear from you all soon, the email is fwinky@hotmail.com and let me know what you reckon of the blog. Perhaps I could whip up a link to everyone's essays so we have a collection of awesomeness on the interwebs? Or perhaps post them here as some reading material?

UPDATE 25/04/07:
So the essays have been coming in, and I've added them as seperate posts. To set the scene, check out the JAL Scholarship Website. A summary of what the essays should cover is this:

[students should write an] essay in English, of 800 words or less, on an issue that engages them and which has implications for the future for either their locality or the global community.

The essay should include an overview of the issue - including the cause, what effects it will have on humanity and society in the future, and possible solutions or resolutions.

And with that broad beginning, you'll see the following ten essays that cover completely different topics, from new media to global governance, from childhood obesity to global poverty and beyond. Enjoy!