Welcome to Gaia! ::

Have fun! It's a good idea to brush up/learn some Kansai dialect before you go. It should be helpful.

As for me, I'm just staying home and digging into a large pile of Japanese novels which has been just calling for me to read it, before Summer courses start.

Now that you mentioned it, the way you phrased that last sentence reminded me, I read a really good novel, that wasn't too hard called きみにしか聞こえない―CALLING YOU by 乙一（おついち） who has become one of my favorite authors. It's a book of short stories that are really good, and each has something supernatural about it.
The first, and title story is about a girl who really wants a cellphone, and one day she finds a cellphone which only see can see. All the stories are really about life, and how it effects people.

If you want something with full furigana, 獣の奏者 is really good too, it's about a girl who lives in a village where they raise dragons as war beasts.

I linked to the Amazon JP page with a preview of the book. It has more furigana than most books, but it's still less than you would see in a lot of manga. Oh yeah, one piece of advice: never order anything from Amazon JP while not living in Japan, the shipping terrible. Try Kinokuniya US or Yesasia.

I'm a casual fan of light novels. xp
Light novels can vary a lot, just like regular fiction, there are ones that are practicably glorified dialogue (Zero no Tsukaima, Shinigami no Ballad, etc) , and ones that are harder than a lot of non-light novels (Ookami to Koushinryou, etc), mainly the thing separating light novels and non-light novels, is that light novels are published under a light novel publishing label.
They usually have anime-style illustrations, but not always, and some are really focused on dialogue, but not all, and some ones that sell well come out with a non-light novel version (Twelve Kingdoms) which has all the same text, just no illustrations...
The one thing that might make light novels a bit easier to read, is the use of partial furigana , but most lit oriented toward young adults have that as well. A book's difficulty can be greatly determined by the amount of furigana.

One of the books I mentioned, Calling You, is a light novel. Another light novel I'm a huge fan of, though this is a series,
is キノの旅.
It's about a traveler and a talking motorcycle who travel from place to place, exploring the people and cultures of each place. It's one of those dark, thought-provoking series that always leaves me thinking, often zoning out at the nearest wall. xd
It's probably one of my favorite book series, in any language, and it's not too hard. It's mainly ab out the ways that people live, and the beautiful and not so beautiful parts of life.
I saw the (really well done) anime and wanted more, so I started on the novels. Also, the illustrations are really beautiful.

I haven't read them myself yet, but I've heard the Haruhi books are one of the harder light novels, mostly because of Kyon's rambling narration. I'd wait until you've read a few other light novels before trying Haruhi.

You're lucky you have a Kinokuniya somewhat near you! There's only one on the east coast, in NYC.

In your exchange program, do the participants go to a Japanese school while there, or wander about the town? Or is there some cultural program they go to or something?

Yeah, I got so into the series I decided to make a sig tribute to it. whee
I only listen to Japanese music, so I don't know much about the latest US pop music anymore, but I think my sister played a song by Owl City called "Fireflies" once, and I thought it was pretty. ^-^

Yeah, there's one in Seattle, one in Portland, three in California, and the NYC one. I shop on the Kinokuniya website regularly, and under all the items are the stores they're in, and it's best to get all items in the online shopping cart from the same store to pay less on shipping, so I kind of memorized the stores. For some reason most of the things I want always seem to be in the L.A or Costa Mesa stores. NYC is the closest to me, but they never have everything I want, so I never end up ordering from them. sweatdrop I love the East Coast because I've grown up here, but the West coast just seems to have more Japanese stuff...Someday I want to visit Japantown in CA.

I'm sure you'll have a great time! Have you contacted the family yet? If so, what are they like? Oh yeah, if it's awkward to ask to use your host family's internet (internet can be expensive there, like everything else), look for net/manga cafes (usually net cafes are also manga cafes, there are cheaper ways to read manga though). They're all over. They can be kind of pricey (but so is Japan), but some are reasonable.

I'm a bookworm, so I never get tired of reading. xd But I'll also be learning more Japanese, and reading manga/watching anime and such. When college is in session I rarely have time for hobbies, so this is like paradise for me. heart

I don't really watch English TV anymore, for immersion's sake, so I don't know much about what Glee is, (I think my little sister, who's much more into American pop culture than I am, said it was a show that did covers of songs, or something, but beyond that, I don't know anything about it). Pretty much soon after I meet anyone I explain about my language immersion, or else sit there nodding, pretending to understand (and hide my confused expression) when they make jokes referencing pop culture ("Lady Gaga", "Justin Bieber" (sp?), "Mad Men", "Rebecca Black", "Jersey Shore", etc.
It's like some people only know how to make jokes using pop culture, and when they figure out that all the above terms are pretty meaningless to me, they don't know what to joke about. sweatdrop Though I didn't watch much TV even before language immersion...I think most of the international students at my college have watched more American TV than me. I guess I've always been more like an "international student" in my complete lack of interest in American pop culture. Becoming fully bilingual is more important to me.) so I don't think I could even try to judge you for liking a show I'm not familiar with...All passionate fandom is awesome anyway, IMO, even when I don't personally like a show, it's great to see people so enthusiastic about something. ^-^

"Alligator Sky" sounds pretty! I can't play it because of my self-imposed English music ban, but it's good to know there's still some good English pop music coming out.
You know, one of things I never thought I would end up liking when I started learning Japanese was Japanese rap. It's completely different (and better) from American rap, Japanese rap is mostly "happy rap" or "feeling isolated" rap, is always G-rated, and while I still don't listen to "just rap" songs, to my surprise,
I became a fan of a few "rapper + singer" songs & artists...It's weird the things you start liking in another language, yet can't stand in your own.

You like history too? What's your favorite historical time period? I grew up in the Boston area, visited New York a lot, and currently live near DC.
Boston's amazing for all the history and culture.
I love colonial history, so Boston's one of my favorite cities, and I'll always consider myself a Bostonian. There's also a small "Japantown" area in one building called the Porter Exchange, but I think most of the big shops have gone out of business since I went. I love NYC for all the museums. I'm a bit of a museum geek, so it's amazing how many museums it has, and of course, the only Japanese major bookstore on the East Coast.^-^ Pretty much, NYC has a bit of everything.
You can't stop and look at the historical buildings (the ones you can spot under all the flashing lights) without getting pushed by the crowd there though. I'm new to DC, but the fact that most museums are free blows my mind. Most old buildings there look like they were done in the style of the Capitol Building, and the only Japanese thing there is the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, which I have yet to go to...I heard it's very, very crowded though.
It's a walking city, like Boston, but it also has a great public transit system, like Boston.

I've been to California to see Disneyland two times, one when I was a baby, and one when I was about 10. Most of what I remember of California itself (and not Disneyland) was all the palm trees, and a lot of heat. I went to Phoenix, AZ once on vacation,
and I could count the time I stopped in California on the way to Japan, but all I saw was the airport...
I'd love to see Washington state sometime too...I had a penpal (as in the pen & paper kind) who lived there, and sent really pretty photos. Not that the East Coast doesn't have nature, I lived in a house near Boston with a forest in the backyard, and deer, foxes, turkeys and hawks would visit often. Once I even saw bear tracks.
But Washington State has mountains, which are exotic for me (I saw mountains in Japan, once even mistook one for Mount. Fuji, much to the amusement of some Japanese people, but they are still pretty exotic for me). Though I heard the West Coast doesn't have as many fireflies, which are one of my favorite animals to watch. xp

That's awesome! I'm sure your host sister can teach you all the latest slang, and take you out to do purikura and stuff. Sounds like you'll have fun together. ^-^ Have you been writing in Japanese, or do they speak English?

Yeah, I love Harry Potter too. heart I haven't reread the books, though I did start reading them in Japanese at one point, but switched to other novels where I didn't know the story, I'll pick them up again someday.
I'll probably go to watch the last movie before my Summer courses start, but I wasn't impressed with the last one. I thought it tried to be too "epic"...
I hope the next one is better. I started getting into the series round when the first four books were out, and the early teaser trailers for the first movie were out, so the books were a big part of my life, and to a lesser extent, the movies were too, so I'll be kind of sad to see the movies end, unless they really screw this movie up, then I might be glad. Don't worry too much about missing the premiere, you might be able to see the movie in Japan! Movies are kind of expensive there, but you can get all sorts of extras like guidebooks for the movie and such. What's your favorite Hogwarts house? ^^

I'm saving money to go to Germany this summer.
Since it isn't overseas for me I can do it for fairly cheap. I also know some people in different cities who have offered me their sofa.

It's mostly for fun, but also my best friend in the world is getting married in Berlin and moving there for good with her fiance and I want to be one of her two witnesses. ^_^

I'll be practising German of course but that's not the main goal of this. smile

I live in Asia, Israel to be exact. Still not overseas for me, it's only about 3-4 hours of flight depending on the weather.
I feel the same about the Americas. smile