The Land of the Rising Sun

I should probably start somewhere near the beginning. I am currently an A-level student, although in a matter of weeks that will no longer be true. After I finish my exams at the end of June I will be taking a year out before embarking on a gruelling five-year course studying Medicine at the University of Manchester. I thought I deserved a break after fourteen years of education, so I decided to go Japan. I got in touch with Gap Activity Projects and, to cut a long story short, they have organised a six-month placement for me volunteering in a hospital in Nagasaki. I will be sleeping, eating and working within walking distance of the Red Cross Nagasaki Genbaku Hospital from the 7th September 2007 to the 7th March 2008. I still don't have all of the details on my placement – that will be sorted out in due time – but one thing I do know is that I will not be alone. A girl called Hye will be with me. I haven't met her yet - she lives in Canada, I live in England – but it will definitely be nice to have someone in the same boat as me.

There will be plenty of time for me to explain everything, like why I chose to go to Japan for instance, but for now I'll leave you with this: One of the A-level subjects I have almost finished studying is Modern History and I can honestly say that I enjoy it greatly, despite being a scientist at heart. I know what you're thinking – how boring, right? Hey, even I think 'modern history' sounds boring at first, but when you start looking at the way people lived and in what circumstances, it's humbling to discover what people can survive. Anyway, the reason I bring it up is that Nagasaki has a rather noteworthy history. I was slightly overwhelmed when I found out that I would be living there for half a year, and in a building in which 1,400 people died in the bomb blast back in 1945. But this in fact is the perfect place for me to spend my year out. I'll have science, medicine and history all in one city.