some help please

okay i'm traveling to japan for a school trip and i need to say some sentences to say stuff about me while im there. Now i don't know much japanese (ironic i know) but i need to be able to say:"I am seventeen. I am from ______ and i like art and music."
any help would be really nice. Thanks in Advance

A few ideas.

You might try a local book store for an inexpensive Japanese phrase book. Also check your local library, they may have some info for free to take out. It might be worth checking if any of the colleges in your area have a Japanese exchange student you could work a deal with. Chances are , you will have people on the trip with you to help with translations. In the bigger cities you will run into Japanese who can either speak or read English who will help you. Don't get stressed out about the language thing, you will have a wonderful time there. Make sure you take lots of pictures!

Uncle Frank

ok i will try out those suggestions...thanks a lot and i plan on taking many, many, many pics

People here are really nice.

I'm sure more people will have ideas. If you have a mic & headphones, you might be able to get someone to help you on SKYPE so you can hear how Japanese sounds. Up at the top of the page, there is a section called "LANGUAGE" between CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT that might help. If you are interested, under CLASSIFIEDS, there is a section you can ask for a penpal. Maybe some of our members can post websites where you can listen to some Japanese.Check in for the next day or two and you probably will get more help than you need. Good luck!

Uncle Frank

Those are basic things that can be found anywhere on the internet.
Otherwise as Uncle Frank suggested, the Lonely planet has a pretty useful phrasebook (ISBN: 9781741042313) for about 8-10$ that teaches you a variety of sentences from many topics such as: restaurant, accomodation, romance, hobbies, etc.