Well... it was quite a while ago since I wrote my very first post, wasn't it! Oh dear. Hopefully this isn't the beginning of a trend! I'm pretty bad (or good?) when it comes to procrastination...
I also noticed how boring my title/name of blog is! Oh well, I'm not a very creative person, and it explains itself quite well I think. If anyone can think of anything more exciting, yet not over the top, I'll consider changing it.
Anyway, a lot has happened since March, obviously! I was awarded the scholarship that I'd hoped for (£400 a month!), passed all my exams, finished my second year and various other stuff in between. I also greatly enjoyed my month in Japan, although it was quite a while ago now so I'm not so clear on any particular order of events, and so won't bore you trying to remember. Anyway, I have now got pretty much everything that needs to be done, done! Visa, flight, money etc. Now that's all that's left is to get there!
I arrive on the 11th September, at 6pm. I move into my apartment, what the Japanese call a 'mansion' - basically a block of apartments, nothing fancy at all, unfortunately - the following day. To live in Shibata Mansion costs me about £300 a month (￥60,000), although Seijo reimburse me half that, luckily. I can also choose which apartment I stay in, as I'll be the first of all exchange students to arrive! ...Not that there's many. In fact, Seijo has a whopping total of 8 foreign exchange students this year.
There will also be students of other universities nearby living in Shibata Mansion, including Japanese students, and there are 100 apartments altogether. I consider myself quite lucky that I won't be living in dormitories, as is usually the case for exchange students at Japanese universities. For example, one university (Yokohama), where I was originally going to go, doesn't allow visitors inside the dorms. There are ways around this of course, it just makes it easier when the restriction isn't there in the first place. Another is ICU, where they apparently have a 10pm curfew?! No thanks!
The day after moving in I'll be going to Seijo University to enroll, and whatever else it is they want me to do (not really sure, to be honest!). I have quite a few things I need to do in general, though, which include: getting my alien registration card, opening a bank account, signing up with Japan's National Health Insurance, and buying an electronic dictionary and a new camera. I also plan to get my hair chemically straightened in Japan, as it's a big frizzy, wavy mess unless I attack it with a hair straightener every day. Hopefully I'll come out of the salon with a full head of hair...! As you can see, I have a lot planned, so at least I should have stuff to do until classes start on the 24th September. Plus from the day I arrive I have plans for the next couple of days to meet up with Japanese friends/fellow classmates! So it should be loads of fun, if not a bit busy/hectic!
Hopefully I'll keep up with this blog, for interest (if any!) of others, and for myself, to keep a record of the amazing experience that living and studying in Japan for a year will hopefully be! I'll post photos every now and again too, if there are particular ones I think might be interesting. Although I'll be posting the majority on Facebook anyway, of course!
Well, I think that's about it for now. The next post should be within a few days, once I've arrived in Tokyo. I don't know whether my apartment will have functioning internet straight away, or if I have to sort it out myself, but hopefully I'll be using the internet in no time!
Ciao.
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2 comments:
Hello, this is Alice from the year above you... I was just going to say that in my dorms in Okinawa there was no curfew, but men were not allowed past the BIG BARBED-WIRE FENCE... Japan is mental. Good luck over there!
Well, I'm looking forward toward you coming to JAPAN the land of TOJO :p
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