Has been pretty straightforward so far. :P
Like last week, again, mostly orientations and getting to know things, along with placing for classes, and doing our whole entrance ceremony thing. The ceremony itself was mostly me being able to understand maybe half of what was being said, but it ended up being pretty much all the same thing, so, at least the language barrier hasn't been too bad.
Classes started up this week, or at least half of the ones I'm in (two of them don't start until next week, which is pretty nice). I didn't do so well on the placement test, so I ended up placing in a level of Japanese that's kind of easy for me. If I really wanted to, I could take the placement test again, but, honestly, I'm not going to, and, frankly, if it just ends up being that the class is on the easy side, well, I'm fine with that. (Yes, I am horrible.) Japanese Pop Culture is going to be interesting, because this is pretty much exactly what I'm looking to do with my anthropological career, so hopefully this gives me a framework to be able to do the Honors Project in, and an eventual graduate career in.
The other two classes, we'll see how they go when they start. :P
So, my main adventure this week has been going into Akihabara a few times. It is just as insane as you think it is. There are lots of multi-level stores packed really close together, lots of people traveling about crammed together on the streets, and lots of people hawking either their store, or their maid cafes. (Yes. There are as many maids as you hear about. :P) Also, if you're looking for something specific, I very highly recommend going to multiple stores - there are a lot of stores that do have the same things, but at VERY different prices, and you can find a lot of good bargains that way (see - me finding unassembled FF Tactics Trading Arts and Sailor Moon figurines for 500ish yen).
The people at my dorms are really awesome; there are happily Japanese people who are willing to let the quiet foreign girl sit with them and listen to them talk and occasionally pipe in with really rudimentary Japanese, and occasionally puzzle over how we make the bed in my dorm room with them (though actually most of them didn't know either, which is how I wound up with five very confused Japanese people in my room trying to find someone who KNEW how to do so). My fellow IES people - well, most of them are pretty good people. There are two in particular though - both of them have a tendency to bitch about the food that the dorms offer, or about the lack of air conditioning in certain places, and just general cringe inducing whineyness and annoyingness that makes me want to be around hem as little as possible.
Gonna sign off for now, will get to that list of things that I posted the last time probably starting next entry. :)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Week One: Lotsa Trains, and Getting the Hang of Things
So, I should probably update this now that I'm here, yah? :P
I headed out ass-early a week ago now (so early, in fact, that the counters weren't even open when we got there) with the family to my connecting flight to Dallas. It was really sweet, cause we stayed together as long as we could and we were all pretty much trying not to bawl our eyes out (but towards the end, we totally were). Flight into Dallas was relatively uneventful, except for the dude next to me who couldn't decide if he wanted to talk about his kids, brag about his job, or hit on me. oO
I had enough of a layover in Dallas that I could catch some breakfast and also a very nice martini (shaddup, drinking that early is acceptable if one is flying).
And then I had a run-in with American Airlines throwing a fit about the fact that I had a small purse in addition to my roll-on carry-on and my laptop bag. ...Dude, you let me on in Milwaukee with it, I assumed that if it was a problem, you would've/should've told me way back then. Why throw such a fit, especially if all I had to do to make you idiots happy was to put it in the front pocket of my luggage, and just for boarding only? The hell?
And then came a fifteen hour flight, in which I found out that guess what, I still can't sleep on airplanes! *facedesk* But, got lots of reading done, and this is my verdict on the in-flight movies: Devil Wears Prada was a fun little watch, Prince of Persia was pretty generic and eh, couldn't even stand the first fifteen minutes of Sex and the City 2 (...seriously, please tell me this was not written by a woman) without wanting to hurl, and Letters to Juliet was pretty blandly generic.
Happily, there were two other folks that were going to IES on the flight, so we ended up as we went through immigration (smile, kiddies, and your fingerprints, too!) and picked up our bags. We ended up coming into the terminal that did NOT have the meeting point, so, of course, we needed to take a free connecting bus over to where we needed to be, where we met up with the IES folks. We had the help of some lovely ePals in order to get our bags sent onto where they needed to be, and to purchase tickets for teh bus that took us out to our hotel.
I don't remember much of the bus ride over, mainly cause I was close to passing out after being up for more or less 48 hours. I actually ended up stumbling off the bus cause I was so off balance. FAIL! But, still managed to get up to our very nice hotel room and after doing some initial unpacking and failing to figure out how to get the plugs and lights working (hint: apparently we had to put our keycards into a slot and it turned stuff on), I passed out for a few hours.
About halfway through said nap, I met my hotelmate for the next few days. She was... a very interesting girl. Name not being given to protect the innocent. We were rarely in the room at the same time, and we tolerated each other well enough when we were. She kinda irritated me by asking I stay up to let her in one night from the glass blowing class she would be going to (a perfectly reasonable request, even if I think that going to a class two hours away by train during orientation wasn't exactly the greatest idea), and ended up not getting back until almost two in the morning (when you take into account the fact that I was regularly waking up around 5 AM and was pretty much spending most of the days walking around places and absorbing lots of information, this is not exactly the kindest thing to do to someone).
Like I said, those first days were pretty much a huge information dump and included lots of walking around and getting to know where everything was. This probably would've been all well in good if it were not one of the hottest summers on record; the past week has averaged high 90s with high humidity as well. As such, much soreness and, imho, entirely too much sweating.
The real learning, though, came when we moved into our dorms on Friday. Now, I can't speak for everyone, but dorm life in Japan is VERY different than dorm life in America. First off, dorms are privately run, as land is at a premium here, and universities very rarely have the $ to be able to purchase land for dorms. Second off, when they say there's a curfew, they mean it - unless you tell your dorm manager that you're gonna be running late, if you're there past the midnight curfew, sucks to be you, you're locked out. There's a few small things you have to do, like turning your name tag when you're in and out, and wearing slippers/special slippers in certain areas, but once you get into the habit of it, it's second nature. Meals are good and hearty, and our dorm manager is a very sweet man. Also, the baths are my favorite part of this whole thing - nothing quite like washing off outside of the tub and then sliding into it up to your neck to just unwind and let all the tension slip out of you.
Also, the dorm rooms have their own air conditioners and sinks. This is the best thing to happen in the history of ever.
Besides learning where the really important stuff was (like the university and the IES center and banks and also the shopping centers which have huge food courts and also the awesome arcades, more on the latter in another post, prolly), we've also (mostly) learned the most important thing about being in Japan: how to take the train, how to take the right train, and, more importantly, how to know exactly where it is that you're going. The IES folks took us on the ride from the town where we had our orientation, Kaihin Makuhari, out to where we were living, but from there on it was pretty much on us to make sure that we knew where we were going today.
This is why I spent most of my weekend taking the trains into both the place where we went today (Shin Urayasu, which is where one of my classes is gonna be), from there to where most of my classes are gonna be (Kaihin Makuhari), and then back to my home station so that I know that I can do it on, say the morning commute (in which you WILL be packed like sardines into a train, trufax). Cause I have a commuter pass between my home station where my dorm is and my school staiton (Kaihin Makuhari), I only have to pay for fares that take me beyond that route, and in most cases, I'll be able to get reimbursed for those (as they're mostly associated with stuff for school travel, field trips for classes/IES, and/or stuff we need to do to be good with the government), which'll be nice.
Happily, I ended up wandering into Shin Urayasu right when there was a festival going on, so that gave me an excuse to come back again on Sunday and get lots of good food and also cheap booze too.
Today, besides touring, started the process of getting registered as an alien (no, not THAT kind) with the Japanese government. Was a bit of a walk from the initial station, and then that got interesting cause there were about fifteen of us that came in needing to register and they only had the man power for about half that. Luckily, I was the first one to be taken care of, and that only took twenty minutes (which included my helper handing out forms to the rest of the people), so I got to go home relatively quickly.
Well, I've got my placement test tomorrow, so sleep is probably gonna be a good idea right about now. Expect future entries on the following:
-The awesomeness of combini (convenience stores)
-The even more awesomeness of the Japanese arcade
-Why you are going to need all that change you have lying around
-No, seriously, why do you people think I'm good at Japanese, I'm really not!
See y'all later!
I headed out ass-early a week ago now (so early, in fact, that the counters weren't even open when we got there) with the family to my connecting flight to Dallas. It was really sweet, cause we stayed together as long as we could and we were all pretty much trying not to bawl our eyes out (but towards the end, we totally were). Flight into Dallas was relatively uneventful, except for the dude next to me who couldn't decide if he wanted to talk about his kids, brag about his job, or hit on me. oO
I had enough of a layover in Dallas that I could catch some breakfast and also a very nice martini (shaddup, drinking that early is acceptable if one is flying).
And then I had a run-in with American Airlines throwing a fit about the fact that I had a small purse in addition to my roll-on carry-on and my laptop bag. ...Dude, you let me on in Milwaukee with it, I assumed that if it was a problem, you would've/should've told me way back then. Why throw such a fit, especially if all I had to do to make you idiots happy was to put it in the front pocket of my luggage, and just for boarding only? The hell?
And then came a fifteen hour flight, in which I found out that guess what, I still can't sleep on airplanes! *facedesk* But, got lots of reading done, and this is my verdict on the in-flight movies: Devil Wears Prada was a fun little watch, Prince of Persia was pretty generic and eh, couldn't even stand the first fifteen minutes of Sex and the City 2 (...seriously, please tell me this was not written by a woman) without wanting to hurl, and Letters to Juliet was pretty blandly generic.
Happily, there were two other folks that were going to IES on the flight, so we ended up as we went through immigration (smile, kiddies, and your fingerprints, too!) and picked up our bags. We ended up coming into the terminal that did NOT have the meeting point, so, of course, we needed to take a free connecting bus over to where we needed to be, where we met up with the IES folks. We had the help of some lovely ePals in order to get our bags sent onto where they needed to be, and to purchase tickets for teh bus that took us out to our hotel.
I don't remember much of the bus ride over, mainly cause I was close to passing out after being up for more or less 48 hours. I actually ended up stumbling off the bus cause I was so off balance. FAIL! But, still managed to get up to our very nice hotel room and after doing some initial unpacking and failing to figure out how to get the plugs and lights working (hint: apparently we had to put our keycards into a slot and it turned stuff on), I passed out for a few hours.
About halfway through said nap, I met my hotelmate for the next few days. She was... a very interesting girl. Name not being given to protect the innocent. We were rarely in the room at the same time, and we tolerated each other well enough when we were. She kinda irritated me by asking I stay up to let her in one night from the glass blowing class she would be going to (a perfectly reasonable request, even if I think that going to a class two hours away by train during orientation wasn't exactly the greatest idea), and ended up not getting back until almost two in the morning (when you take into account the fact that I was regularly waking up around 5 AM and was pretty much spending most of the days walking around places and absorbing lots of information, this is not exactly the kindest thing to do to someone).
Like I said, those first days were pretty much a huge information dump and included lots of walking around and getting to know where everything was. This probably would've been all well in good if it were not one of the hottest summers on record; the past week has averaged high 90s with high humidity as well. As such, much soreness and, imho, entirely too much sweating.
The real learning, though, came when we moved into our dorms on Friday. Now, I can't speak for everyone, but dorm life in Japan is VERY different than dorm life in America. First off, dorms are privately run, as land is at a premium here, and universities very rarely have the $ to be able to purchase land for dorms. Second off, when they say there's a curfew, they mean it - unless you tell your dorm manager that you're gonna be running late, if you're there past the midnight curfew, sucks to be you, you're locked out. There's a few small things you have to do, like turning your name tag when you're in and out, and wearing slippers/special slippers in certain areas, but once you get into the habit of it, it's second nature. Meals are good and hearty, and our dorm manager is a very sweet man. Also, the baths are my favorite part of this whole thing - nothing quite like washing off outside of the tub and then sliding into it up to your neck to just unwind and let all the tension slip out of you.
Also, the dorm rooms have their own air conditioners and sinks. This is the best thing to happen in the history of ever.
Besides learning where the really important stuff was (like the university and the IES center and banks and also the shopping centers which have huge food courts and also the awesome arcades, more on the latter in another post, prolly), we've also (mostly) learned the most important thing about being in Japan: how to take the train, how to take the right train, and, more importantly, how to know exactly where it is that you're going. The IES folks took us on the ride from the town where we had our orientation, Kaihin Makuhari, out to where we were living, but from there on it was pretty much on us to make sure that we knew where we were going today.
This is why I spent most of my weekend taking the trains into both the place where we went today (Shin Urayasu, which is where one of my classes is gonna be), from there to where most of my classes are gonna be (Kaihin Makuhari), and then back to my home station so that I know that I can do it on, say the morning commute (in which you WILL be packed like sardines into a train, trufax). Cause I have a commuter pass between my home station where my dorm is and my school staiton (Kaihin Makuhari), I only have to pay for fares that take me beyond that route, and in most cases, I'll be able to get reimbursed for those (as they're mostly associated with stuff for school travel, field trips for classes/IES, and/or stuff we need to do to be good with the government), which'll be nice.
Happily, I ended up wandering into Shin Urayasu right when there was a festival going on, so that gave me an excuse to come back again on Sunday and get lots of good food and also cheap booze too.
Today, besides touring, started the process of getting registered as an alien (no, not THAT kind) with the Japanese government. Was a bit of a walk from the initial station, and then that got interesting cause there were about fifteen of us that came in needing to register and they only had the man power for about half that. Luckily, I was the first one to be taken care of, and that only took twenty minutes (which included my helper handing out forms to the rest of the people), so I got to go home relatively quickly.
Well, I've got my placement test tomorrow, so sleep is probably gonna be a good idea right about now. Expect future entries on the following:
-The awesomeness of combini (convenience stores)
-The even more awesomeness of the Japanese arcade
-Why you are going to need all that change you have lying around
-No, seriously, why do you people think I'm good at Japanese, I'm really not!
See y'all later!
Friday, August 20, 2010
10 Days and Counting
So, yeah, went down to Chicago last week to get the visa. And that was... surprisingly easy. Just went in, dropped the stuff off Monday, came back Tuesday, and it was all ready to go. And, as always with pictures that actually matter, I look awful in my visa pic.
Meanwhile, have finally replaced my old sturdy phone of six years with an iPhone 3GS. Ironically enough, it was the cheapest option for getting a phone that would work abroad.
Laptop has a functioning battery again, and it's just working better overall, so I am quite happy. At this stage, I pretty much have planned out what's going with me, and am slowly (but surely!) starting to pack stuff up and get the last of the stuff that needs getting. Finally found out where I'm living as of today, too, and with a quick Google Mapping, it's about a half hour away from where I'll be taking classes, so that's not too bad.
All that needs be done is convert a significant enough chunk of dollars over to yen so that I'll be set for at least a month or so, figure out what my mailing address is gonna be, get tickets for the Tokyo Game Show (going both days, it converts out to $11 a day, which is pretty damn good), and, you know, do that whole packing thing, and I'll be ready to head out.
I'm really excited for this, but, at the same time, I'm scared out of my mind - I've been abroad once before, but that was for two weeks, which is nowhere close to four months, plus, it's gonna be my first real flight alone (though possibly my dad's going to be with me on the way back in December, so). Plus, I know I'm gonna miss all the people/pets I have back here, and not seeing them for four months is gonna be interesting (this is why we need to make sure that Skype is working on the family comps).
10... well, 9 days and counting, folks, until my ass-early flight.
Meanwhile, have finally replaced my old sturdy phone of six years with an iPhone 3GS. Ironically enough, it was the cheapest option for getting a phone that would work abroad.
Laptop has a functioning battery again, and it's just working better overall, so I am quite happy. At this stage, I pretty much have planned out what's going with me, and am slowly (but surely!) starting to pack stuff up and get the last of the stuff that needs getting. Finally found out where I'm living as of today, too, and with a quick Google Mapping, it's about a half hour away from where I'll be taking classes, so that's not too bad.
All that needs be done is convert a significant enough chunk of dollars over to yen so that I'll be set for at least a month or so, figure out what my mailing address is gonna be, get tickets for the Tokyo Game Show (going both days, it converts out to $11 a day, which is pretty damn good), and, you know, do that whole packing thing, and I'll be ready to head out.
I'm really excited for this, but, at the same time, I'm scared out of my mind - I've been abroad once before, but that was for two weeks, which is nowhere close to four months, plus, it's gonna be my first real flight alone (though possibly my dad's going to be with me on the way back in December, so). Plus, I know I'm gonna miss all the people/pets I have back here, and not seeing them for four months is gonna be interesting (this is why we need to make sure that Skype is working on the family comps).
10... well, 9 days and counting, folks, until my ass-early flight.
Monday, July 26, 2010
So It's Actually Happening Now AKA PANIC
Like the title says, this is actually happening now. Just purchased the plane tickets last week (for $1100, which is pretty good for a round-trip toicket), and now I just got the word that the CoE is in, so that should be coming in soon.
This means that in the next few weeks, I have to get down to Chicago and apply for a visa, start getting all my stuff together, make sure that I have a working cell phone that will work in Japan, fix that rather worrying bulge in my laptop's battery, and just general getting crap together.
...
Oh yeah. It's panic time, baby.
This means that in the next few weeks, I have to get down to Chicago and apply for a visa, start getting all my stuff together, make sure that I have a working cell phone that will work in Japan, fix that rather worrying bulge in my laptop's battery, and just general getting crap together.
...
Oh yeah. It's panic time, baby.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
*phew*
Okay, so, after a few harrowing days (especially the last few with them saying they didn't have the bank letter when it was delivered last Thursday!), all vital forms for the CoE are in. So, now, just have to wait for the CoE to come, then can go down and apply for visa in person at Chicago consulate (this will be shorter than mailing it in), which won't be until August.
Have drunk a bit of boozeahol to celebrate this. WHEE!
Have drunk a bit of boozeahol to celebrate this. WHEE!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Post the First: Of Getting Forms Together and Jumping Through Flaming Visa Hoops
So, yeah. Hi, internets. *waves?*
Just got all the forms together and mailed to Chicago via UPS/FedEx that I need to have in order to get a Certificate of Eligibility, which I then have to use to get a visa in order to get into Japan. So, it's like getting a visa in order to be able to get a visa. Kind of. It's complicated. And, to say the least, a bit of a pain.
The biggest thing that I had to have is a bank letter, which is basically something the immigration officials want you to have so you can prove you have whatever arbitrary amount of money they feel you need to have in one single account in order to be properly supported in Japan. This required a bit of interesting shuffling and hoopjumping, but hey, it's done and en route.
And then there's the CoE form itself which is something else, simply for the level of detail they want to know. Understandable, but wow.
And there's still the visa to get, once this is processed through, which won't even be until... a month before the program starts. So that should get interesting. And possibly headdesk inducing.
For now, though, time to start stalking tracking numbers to ensure that everything gets where it's supposed to be. *vulture stare*
Just got all the forms together and mailed to Chicago via UPS/FedEx that I need to have in order to get a Certificate of Eligibility, which I then have to use to get a visa in order to get into Japan. So, it's like getting a visa in order to be able to get a visa. Kind of. It's complicated. And, to say the least, a bit of a pain.
The biggest thing that I had to have is a bank letter, which is basically something the immigration officials want you to have so you can prove you have whatever arbitrary amount of money they feel you need to have in one single account in order to be properly supported in Japan. This required a bit of interesting shuffling and hoopjumping, but hey, it's done and en route.
And then there's the CoE form itself which is something else, simply for the level of detail they want to know. Understandable, but wow.
And there's still the visa to get, once this is processed through, which won't even be until... a month before the program starts. So that should get interesting. And possibly headdesk inducing.
For now, though, time to start stalking tracking numbers to ensure that everything gets where it's supposed to be. *vulture stare*
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
