Barcelona (Part Two)

Last time you saw me, I was sitting in Ritazza near the security check in East Midlands airport, and now... I'm still there.

There was absolutely no chance of sleep near the cafe, it was manned solely by a boy probably not much older than me, who was obviously not very happy about working the night-shift. He played pumping music throughout the whole night, ignoring being asked to turn it down several times. But I didn't mind, I didn't plan to sleep. (You can check out how people rate airports to sleep in here).
I just felt sorry for the people lying on the seats nearby who definitely did want to sleep. And he kept going for cigarettes outside, leaving the whole cafe to me! If I was the manager there, I would've had his head.

I had had a painful shoulder the night before which had kept me up for several hours so I was armed with Ibuprofen, as I knew it would not be a particularly comfortable night, spending over eight hours sitting until I got to Spain.

Overnight, I amused myself by reading, re-drafting my novel, wandering around to find my check-in desk and the toilets. Surprisingly, this vast array of activities made time pass quite quickly. Maybe it was because I was slightly nervous about checking-in and everything - I've never done this before on my own!!!

I got up to check-in at 4.30am and realised that the queue was huge, the whole length of the hall. Forget that! I went to the toilet and came back, it was half the size. Magical queue-destroying toilets.

There were no problems at check-in, but the woman was very moody - as I worked at Cadbury World, I could have taught her a few things about customer service.
Lesson One - don't look like your about to stab yourself in the head because you can't stand serving one more happy family.

I was bleeped at security but I expected that, I've never gone through one and not set it off. I was violated, then made my way to the departure lounge. Another Ritazza! But it wasn't open. I saw the spot where my family had sat earlier this year when we went to Venice but didn't go there. I wandered up and down through the shops, listening to Gwen Stefani over the radio. There was some interesting stuff, including a stand full of 1,000-pack cigarettes so as I approached I was bombarded with 'Smoking kills', 'Smoking causes lung cancer', 'Smokers die younger' in letters the size of my head.

I stopped for a bacon roll and cup of tea, which I later realised was caffeinated. Damn, no sleep on the plane for me then. At about 6.00am, I checked the screen and I was told to 'Go to Gates 1-5'. There was a massive queue and slowly got massiver and massiver as it wound its way through a cafe (Ritazza again), past Gates 4, 3, 2 and 1 and back towards 5. Great. I joined it at virtually the end, the only people behind me were a group of 19-ish year olds who were talking about plane crashes. Wonderful. The queue was quite fast-moving and I was out in the freezing morning air. A man had stopped at a barrier a few people ahead of me and was waiting. The queue built up behind me until a flight attendant came out and showed him that he had to turn left and follow everyone else.
Lesson Two - don't roll your eyes at customers, they might fall out. Messy.
There was then a long, cold walk to the plane in the dark. I climbed aboard and asked a man in an aisle seat about 6 rows back from the front if either of the two seats next to him were taken. He said no and moved aside for me so I got a window seat. Woo! I like window seats for short plane journeys but for Japan I should probably try to get an aisle seat for my abnormally long legs. Obviously, the ideal situation would be a free row so I could get all the benefits but that's a long shot. I suppose it depends on how many Japanese people came here for New Year or how many British want to go to Japan at the beginning of the year. I would expect Japanese people to flight with JAL (Japan Airlines) though.

No one sat in the middle seat next to me, which I was pleased about.
I like taking off. It's one of the best parts of flying. Although for the last few trips I've taken, I haven't been great on planes. There's something about being trapped in a metal tube with a hundred other people suspended thousands of miles above the ground that makes me a little worried. But it went fine. There was nothing to see once we'd taken off because it was dark outside, and they'd turned the lights off inside, which was lovely as I started to drop off to sleep. But, alas, they turned the lights back on and the sun started to rise, blinding me. But I pulled the window blind down and looked down at some beautiful cloud formations. The snow had left a nice coating on the ground and, while it was still dark, cities that I caught glimpses of looked lovely all lit up. I watched the scenery until we'd passed over the Channel and France, then lay on the tray in front of me (albeit very uncomfortably) and had broken sleep until descent about 90 minutes later.

On the descent, my head was very painful. Not just a popping in the ears, but full on pain in my temples for 20 minutes. I looked down and saw my water bottle scrunching up and thought, that's what my head is trying to do.

We landed, in typical bumpy style, but with no problems (and 10 minutes early) at Girona airport. We stepped out into Spanish atmosphere (not my general experience, usually I step out in 30C, that time I stepped out into about 3C). With my breath condensing in front of me, I hurried into the arrivals lounge. I stood by the carousel for about 15 minutes and my bag was one of the very last ones. It couldn't have happened any other way.

I put the time on my phone forward 1 hour then followed the instructions I had received from Resorthoppa (hotel transfer company). I left the arrivals hall and found a woman and driver with a sign saying 'Resorthoppa'. I told them who I was and it turned out they were only waiting for two other people and I got straight into a taxi and then a mother and daughter (daughter in early 20s) followed me. Within two minutes we were off. That was far too easy, I thought. I checked I had everything with me and then rang home, letting them know I had landed safely.

The route was very windy, it went up into the mountains and followed the track cut sharply into the rock. The view was lovely, forested hills rolling in which ever direction I looked. There were so many examples of crazy Continental driving, not to generalise, but the car was either far too close to the edge, risking plummeting to a rocky death, too close to the middle so the car rocked as other vehicles passed, or just plain speeding and overtaking. The driver was listening to Flaix FM, which seemed to be a 'cool' English-music station and, to my joy, we passed a van full of Bimbo *****!

We pulled up to my hotel, Tossa Beach, and got our bags and everything out.



It looked nice from the front, I made my way up into the reception and stepped in. It's dark and cold!
I enquire at the desk and am told that the entire town is in blackout and they can't let me have my room until it is sorted.

Will the power come back on? Will I get my room? Find out, in Barcelona & Bimbo ***** Part Three, coming soon...

Great chippy in Lowestoft

While in Norfolk over the weekend, my family and I went to see Beowulf at the cinema in Lowestoft, Suffolk. I enjoyed the film, but this isn't a review of a film, it's about the chip shop we stumbled upon afterwards!

It was called 'Frydays', opposite the Aldi near London Road South. It didn't look like anything special, we chose it because it looked warm and had seats inside. But it turned out to be great.

The people there were really friendly and the food was high-quality and tasty. There was a huge range of choice, much more than your average chippy. And the portions were huge!! If you feel you can eat a lot in one sitting, this place might change your mind.

The only thing that I would say is that there were five of us around a six-seat table and three of us were very cramped! Don't take a big party there, unless you want to spread around, which we easily could have done.

So, if you're ever in Lowestoft and fancy something tasty, then pop in there and you won't be disappointed.

Address:
4A Commercial Road
Lowestoft
NR32 2TD
Tel: (01502) 513 513

Barcelona (Part One)

Last week I went to Barcelona.

It was like an independance trip, I'd done London by myself before and I wanted to fit in a short trip abroad before Japan to give myself some experience of flying and travelling alone. As I found out that I would finish work earlier than I first thought in October, I booked a cheap holiday that night using Last Minute.com. I thought that was the best way to bounce back.

An all-inclusive deal including flights and accommodation to the Costa Brava about 90km north of Barcelona cost me £150. I wanted to do the whole thing for less than £250 as, after all, I am saving to fly half-way across the world for several months next year.

I had arranged the whole thing in October, a month in advance. Unfortunately, I was flying from East Midlands not Birmingham and the flight was at 6.30am on Monday morning. There was no public transport that early so I had to get to the airport late on Sunday evening and spend the night there.

I had booked a coach with National Express to Coventry, then another (90 minutes later) to East Midlands airport.

I left home at about 7.00pm (trains were cancelled so my dad and youngest brother drove me into the centre of Birmingham to Digbeth coach station) to catch a 19.30 coach. And, what a shock, it was snowing! It had been raining all day and when the temperature dropped, it just turned to snow. We all thought it wouldn't settle, it never snows in mid-November! But it became heavier and heavier and our garden was covered in white very quickly. It was very atmospheric waving goodbye to my mum in the snow like a scene from some cheesy movie.

We drove in, the snow pounding the front windscreen - this is incredible! After a long goodbye at the car, I take my suitcase and writer's bag (it's basically a black shoulder bag but it looks writer-ish) into the temporary coach station across the road from Digbeth. They are renovating it at long-last because it's hardly a great advert for Birmingham, if that's what thousands of people see of it when they arrive.

You can see what Digbeth should look like when it's all finished here.

Anyway, I go into this huge freezing cold hall with rows of seats and screens around the walls. And of course, all the coaches are delayed because of the snow. Great. I sit down in front of a screen and watch my coach, 19.30 to Coventry. It's delayed til 19.50, well that's okay. It's about 19.15 and there's a long wait ahead of me anyway, it's just a different environment (albeit a very cold one) to sit in getting bored.

About ten minutes later, I realise that I've forgotten my packed midnight snack that I made for the airport and left it in the car. I ring Dad to check where he is and thankfully, he'd gone to buy some pudding and wasn't too far away. He came back with it (thank you!) and I ran out to collect it. On my way, I saw my coach (the 538 service to Coventry) pull in. Yay! Shouldn't be too long now. I said another goodbye and thank you, then ran back in. I checked the screen and it wasn't boarding yet. I assumed they must be still re-fueling or whatever. I quickly went to the toilet, don't you just love it when you have to pay 20p for the luxury of weeing? I came back out and the screen announced that my coach was delayed again til 20.01. Never mind, maybe there's a problem. I sat back down, realising that the huge clocks they had were the same as the one in my kitchen. Wow. Exciting things to think about.

Then, at about 19.55 the screen changed and said 'Go to Gate A'. Finally, I'm off. I jumped up and ran to Gate A. Hmm, no one there. I looked up at another screen. My coach wasn't on there. Hmmm. That's not good news. I ran back to the Information desk and the guy there said that my coach left 15 minutes ago.

This took a while to sink in. Great. The first leg of my journey and it had already fallen apart. I went to an Express Ticket machine and saw that there were no more coaches to Coventry that night, and no more from Coventry to East Midlands airport after 21.40 - the one I was booked on. I rang Mum to ask for advice. She said she'll ring me back. I considered a taxi or local bus. But there was no guarantee that either of those would get me there in time because of the snow.

Mum rang me back and said that she'll pick me up and take me to Coventry bus station. I'm hopeful again. I sat back down and waited, the man at the desk said that there had been an announcement for my coach. Was I outside collecting my food? In the toilet? Either way, they announced a bus to London at least four times, obviously Coventry just isn't as popular as London. Can't think why...

Mum picked me up at 20.45 and we get driving. Dad looked up directions on the internet and texted them to us.

I felt so bad that I missed the coach, but am adamant that the only thing I did wrong was not double-checking with someone that the screen was telling the truth. But, it's a lesson learned. Always check things with someone!!! Anyway, why did the screen say it was leaving in ten minutes if it left 15 minutes ago. How annoying...

By then, the snow had become a blizzard and we were finding it hard to find the bus station. We had 55 minutes and we were nowhere near Coventry. We followed the directions until the Ring Road, where we realised that we didn't know which direction to take. Left or right? We rang Dad and he said we should take the first option. Left then. Naturally we had gone right but no matter, we found the right road and then signs to the bus station.

We were both so relieved to have made it on time. I went in to ask where the National Express coaches arrive and depart and... oh my god, that place was hell. Much worse than Digbeth. Digbeth coach station is the Ritz compared to Coventry's so-called 'Pool Meadow'. If you can avoid it, definitely steer clear. Shudder...

I asked a staff member and he told me where to go. As I was asking, some random Chav shoved me from behind and then walked away. The people were as nice as the place!

Mum came in with my bags (and food!) and waited with me. Then, 10 minutes late, which I think I'll forgive, the coach arrived. I was so relieved and said a second goodbye to Mum before clambering aboard. It was warm! WARM! It was easily the most comfortable coach I've ever been on. And it was very empty. It arrived at EMA 20 minutes late but I didn't care in the slightest, it was so comfortable.

I walked into the airport and found all the benches full of sleeping travellers. I settled into Ritazza near the security check with a large Decaff (just in case) Cappuccino and started reading.

It was going to be a looong night...

Accommodation

There are loads of options for where to stay in Japan. It ranges from the relatively cheap to the immensely expensive, depending on where you want to live, what condition the place is in, and how large the room(s) are/is.

1. You could do it the Japanese way and get a proper apartment

The size of an apartment is judged by how many rooms there are, and what facilities are included. For example, a 1LDK apartment will have one room with a living area, dining area and kitchen, with a separate bathroom. A 2LDK will have two rooms with a living area, dining area and kitchen etc.
This is how you will see apartments advertised.

Pros:
- you get a permanent place to stay
- you can furnish it how you like

Cons:
- it's expensive (key money is everything you pay your landlord before you even move in - can be up to 6 months' rent)
- it's a complicated process (competent knowledge of Japanese would be required!)
- there may be discrimination against dealing with a foreigner
- you will have to get your own furniture etc.

2. You could stay in a hotel

This is only a really viable option if you plan to stay there for a short time, as your bill at the end of it could be astronomical. But you don't have to stay in the Tokyo Park Hyatt, you could find cheaper options, for example, Sakura House's Sakura Hotel in Jimbocho, Tokyo. Of course, there are even cheaper hotels outside of the major cities, Tokyo is bound to have the most pricey. There is also a new hostel (Tokyo's largest) in Asakusa with 162 beds.
Osaka - http://www.asiarooms.com/japan/osaka.html, http://www.travellerspoint.com/budget-hotels-en-ci-921.html
Kyoto - http://www.travellerspoint.com/budget-hotels-en-ci-645.html, http://www.hotelclub.net/hotel.reservations/Kyoto.htm

Pros:
- all utilities paid for
- furnished rooms

Cons:
- expensive!

3. You could stay in a guesthouse, or gaijinhouse (foreigner house)

There are several different types of guesthouse. You could stay in a dormitory, where you share a room with other people. This is probably the cheapest accommodation you will find from ¥35,000. Sakura House seems to be a good choice.

Or, the one that I chose, Sakura House's guesthouse. You rent a room for a month at a time (all utilities etc. included) and share your kitchen, bathroom and toilet with the other occupants of the house. The actual houses can range from tiny old-style Japanese houses in the suburbs to towering high-rise blocks in central Tokyo. The rent can range from ¥48,000 to over ¥100,000 plus a deposit of ¥30,000 when you move in, ¥20,000 of which is refundable when you move out.

You can search by location, price and availability to find accommodation but this seems to be a more difficult way to it.
The easiest way to book a room, at least from what I can see, is using Sakura House's Advance Reservation form where you can ask for a particular date and specify location and your personal requirements if you want and they find available accommodation that suits you. One fault with this system is that you are meant to be able to say 'Other, or anywhere is ok' in relation to where you would like to stay. However, when I tried to submit my application it said that I hadn't specified a location. So I rang them up and asked what I should do. Very helpful man in Shinjuku told me that I just tick any box and then use the requests/ comments box at the end of the form to say that anywhere is fine.

Earlier today, I got an email with an offer of a very nice looking room in central Tokyo to which I replied "Yes! Yes, I'll take it!" They should send me another email asking for my card details (you can only use Visa or MasterCard) to send my deposit and make the reservation official.

You can contact them at info@sakura-house.com or on +81-3-5330-5250 (remember that the + stands for different things in different countries, in the UK it is 00) but remember about the time difference! Tokyo is 9 hours ahead of London and they are open from 8.50am til 5.50pm.

Pros:
- huge variety of choice with Sakura House
- relatively cheap
- good way to meet people
- widespread across Japan
- easy for travelling, especially for people on Working Holiday visas, like me
- fully furnished and utilities are included

Cons:
- usually booked for whole months at a time
- based mainly in major cities
- less privacy than apartments, shared kitchen and bathroom facilities

Sakura House is only based in Tokyo but there are other companies for different cities.
Osaka - http://www11.ocn.ne.jp/~otomari/oig/, http://www.learn4good.com/hostels/budget_accommodations/japan/osaka_international_guesthouse.htm, http://www.u-en.net/english.html
Kyoto - http://www.budgetinnjp.com/, http://www.gojo-guest-house.com/, http://www.kyotojp.com/kyotoguesthouse.html
Nagoya - http://www.freebell.co.jp/GH/
Fukuoka - http://www.a1tourism.com/japan/fukuoka.html, http://www.hostelscentral.com/city-1620.html
Sapporo - http://www.plaza-sapporo.or.jp/sgh/, http://coe.math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp/sympo/venue_g.html

There are others of course, if in doubt, consult google!

Leaving Cadbury World

I'm feeling a little down today. Yesterday was my last day at Cadbury World, my workplace last summer and this year since July. It may not be a long time relatively, but I really enjoyed it there, met some truly lovely people and overall had an amazing time. So thank you to everyone there who made it what it was, I'm sure they know who they are.

But, onwards and upwards, as everyone was telling me, "you're going onto bigger and better things, you're going to JAPAN!"

But I am still sad to go, it's just another section of my life closed behind me, although I'm sure I'll be back (I hope).

I don't know what I'll do with all my spare time now though. Before, I shoved everything into mornings, evenings and days-off (not that I've had many of those recently) and now I have an 8-week stretch before Japan. I do have lots of things to do, going to Barcelona next week for one, and the TEFL course at the beginning of December.

Still, life is going to feel a lot emptier without that place, and the Cadabra music!

Miles

How to teach yourself Japanese

Everyone I talk to about what I've done over the last four years and plan to do soon asks me some seemingly pre-prepared questions. And one of them is always "How did you teach yourself Japanese?" This post will not stop people asking me that but it might help others who want to give it a go.

The first six months I spent teaching myself I devoted to learning the two Japanese alphabets, hiragana and katakana. Here's a good page you could print out and use, although I didn't use this one, I can't find those any more.

The Japanese written language consists of the hiragana, katakana, kanji and romaji alphabets.
Hiragana - phonetic syllables used to write Japanese words e.g. さようなら
Katakana - phonetic syllables used to write non-Japanese words e.g. チョコレート
Kanji - Chinese symbols used in Japanese to represent words or ideas e.g. 愛
Romaji - Japanese words expressed using the Roman alphabet e.g. Konnichiwa

Katakana is the alphabet I taught myself first because it seemed to be the simplest. At the time, I wasn't convinced that I could actually achieve what I set out to do so I just tried my best.
I learned each one five at a time. I started with the vowels.
I would recommend using a whiteboard to save paper. Thankfully, my brother Dominic had been given a whiteboard for his birthday so I stole that (it's actually still in my bedroom, I should probably give it back). But failing a whiteboard, paper will do the job.
I used the time-honoured tradition of look-cover-write-check-ing and yes, dull and repetitive at times, but it does work.
And you feel real good when you can jumble each lot of five up and write them without difficulty.
Test yourself all the time, have some spare time? Write them on your leg with a finger. Draw them in the air. Anything to get them into your brain. And, of course, if you ever find yourself confronted by Japanese text - read as many characters as you can! It feels great, even if you have no idea what you're reading.

Hiragana came next. With a thorough grounding in katakana I felt I was ready to advance to the next level. I was worried that the new characters would override the old ones so I constantly referred back to katakana after studying hiragana.
It was difficult to separate the two alphabets in my mind, but in general, katakana is straighter than the curlier hiragana. Katakana just looks simpler.

After that six months of looking, re-looking, covering, re-covering, writing, re-writing, checking and re-checking the two alphabets, which add up to 142 characters together, 71 in each, I finally felt ready to move onto speaking.

I would definitely recommend Random House's Living Language Japanese Beginners' course. Although others may work better for other people, that's the only course I have used, so mine is by no means the final word on the subject. Please let me know your thoughts and recommendations if you have any.
The pack includes a coursebook, a English-Japanese/Japanese-English dictionary and CDs to accompany the coursebook. This course is meant to last you six weeks and give you a thorough understanding of basic conversational Japanese. And it has certainly done that for me. However, it took me a whole year to work myself through its 40 lessons as I was also doing my GCSEs. I wanted to really understand everything in every lesson, but now I've finished it I realise that that wasn't necessary. They really mean that once you have a good understanding of the lesson and can get 100% on the quiz then you should move on. Everything wrapped up nicely at the end, I went through the entire course not understanding a certain tense formation (I can't remember what) and kept finding examples of it in lessons but it didn't explain it. Then I found it, in Lesson 40. So don't take it too seriously.
Any chance you get to speak/ listen to Japanese, take it!!! The downside of teaching yourself is that you don't have anyone to speak to on a regular basis as you would on a course or at school, or indeed, in Japan. So when I was offered the chance to take a group of Japanese tourists around Cadbury World and Bournville village in South Birmingham, I jumped on it. I was terrified as I had never spoken to real Japanese people in the flesh before. But it all went well. Some of my rehearsed sentences and phrases didn't come out quite right, but they were very understanding.

After I finished the Beginners' course, I asked my parents for the Advanced course. It seems to be very business-orientated, based around a fictional character's experiences moving to Japan for work. But it is still very useful in expanding and building upon existing Japanese knowledge. Do not get the Advanced course without first having a base in Japanese language!! You will be put off for life!

Then came the kanji, the Chinese characters. There are 1,945 kanji commonly used in Japanese writing. To read a Japanese newspaper (shinbun) you need to be able to read all of these apparently. I currently know about 150 kanji and I hope that this number will increase significantly once I actually get to Japan. Sentences in Japanese are written using a combination of hiragana, katakana and kanji so you can't understand sentences without knowing all these alphabets. Frustrating!! But it keeps you working.
At first I just printed some kanji off the Internet and tried learning them parrot fashion. This worked up to a point, particularly for the simpler ones but eventually it became very difficult to retain them all. So I looked it up on the Internet and found a book.
'Remembering the Kanji: Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters' by James Heisig.
And it does what it says on the tin. It teaches you how to remember each kanji using a story. Just remember the story and the rest will flow. More information here.
All of these things really helped me. So much that I actually felt prepared to do GCSE Japanese in June 2007. I was scared about doing them, and they were a bit challenging at times but it all came good in the end. I got an A*! I was more pleased with that result than my A-levels! But maybe it is not surprising that my top grade was in the writing paper.

So if you want to do it, and feel that you can work at it, then do it!! Teach yourself Japanese!! It's really worth it.

Working Holiday visas

I decided that I wanted to go to Japan and teach English about three or four years ago, and slowly everything has fallen into place as the date got closer and closer.
Because I always knew I wanted to go in my gap year before University I had to find a visa that accommodated up to a year long stay but not longer.

The work visa is valid for up to three years (at the discretion of the Japanese issuing authorities) and is much more restrictive. The work visa ties you to an employer, who will probably also be your sponsor (this is very beneficial - you can get your transport costs paid and subsidised accommodation close to your workplace).

Or there was the JET (Japan Exchange Teaching) program where they will sort out your work visa for you and fly you out to Japan to work. But you have to have a Bachelor's degree in any subject or teaching qualifications, which I don't have being only 18.

By the way, most of my information here is coming from 'Japan: A Working Holiday Guide' by Louise Sutherland, which is an amazing book and I recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in Japan, but it's perfect for people wanting a Working Holiday visa like me.

So one of the last options for me was the Working Holiday visa, and I liked this idea. I've always been interested in travel, and the prospect of flying to a country I loved and travelling around and experiencing it first-hand was just incredible.
So I looked into it and found that it could actually happen!
To be eligible for a Working Holiday visa to Japan you need to be:
- from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, South Korea, Germany or Britain (and living in your home country when you apply for the visa)
- aged between 18 and 25 (or 30 in some cases)
- in possession of a valid passport
- in possession of a return flight ticket (or proof that you have sufficient funds to buy one)
- in possession of enough money to support you in Japan until you can find work (I am told this can take 2 months) - when I applied in September 2007 I needed to prove I had £2500
- in good health, and not have a criminal record.

So if you fit those criteria, go for it! Apply for a Working Holiday visa.

You can apply for the visa any time between six months and three weeks before you want to enter Japan. You must enter Japan in the six months after you receive the visa, otherwise it probably becomes void (although don't quote me on that) and you may not be able to get another - as you can only get one Working Holiday visa for Japan in your lifetime. Incidentally, if you leave Japan after entering on a Working Holiday visa without a re-entry permit (it will cost you ¥10,000, which is about £50 for a multiple re-entry permit but it's cheaper for single re-entry at ¥6,000).

You have to apply in person at your nearest Japanese Embassy or Consulate in your home country (see the bottom of this post for addresses and contact information).
You can call and ask for the visa application sheet to be sent to you or you can pop in and collect one in person (not convenient if you don't live anywhere near the Embassy).
I got contrasting information from several different sources about what I actually needed to include in my visa application but below is what I was actually asked for when I got to the Embassy.

- My valid passport
- One copy of my application form (collected from the Embassy - remember to specify what type of visa you want as the application form is the same for all visas) including a 2-inch x 2-inch photo that I attached to the sheet with a paperclip although they gave me glue there
- 1 CV including my Personal Information, Work Experience/Employment History and Hobbies and Interests (shockingly, my interests were very Japan orientated)
- 1 copy of an itinerary for your plans for the first 6 months of your trip (this scared me a bit because I really don't know but I wrote down where I planned to be each month, even if it was a move from Tokyo to Chiba over a month - the man at the Embassy said my application was good because I wanted to move around a lot and it is a Working Holiday visa. He also seemed impressed that I included a labelled map of my plans, although this isn't neccessary)
- 1 copy of a written reason for applying for this type of visa - I included all my interests in Japan, and my wish to travel around the country, meet the people, learn about the culture and learn the language. They seemed impressed that I had attempted to teach myself the language. He even asked me a question in Japanese - お勉強は？(O-benkyou wa?), to which I replied: "Er, something about studying?". He laughed and said, "I asked you how your studying was going." Put on the spot, the only thing I could think of saying was: いいです。(Ii desu, or 'It's good'.) Way to go Miles.
- Bank statements for each of the last three months previous to your application to prove you have at least £2,500. It doesn't matter if they are from different accounts, print-outs from Internet banking or official bank-sent ones as long as they add up to the required amount. He (I wish I knew his name, an English man at London's Japanese Embassy anyway) said it was good that he could see where my money was coming from, in my case Cadbury Schweppes.
- A special delivery pre-paid self-addressed envelope so they can return my passport to me. I weighed my passport and it was about 30g I think so that's what I paid for. My local post office was very helpful when I explained what I needed and it cost me about £3.
- £5 cash to buy the visa, very reasonable methinks (you get a receipt back with your passport).

Well, that's what I included in my application, although different Embassies may differ in requirements so it can't hurt to check their website or ring them up. Remember they probably won't be open on weekends or public holidays.
I was told I'd need duplicates of each form so I photocopied them - I didn't need them though. I didn't even need a passport photo despite the Embassy's website telling me I'd need two. They said it was easier to just use the 2-inch x 2-inch photo I supplied with my application form.

I took the coach from Birmingham (where I live) to London, luckily I don't live too far - only a 3-hour journey with National Express and it only cost me something like £15 for the day-trip down. It was very worrying as if I'd forgotten anything I needed I was pretty far from home and not really in a position to pop back and pick it up from my bed-side table. Thankfully, I hadn't forgotten anything and it all went smoothly.

I was told I'd receive my visa (it was much less like a competition than I expected, it seemed to operate on the idea that if someone met the criteria, they got the visa) a week later but it actually arrived three days early. It took me a while to find the visa inside my passport as they didn't use the first or last page inside, they seemed to choose a random one half-way through. But I got the visa, and it's very very pretty.
I was actually scared into applying earlier than I needed to (September, when I'm going in January) because I'd read they can only issue 400 visas per Japanese fiscal year (April-March) but I rang the Embassy and they said they rarely run out of visas so worry not.

Now, the rules of the Working Holiday visa.

- You can work full- or part-time but your trip must be 'deemed to be primarily a holiday'.
- You cannot work in nightclubs, bars, gambling parlours etc.
- You pay 20% income tax, although if you have private students, I don't see how they can take it from you
- The visa is single-entry, you must pay for a re-entry permit if you want to leave and come back during the period in which your visa is still valid (see above)
- The visa is valid for 6 months to start with, but you can extend it for another 6 months, to a total of 12 (or 18 if you're Australian). You have to visit your nearest Immigration office with your Alien Registration Card and ask them to extend it for you.

When I applied they also included these two rules:
- You cannot get a sponsor e.g. be employed for a year in one workplace
- You cannot organise work before you go to Japan

But it now (in 2010) seems as though they have retracted these rules, as you can apply for a year's work at companies such as Gaba from your home country.

So I hope this has been helpful if you are interested in applying for a Working Holiday visa, if you have questions you can either comment this post or email me at miles_davies@hotmail.co.uk

Embassy Addresses and Contact Information

United Kingdom:

Embassy of Japan
101-104 Piccadilly
London
W1V 9FN
Main Tel: (020) 465 6500
Visa Tel: (020) 465 6565
Website: http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/
Consulate-General
2 Melville Crescent
Edinburgh
EH3 7HW
Tel: (0131) 225 4777

Ireland:

Embassy of Japan in Ireland
Nutley Building, Merrion Centre,
Nutley Lane, Dublin 4, Ireland
Tel: 01-202-8300

Canada:

Embassy of Japan in Canada
255 Sussex DriveOttawa, Ontario K1N 9E6
Tel: 613-241-8541
Website: http://www.ca.emb-japan.go.jp/

USA:

Embassy of Japan in the United States
2520 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20008
Main Tel: 202-238-6700
Visa Tel: 202-238-6800

New Zealand:

Embassy of Japan in New Zealand
Majestic Centre
100 Willis Street
Wellington
Tel: (09) 473 1540
Website: http://www.japan.org.nz/

Consulate General
ASB Bank Centre
135 Albert Street
Auckland
Tel: (09) 303 4106

Australia:

Embassy of Japan in Canberra
112 Empire Circuit, YARRALUMLA, ACT AUSTRALIA 2600
Tel: +61 2 6273 324

I am sure there are several more, particularly Consulate-Generals across the world but there are links to them from the above websites, or failing that google knows all!