Monday, August 31, 2009

Typhoon!

It's my first experience of a real Japanese typhoon! It's typhoon number 11 (台風11号), which just means that it's the 11th typhoon to reach Japan this year.

This is where my Geography geekiness comes in handy! The weather has changed over the last three days to reflect the course of the weather system.

On Saturday it was brilliant sunshine, with clear blue skies and temperatures in excess of 30C. By Saturday evening it had clouded over a bit, and the night was very hot and sticky, as the heat of the day was trapped over Tokyo.
Sunday morning was also cloudy and humid, and then light rain broke out in the afternoon. The humidity rose to around 90% but the temperature dropped from high-20s to mid-20s.
Then today (Monday) was awful! The heavens opened from around 10am to 4pm. The rain was extremely strong at times, as was the wind. The temperature dropped to low 20s, and I was actually cold! It's August people! What's going on?

There was high humidity (about 96%) and the sky was low and grey. The rain made visibility very poor. I suppose I should be used to it by now, being British, but after the heat of the last few days since arriving, it was quite a shock to the system!

My friend Rob lost his umbrella to the wind, and had to throw it away and buy a new one to get home under.

In the evening we saw some Japanese news on the TV in the lounge, and there were reports from Chiba perfecture's (千葉県) eastern coast of huge waves crashing against the beaches and high winds causing damage. Chiba is the prefecture directly east of Tokyo, where Tokyo International Airport (Narita) is located, and where the eastern reaches of Greater Tokyo finally end.

The typhoon won't hit land fully, but instead will swing north this evening and follow Japan's north-eastern coast before dissipating. This typhoon wasn't a bad one, but some can destroy entire towns and infrastructure, and kill. So far only three people have been injured, and no deaths reported, as this news report describes.

It's been very interesting for me to see a typhoon, as I missed Japan's typhoon season (August-October) last year. The weather is due to return to normal over the next couple of days. The forecast says that the clouds should clear by noon tomorrow and temperatures will return to high-20s, and might hit 30C again later in the week.

And that concludes マイルズの天気予報!

Alien Registration & National Health Insurance

Today, Rob, Katy and I met up with Chihoko and walked to the Koganei City Office to register as official aliens, and start the procedures to buy Japanese National Health Insurance (国民健康保険, kokumin kenkou hoken), which we need to do as we're studying at a Japanese University.

It was pouring with rain, really heavily, so we all had our umbrellas up. It was due to a typhoon (台風11号, the eleventh typhoon of the year) passing right by the Kanto region. We all went out in T-shirts and shorts like we had been for the past few days but for the first time since arriving, I was actually cold! I was actually shivering by the end of the day, because the rain combined with the strong wind was very unpleasant!

The Foreign Registration desk was on the first floor so we walked in and took seats straight away. They gave us application forms to fill in, and spoke some English so it quite easy to do it. I remembered some of it from last time I had to register as an alien in Chuo-ku.

To get an Alien Card (外国人登録証, gaikokujin tourokushou) you need:
- valid passport
- 2 standard passport photos (4.5cm x 3.5cm)
- completed application form (supplied by the city office)

After you get the card you can use it to open bank accounts and buy mobile phones, and it also acts as a proxy for your passport, so you don't need to carry your passport round with you as ID.

After finishing the application process, and paying Y200 each for the certificates for the bank and phone companies, proving we had applied for the card, we got an A4 certificate that can be used like an Alien Card until the real one is ready for collection. Ours should be ready in mid-September, so we'll go back and collect them in a couple of weeks.

After that, we headed upstairs to the second floor and waited for the desk handling the Health Insurance to be free. We were called up separately and were talked through (in Japanese, but with Chihoko's help we all understood) the procedure. We signed some documents and were told that we'd be informed by post when we could go to the post office to pay for it.

We couldn't write down our individual room numbers because they only had our guesthouse as a whole in their system. We were a bit worried about how the letters would reach us, but we remembered that at the guesthouse head office they had told us we could register our individual addresses, including room numbers, at a post office. So off we went, in the heavy rain, to the nearest post office.

We asked for the relevant forms, which seemed quite simple, until we realised we'd filled in the wrong sections. We asked for new forms, and Rob and Katy both seemed very dishearted that we looked like ばか外人, baka gaijin), or stupid foreigners, but I think I've grown so accustomed to making stupid mistakes that I didn't really mind!

We filled the new forms in and gave them back. They took longer with mine than with the other two, but there didn't seem to be any fatal errors, so I assume it'll be okay!

We then met Rob's friend Kazuya, who met us at a Softbank phone shop. Rob wanted to buy a pay-as-you-go (プリペイド, prepaid) phone, like I did nearly two years ago (I couldn't believe it was that long ago!) but of course he had trouble like I did. Not as much trouble admittedly, because he's over 20, but he had to go into a shop, and with Chihoko's kind help, order one. They said they'd email or ring him (through my phone) in a week or two when it's ready for him to collect.

Then we relaxed and went to a Japanese McDonald's! It was my very first Japanese McDonald's meal, as I purposefully avoided it last time I lived here. I wanted to try something you can't get in Britain, so I went for a Teriyaki burger. It was nice but the teriyaki sauce was slightly too sweet for my taste. The chips were exactly the same as in Britain, and the others said their food tasted identical, so if you're ever feeling homesick here you know where to turn!

We chatted for a while and then all headed back to the guesthouse to do some kanji study. Big placement test on Thursday! We need to be prepared!

Tomorrow we're meeting a good friend of ours called Georgie, who's in Tokyo for just one day. We need to decide where to show her! I hope the rain clears up though, the typhoon is due to move north, but I hope it clears Tokyo in time!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Return to Shinjuku

We went into Shinjuku (新宿) today to buy some textbooks we need for self-study. It was so amazing to go back there! I remember saying goodbye to it with my Thai housemate over a year ago really clearly!

Shinjuku is the centre of Tokyo, where all the government buildings are. The station is the busiest in the world, with over 60 exits, and 3 million people passing through each day. It's such an amazing place to walk around, there's such an exciting buzz.
From where I'm living now, it takes about 25 minutes by rapid (快速, kaisoku) train, which is about the same as from my previous house, just from the opposite direction.

We came out of the New South Exit, and wanted to find Kinokuniya bookstore (紀伊國屋書店) to get our books. I'd been to Shinjuku more times than the others, so they said they'd follow me. I wasn't sure, but I went with my instinct, and I found it straight away! I was really surprised I could remember where it was, as I'd only been there once to buy a book as a birthday present for a housemate two Aprils ago.

We got the books we needed, had a late lunch and then headed back in the early evening. Because it was a Sunday, it wasn't very busy and the train back wasn't at all crowded. I'm sure we'll be getting some crammed ones home from Shinjuku soon!

Here are some photos I took around the area. Sorry about the grey sky - it was umbrella weather as a typhoon is heading towards Tokyo. It's due to hit the coast and then move north tomorrow, so we're preparing for downpours!










ICU Campus

Yesterday Rob, Katy, our friend from ICU, Chihoko, and I went to our University, the International Christian University.

We met Chihoko at Musashi Koganei station (武蔵小金井駅) after a trip to our neighbourhood police box (交番, kouban) because Katy had lost her camera. It was the first time I'd been into a kouban when I wasn't just asking for directions, and I thought they were very helpful.

Chihoko said that the closest station to ICU was Musashi Sakai (武蔵境), which is two stops on the JR Chuo line from us. The tickets cost Y150 single. From the station, we followed her lead and walked to ICU. There is a bus (no. 93) from Musashi Sakai station to the Uni but we didn't want to take that as we wanted to explore, and it costs Y210. We worked out that if we took that route and used both the train and the bus twice a day five days a week, it would cost Y7,200, which is just too much to spend on transport. I can claim my travel costs back from my city council, but it's still a lot of money I wouldn't get back for a long time.

It was the hottest day so far, with the maximum temperature reaching 32 or 33C. The humidity wasn't too bad, but the hot sun made the long walk quite difficult. Plus I wasn't wearing sun tan lotion, and as I'm British, that's a very bad idea! Because we weren't rushing, and we were stopping to take photos every so often, it took just over an hour to get into the campus from the station, with a total journey time of an hour and twenty minutes. But we thought we could do the whole thing in under an hour if we sped up, plus it'd be easier once the weather cooled down for autumn and winter.

We finally reached the front gate and we were all very excited to see the University for the first time. The kanji in the name is pronounced "Kokusai Kirisuto-kyou Daigaku".



I'd seen photos of the road leading into the campus before I even knew I'd be studying here. It's beautiful in cherry blossom season, so I'm looking forward to seeing that around my birthday next spring.



There was a lot of nature around, and the roar of cicadas was extremely loud near the woods.






The campus was really nice. You would never have guessed it was in Tokyo. It was quiet because it was a Saturday, but I'm really looking forward to seeing it bustling with students. It should be a great place to study!
We walked back to the station and had ramen (Chinese noodles) for dinner in a small traditional restaurant nearby, before heading back to Musashi Koganei. We went into a shop and bought a couple of things we needed (I wanted an umbrella because a typhoon is heading our way tomorrow) and then, as we were passing the station to head back to the guesthouse, we spotted a map of the local area. And then we saw that ICU was probably closer to us than Musashi Sakai! We checked what route we'd take and took photos. So our plan for tomorrow is to go to the City Office and register as offical aliens, and buy National Health Insurance, which is compulsory for exchange students, and then try to walk to the campus from our guesthouse. We'll see how long it takes, but if we can walk it in a reasonable time, then that's a good cheap option! The route looks nice too, along a river most of the way.
My Matriculation Ceremony is on Wednesday so I now have three days to get ready and prepare for all the work that's coming my way soon!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Guesthouse

My guesthouse for this trip is situated west of Central Tokyo, in one of the cities that make up Tokyo Prefecture. It's called 小金井市 (Koganei-shi) and my closest station is 武蔵小金井駅 (Musashi Koganei eki), which is about 20 minutes from Shinjuku on the JR Chuo line (中央線).

The guesthouse is about 10 or 15 minutes walk from the station, down quite a steep hill. It's about 2km/1.5 miles from my University, ICU, which isn't bad as we might be able to walk that. I know some people who go to Uni in Tokyo but live in Yokohama and have to get three trains, taking over two hours twice a day!

The guesthouse is one of many belonging to the company "Tokyo Artistic Guesthouse", which has lots of different locations in the Western suburbs, whereas Sakura House, who I stayed with last time, have houses in the centre.

Here's the front of my guesthouse:

This is the front entrance, where we leave our shoes.
This is one of the colourful vans that we were picked up in on our first day.

My room is smaller than the one I had last time, although that was surprisingly big. This room has plenty of room for me and my stuff, so it'll be fine. It's on the third floor (that's Japanese third, British second floor), which is the boys' floor. The girls' and couples' floor is the second, and then mixed on the first floor.
Each room has internet (you need your own ethernet/LAN cable), TV (terrestrial channels only), fridge and freezer, bed, air conditioner (Y100 for 3 hours, although you can pause it and use the rest of the money later). I'm not sure if all the rooms have these things, but my room also has a chest of drawers, a desk, a shelving unit, balcony (shared with four other rooms) and a wardrobe.
A couple of things worried me when we checked in and signed the contract. They told us that sometimes the internet gets very slow when lots of people are using it. Because of this, it automatically reboots every hour, rendering the tenants internet-less for a few minutes at a time. This has been fine so far, nothing bad has happened! But they did warn us that Skype Video chat might be too much for the over-crowded line, and it might not work. This would be awful because that's how I used to stay in contact with my family! They're on holiday at the moment so I haven't had the chance to check it, but my fingers are tightly crossed!
Something else they told us was that each room is limited to the use of 20 amps at a time, which means that if too many appliances are running at a time, the fuse could blow, and then a manager has to come and sort out the electricity. I'll have to watch what I use!




I'm settling into life here now I think. After three nights I've started to adjust to the different way of living. The showers and kitchen are on the bottom floor so it's much further to go than in Sakura House, where everything was on the same small floor. But I do have a TV and my own fridge!

At first I found the bed really uncomfortable, despite having two futon covers under me, so I went to a department store near the station, Ito Yokado, and bought a rug for Y2,900 to fold under the covers, which has made it much better now, although I'm still considering taking it back and swapping it for a proper futon matress. I need good sleep to function!

Hopefully this place will be a nice home for me over the next year. It's quite empty at the moment, but I'm sure that the rooms will fill up soon!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Arrival in Japan

First things first - wooo, I'm here!

It's lovely to be back in Tokyo! I hadn't realised how much I missed it until I got on the train and started seeing places I remembered. Especially when we passed the Shinjuku skyscraper district - I love those buildings!

But anyway, I should start at the beginning. My family and I drove down to London Heathrow airport on Wednesday morning. It took about an hour and a half, despite part of the motorway being closed due to a gas leak. We parked and walked up to Terminal 3, where I heard my name shouted by Rob, one of the other students going to ICU. Katy, the other one of the three of us, was already there, along with another student going to a different University we were flying out with. There was one other too, but we decided not to wait for him before we checked in. There was no queue at the JAL desk, and we all got in with no problems. I'm sure our bags were overweight, but the woman didn't say anything - maybe she took pity on us!

I met my family upstairs and we had lunch. My stomach was churning like crazy, with that bizarre mix of anxiety and excitement. I managed to eat a jacket potato and the hour passed very quickly. It was too quick! Suddenly I was saying goodbye to my family again, with tears in my eyes. We had done it before, and we knew what goodbyes are like. But of course that doesn't make them any easier!

I waved until I had passed into the security check with the other four. I was okay then, because I started focussing on the next section of the journey. I didn't beep at the metal detector, which was surprising! All my stuff was okay, despite being overweight, but of course they don't weigh hand luggage.

We made our way down to Gate 27 and had our boarding passes checked. I realised that I'd meant to ask if there were any aisle seats available, because my long legs are awful in cramped seats. I asked at the gate if there were any aisle seats available, and they said that a party hadn't turned up, and I could have their seats if they didn't arrive in time. I waited for about 15 minutes and the party didn't check in so I moved four rows back, so not too far from the rest of my group, who were spread across two rows, but where I could sit more comfortably. I'm very glad I asked!

The 11 hour 45 minute flight went much quicker than I thought it would. I watched one and a half films, and then tried, largely unsuccessfully, to sleep for the rest of the time. I think I got about 3 hours in the end, but it was very hard to tell because I kept waking up to readjust my position.

I wasn't nearly as worried or stressed as when I first arrived in Japan. I knew where everything was, and that I was with other people, and we were being met by locals. Everything felt much safer and more secure than last time!

We went through the swine flu check and immigration like a breeze. Narita Airport is so quiet and calm, it's the exact opposite of British airports. They took my fingerprints and photo at immigration, just like last time, and checked my visa. I think the inspector was a little perplexed at seeing two visa stamps in my passport, but he didn't ask any questions.

We left the customs check with no problems (you have to fill out two forms on the plane, one for immigration, and one for customs) because we weren't carrying any prohibited or restricted items. Then we met Rob's good friend and a couple of students from ICU who I'd been in contact with. They were all really really nice and helped us all with our heavy baggage. We bought tickets to 東小金井 (Higashi Koganei), which is where the head office of our guesthouse company is. From Narita Airport (outside Tokyo to the east) to the western suburbs where we're living, it took about two hours, and three trains. It was quite hot (around 30C) and humid, especially as we weren't used to it, but not as bad as I remembered it being. Maybe it was because it's the end of August, rather than the beginning, which is when I left last year. But Rob's friend said that Japan's summer this year had been cooler overall than average. That's not a problem with me!

Watching the scenery flash by as we made our way through central Tokyo was amazing. I recognised so many places, and just looking at the train map brought back fond memories of last time. We were all very tired, and everything seemed a bit like a dream, I think particularly for Katy, who has never been to Japan before. But we got to Higashi Koganei station with no problems, thanks to our local guides. We thanked them very much and were then picked up in a brightly coloured van and taken to the office. The office was right by a small wooded area, and there was a deafening roar of cicadas! I'd never heard anything like it. I really hoped I wouldn't be able to hear any from my room. We were talked through the contract and the rules of the guesthouse, and we paid our deposits and first month's rent.

That took just over an hour, and then they drove us to our guesthouse. I was glad we could go straight there even though it was late afternoon, because they had said that if we didn't arrive by 15:30, we might not be able to check in that day, and would have to stay in temporary rooms in the head office. We were shown to our rooms, and we sorted everything out, and then were left to it.

We were all a bit dazed and confused, but we knew we couldn't go to sleep, as it was only 6pm, so we met Rob's friend again in the town near the station, and went for some dinner in an izakaya (Japanese pub). We got back at about 21:30, and I was dead to the world by half past 10, and I slept dead through until 6:30am this morning, when I woken up, either by the bright sunlight (the curtains here are just as transparent as in Sakura House last year) or the gradual heat as the room warmed up.

Today we did some shopping and bought some food while exploring the local area, and I'm feeling quite comfortable here. We made our first group meal this evening, noodles with beef in a tomato sauce. I think that's a really good way to save money, as the meal split between the three of us was only Y380. We'll definitely be doing that a lot!

I'm fully unpacked now, and I'm feeling much more like it's a home now. Everything has its place and I'm getting used to the layout of the house. Tomorrow we're going to try to figure out the best route to ICU. Wish us luck!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Packed and Ready!

I'm packed! It's taken about 7 hours in total, but I'm finally packed into three bags, and everything is organised. I'm really glad it's fallen into place, because I haven't been feeling very confident about it at all! But as I was packing up my life (again!) and thinking about what I'd need in various situations, it all started to feel more real. I might wake up tomorrow morning and feel sick to my stomach, but for now I'm okay.

Tonight I'm having dinner and an evening in with my family, and then tomorrow we'll drive down to Heathrow and I'll catch my 16.35 flight to Tokyo Narita. So my next post will be from Tokyo! I'm so excited!!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Unprepared!

While I'm physically quite ready for Japan, except for actually packing everything up, mentally I'm not feeling prepared at all. It doesn't feel like I'll actually be going in nine days. It might be because I'm working full time (today is my only day off this week) until Saturday, so I don't have a lot of spare time to think through everything. That might be a blessing in disguise though, because it means I can't overthink and start to worry about every little detail, which I am prone to doing.

But what I really don't want to happen is that I'll arrive in Japan and be shocked that I'm there for a year. I usually use worry as a mental cushion so I feel prepared for things, but I don't think that will happen this time! I'll try to use the next week to plan things and hopefully that will make it more real. I also don't want to forget something important because I haven't thought about it thoroughly enough.

Last week I went down to Wiltshire to say goodbye to my grandparents, and some of my extended family and friends, with my youngest brother and that did help settle my mind a bit. It made it feel a little more real, as I was saying "goodbye and see you in a year" to everyone.

This morning I went through a box of everything I brought back from Japan last time and took out things I might need for this trip. It was stuff like my inkan name stamp, Softbank phone information, old bank book, and the lists of things I had to do when I first arrived last January.

I have Sunday to Tuesday to pack and sort everything out, and then we'll drive down to Heathrow airport on Wednesday lunchtime. Not long at all!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Student Visa!

My visa arrived in the post about five minutes ago. My brother signed for it at the door, apparently the postman was about to leave, so I'm very glad I asked Dom to go and answer the door!

At first I thought they hadn't sent me my Certificate of Eligibility, but it turned out they had stapled it into my passport. The visa stamp looks exactly the same as my Working Holiday one, but it says "As College Student" under Category instead of "Working Holiday".

I'm a bit confused because the length of stay says 15 months, but the visa expiry date says 30th July 2010, which is a year after the issue date. Hmm... Plus I thought the visa was valid for 15 months after the date of entry into Japan. Well, last time they stamped my passport and stuck a sticker in it which had different dates to my visa on them, so maybe that will happen again. We'll see. But the important thing is - I got my visa!

Flights done, accommodation done, insurance done, visa done... Now it's just all the random things that need doing! I'm off to the bank today so that'll be something else ticked off the list.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Flights, Accommodation & Insurance

I know this post's title is a bit "can't be bothered to do separate posts for each" but I thought it would be better to do one long one than three short ones.

I booked my flights about a month ago using Gendai Travel, which is a travel agent based in London that specialises in cheap flights to different cities in Japan. You can't book online, so I rang them up and spoke to a very nice Korean woman who helped me get on the same flight as the four other people from Leeds University who I'm flying out with.

The return flight cost £545 with Japan Airlines (JAL) and we leave on the afternoon of Wednesday 26th August from London Heathrow, arriving just after noon at Tokyo Narita. It's about a 12 hour flight, which will be trying! But the five of us will be very excited and chatting the whole way there so it should be fine. The price is very good so we were lucky to find them quite close to the departure date.

The only problem with the flights is that the hold baggage allowance is only 20kg, and the cabin allowance is 10kg. So if I can't fit everything I'll need for the year into those two bags, I'll have to ship some things out.

For accommodation, the two other people from Leeds Uni going to ICU, two others going to the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), which is the next-door university, and I, are going to stay in a guesthouse. I stayed in a guesthouse last time I went to Japan, where you have a private bedroom, and then share bathroom and kitchen facilities with the other residents. The guesthouse was recommended by a student who did an exchange with ICU last year, and the company is called Tokyo Artistic Guesthouse. We researched and thought that they had a good price and they had lots of choice in terms of location. We reserved five rooms in the one closest to both ICU and TUFS, in Koganei City (小金井市), online, and it was very easy to do it all with the online reservation form. There was a special offer on at the time and it will cost about Y60,000 per month, which is Y20,000 cheaper than the one I stayed in last year, but of course that one was much more central than this one.

We could have applied for University accommodation, either on or off campus, but we had heard that Japanese University dorms are very strict in terms of curfews and not having people in your rooms, and you also most likely have to share a room with another student. I don't mind sharing a room with someone else for a short time, and it would be lovely to get to know someone that well, but I feel I need more privacy than that set-up would provide. The others felt the same way, so we decided to go for the private option.

And finally, insurance! I looked around a little bit for different policies, but then the University of Leeds offered us their own, which cost only £50 and was very comprehensive. It was good and cheap so I went for that one. It only covers me for one year, so I have to leave Japan before 25th August 2010.

So that's it! Quite a bit of information, but at least it's all sorted now. I need to keep working at Cadbury World and finishing my list of things to do before I leave in just three weeks and three days! Eeek!