I Could Get Used To This

Week 3 over and I'm starting to feeling a little more settled. I was a few weeks behind my classmates as many of them had already arrived in Japan some weeks prior to starting the class but in my case, I'd had thrown myself in at the deep end and was finally figuring out how to stay afloat.

As I mentioned before my apartment was really conveniently located for all the necessities. I think grocery shopping is a great way to engage with a new country as there are always new and interesting foods to explore and you can learn about what's seasonal. Sometimes promotions will also tell you more about different festivals as you can see what is typically eaten at different times!

I've found so many wonderful and mysterious items at my local supermarkets, some I've tried so far and some I haven't... here's a few of them:

Nom nom nom...

I actually tried these and they were scrummy! Like mince meat filled mochi cakes...

The smallest can of beer ever! For when you just want a little tipple...

Don't say it... don't even think it...

The slightly out of focus tubs are coffee jelly. I'm developing a taste for this now. They even come with little servings of cream syrup!

Using the metro is also easy as the nearest station is just ten mins from my apartment. However, I can also technically walk to Shibuya in 20 mins so probably need to just get into the habit of doing that. Luckily being in the afternoon class, I avoid the worst of the rush hour although I can sometimes get caught in it if I go out after class. As in London though, the evening rush hours are never as bad as the morning so I'm counting my blessings! Another bonus is the all the trains are air conditioned which in the heat is a godsend. Even with a full train, you can stand it as long as there's air con, right?

I use a Pasmo card which I picked up last year when I was on holiday. The fares are much more reasonable than London and I have the option to get a commuter pass as well which could save me quite a lot. In fact, I must get around to sorting this out...

Even with the delights at the supermarket, sometimes you can't help but want to eat out and especially here in Tokyo it's so easy to find delicious places to eat everywhere. You may think 'oh but that would be so expensive' and I'm meant to be on a budget however, knowing the cheaper places to eat out means you can often eat out cheaper than eating at home! After school on Fridays, my classmates and I often go to the Uobei Sushi in Shibuya. The sushi is reasonable and at only 108円 for most plates, it's easy to grab dinner for about 500円 (which is under £3!).

Likewise a hearty bowl of gyudon or other combinations of meat and rice can be attained at Yoshinoya for around the same price. I hope to find more of these as I continue to hunt for cheap eats so will update you when I do!

Aside from generally eating out, the school also has some events for us. On Friday night, there was an izakaya (japanese bar) party where we basically had all you could drink and some food too inclusive. There was a karaoke machine too which was well used! I was a little dismayed though that the first song I was handed the microphone was Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On' which is pretty horrendous but I made it through and soon repaired the damage with One OK Rock's 'The Beginning' which is my favourite cover to do back home :)

At the start of the night - Class 1A-2

This inspired some dangerous thinking after the party and after a short trip to the local Hub Bar (a chain of British inspired pubs that can be found most anywhere) we proceeded to the nearest Karaoke joint for my first taster of 'Free Time'. This is a concept where you can enter the karaoke off peak (usually after 11pm) and stay as long as you like until 5am. Needless to say, we stayed the full length which resulted in me having no voice at all yesterday. We were planning to do it all over again on Tuesday too...

Brave New World

So here's the second part in the catch up posts. So I survived the lead up to my first experience of leaving the UK for something longer than your standard two week holiday but now I was here, on my own and somehow needed to figure everything out...

Landing in Tokyo
This wasn't too scary as I had been through Narita Airport before for two separate trips, however, this time I had chosen to arrive at Haneda and in addition to that, I had additional things that needed to be done to confirm my new visa. In reality, landing at Haneda Airport wasn't that different. In fact, it seemed a little smaller and just as efficient as I had already come to expect of Japan. I was naturally exhausted when I landed as I don't sleep well on planes anyways and it had been a longer journey than normal with sitting around in Paris for 4 hours.

Immigration was fairly simple, I was already accustomed to the forms to complete for visiting but as I had my student visa, some of these were no longer necessary. I completed those that were and heading to the queue. I was directed to the counter with a blue laminated card and once I arrived everything was completed fairly quickly and my residence card (or Zairyu card, 在留カード) was printed and given to me. I admit I made one mistake at this point. Although I already had my friend's address I was too tired and did not give them the full address at this time. This gave me some additional work later on but it wasn't really that bad.

My New Home
I won't go into too much detail here as I am staying with a friend and must respect their privacy. The apartment is a bit smaller than I was expecting however, this works remarkably well as I'm not the kind of person who needs that much space. Obviously the apartment has air con and a convenient balcony which we can use to dry clothes, etc.

The location is great as I am close to pretty much everything I need. Tokyo is, if nothing else, a city of convenience and as long as you have at least one コンビニ nearby, there really isn't much you can't get. However, I'm lucky to not only have a choice of three of these within five minutes but also a smaller and larger supermarket, a post office, a metro station, a pharmacy, a McDonald's, a library and a roof-garden. I really don't think there is anything I will want for in the next six months.

One of the first things I had to sort out was getting my WiFi unit. Now the last two visits, I had used Japan Wireless, who were awesome. They deliver the WiFi unit ordered to your hotel or even the airport you arrive at (if ordered before arrival) and when you are leaving, you simply pop it back in the pre paid envelope and drop it in a post box or at the post office at the airport. This time however, I had not gotten around to sorting this out in advance and the unit I wanted was out of stock when I contacted them. I managed to find another company though who could provide a similar service, Let's Internet jp.

Let's Internet offered a rate of 6,900円 per month for a 75Mbps unit which seemed fairly reasonable so I went for that. My classmate had gone for the same thing and she informed me to watch out for the 7GB 'limit'. This confused me as the package was unlimited but it turns out that although it is indeed unlimited data, after 7GB, a speed restriction automatically applies. You can override it fairly easily by requesting it lifted but this only works for each 500MB requested then you have to repeat the process which is a little annoying. It also transpired during this exchange that I seem to have been automatically upgraded the 165Mbps unit without extra charge due to my requested unit again being out of stock. Bargain! This didn't best please my classmate though :/ As I have pre-paid for 4 months, I assume this will continue to be the case for the four months, might have to replace the unit if they want the higher fee after that though...

Day 1 - Induction at Kai Language School
My first day at school was the day after I arrived so I had barely had a few hours to catch my breath before diving into school life. The induction was mostly in English so it wasn't too taxing. We found out a little more about how the course operated and the different levels and got a goodie bag with information about the local area, reminders to sign up for National Health Insurance and more information about the type of part time work we were allowed to do under our visa (no adult industry work!) It was interesting as another English speaking student from last year helped with translating and it was nice to get a chance to be introduced to some of the staff. I was still not really sure who would be in my class as it seemed the inductions had been staggered but what I could already tell is that there weren't many people from the UK. And the snacks were yummy.

I was pretty exhausted so after this, I returned home to finish sleeping off my jet lag.

Meeting my new Teachers, Classmates and Warming Up Week
Monday brought the first real school day and I finally got a chance to meet my classmates and teacher. The first week was referred to as warming up week and this consisted of reviewing the Hiragana that we should have learnt already, (luckily, I felt relatively confident with this and flash card self training for the past year) and our first 50 words of vocab. This was all summed up by a mini test on the Friday. Yup. That's right, my first test was on the Friday of the very first week.

My classmates consist of a mix of people of different ages and nationalities but everyone is really nice so I feel pretty lucky to be in this class. We have two people from Sweden, one from Spain, one from Australia, one from Indonesia, one from Venezuela, one from Denmark, two from Taiwan, one from Belgium and myself. I have also discovered that we have not one but two teachers! It seems the teachers alternative so we have a Ujie-san on Mon, Wed and Fri and Suzuki-san on Tues and Thurs. They are both really awesome though. Energetic and encouraging and it's making learning so much so quickly more achievable. It was actually nice that the first week was mostly reviewing things for me as I was having enough trouble settling...

So Homesick!
Now I've mentioned I've already been to Japan twice, right? Settling down here should be a doddle by now. Wrong!! I think there's a completely different mind set when you visit somewhere as to when you move there and this made homesickness (a relatively new concept to me) a reality in only the first few weeks. Maybe it was because I had visited before that the novelty factor was missing and the excitement waned too quickly but I found myself beginning to miss home and especially my boyfriend so badly in just the first few weeks. Knowing it wasn't just a few weeks on a futon on the hard floor and I could go back to my big double bed made it more difficult to accept some of the changes the way I would if it was a holiday. At first, I found myself surprised by the cold weather (we had freak snow on the 8th April!) as I had only brought summer clothes remembering the heat from last year and ironically the UK had so much unusually warm weather that my friends were boasting about beer gardens while I was wearing my hoodie and borrowing winter coats.

Luckily both the weather and the homesickness have started to improve now. I've started to make more friends in my class and I'm lucky enough to be able to Skype with my boyfriend almost daily as well as message regularly so slowly but surely I'm starting to feel more at home. I'm sure once I've completely settled, I'll realise it's nearly time to go home. Time is already flying!

Registration and National Health Insurance
There was one more thing I had to do to complete my residency here in Tokyo and that was the extra task I had given myself as described above at the airport. Because I had not registered my address, it was imperative I do this within two weeks of entering the country. I had delayed this due to my low mood and crappy weather and... well every excuse under the sun but I finally made it to the ward office on the day of the deadline to complete the simple exercise of giving them my address. This is something that not only foreigners but Japanese nationals have to do whenever they move into a ward (like a borough back in the UK). The same is true when moving out of one. You have to de-register in the ward you were living in and re-register in the new ward (unless you're moving in the same ward, in which case, just do both at once). I hopefully don't expect to move again until I leave the country so should only have to de-register at the end.

The additional part of this was the National Health Insurance. In Japan, all residents staying more than 3 months (even foreigners) must, by law, register for National Health Insurance. This covers you for 70% of the cost for any medical treatment you require while here. Hopefully I won't need any but this is also the reason travel insurance is essential as the remaining 30% would need to be covered by yourself unless you register in an additional insurance scheme such as with the school or an employer. This resulted in me getting another card to carry around, joy(!).

And that was the final step to being a resident in Tokyo and getting on with starting my new life.

Taking the plunge (sort of)

Hey All,

It's been quite a while since my last post but I have exciting news. I've moved to Tokyo! I arrived here on the 2nd April so it's been a couple of weeks. Apologies that I took some time to get around to updating this blog but there's been so much to take in it's been a bit of a whirlwind. But what this means is there's absolutely loads to fill you in on!

I guess I'll start with explaining how this came about and how I got here so here goes Part 1: Taking the Plunge!

Deciding to Move
After visiting Japan twice last year, I had caught the bug and missed it so much when I went back. I missed the food and my friends and just the whole atmosphere of the place. I missed the little gestures, that Japanese people are so accustomed to, such as the care with which they will pack and wrap your 弁当 (packed lunch) that you just bought at the コンビニ (convenience store) even thought your just about to unwrap and eat it anyway, or the politeness with which they apologise proficiently if they can't accommodate your request, even if it was unlikely anyway.

Visiting on holiday is all well and good but my friends in Japan kept encouraging me, why don't you come and stay for longer? Promotional articles appealed with the supposed ease of finding a job as an English teacher but I was in the unfortunate category that being over the age of 30 (shock horror), I was unable to get a working holiday visa as many others do. This left two options, find a job that would sponsor me to move to Japan or, become a student again. I investigated into the option of the JET programme that several others had been a part of but it seemed that despite having a Masters level qualification, I did not have a BA degree and therefore, I could not apply. This was incredibly frustrating but there was nothing to be done so... I decided that as I was trying this whole learning Japanese thing anyway, why don't I just go out there and study there?

Picking A School
I looked into several study programmes from 4 week summer courses to longer term schools. Go Go Nihon were really helpful in discussing the different schools and finally I settled on Kai Language School in Shin-Ōkubo. I chose this school for two reasons, firstly location, location, location. I knew that I wanted to be fairly central. I also stayed in the Shinjuku area both times I was in Tokyo last year so I was fairly familiar with the area. A little familiarity was never a bad thing. Kai also boasted a strong experience teaching foreigners with no experience of Kanji. That was kinda important as I knew that in classes with many Chinese students I could be left trailing without understanding the kanji they way they were able to. This isn't to say the other option weren't close competitors but with such little difference I could see between them I opted for familiar ground.

Go Go Nihon!
Making the application was really easy, I simply sent an inquiry through the website and was replied to via email promptly (in English) with all the information I needed to provide and the fees that would be due and when. Once I had completed the application form they sent me and paid the fee, all that was left to do was wait to hear.

The school accepted me after requesting a little more info about my Masters level qualification and proceeded to apply for my student visa on my behalf. This meant completing a few more bits of info, sending some passport photos. And a lot more waiting...

While I was waiting, Go Go Nihon informed me that I should take a level test to assess which level I should enter the school at. Now, I knew I didn't know my grammar properly and only new some words through osmosis and therefore requested that I simply join the beginners class to get all my basics covered. I was also lucky as when it came to finding somewhere to live, my Japanese friend kindly offered my to stay at hers and just help towards bills. As I understand the process of renting in Japan can be extremely costly for foreigners, I was extremely grateful.

Change of Plans?
Then there was a glitch. I decided to stop working in October which was a fair bit of time before I was due to head to Tokyo and also I met my boyfriend in December. Both of these things suddenly forced me to reconsider my timing. In terms of funds, I was lower than I had planned due to only getting a temporary job a few months before leaving and also, I was reluctant to leave my boyfriend but... I asked a few questions and realised that I would lose the application fee and also more importantly realised it would just be harder to leave later so forged ahead. I think as it was my first plan to live in another country, this type of cold feet feeling was most likely completely normal.

Certified!
At last I received the pack from the school with my Certificate of Eligibility which meant I could go get my student visa at last! This process was remarkably easy. I simply went to the Embassy of Japan in London, dropped off my Certificate and the relevant forms that I was instructed to complete by the school and paid £20. One week later, another quick trip to the Embassy and I was reunited with my passport with a shiny new sticker attached!

The last preparations before I left consisted of the all important travel insurance. This was important as normal travel insurance does not cover you for long stays like this. I hunted around for a while and was a little surprised as to how much more expensive it was than normal trip insurance but finally managed to source one under £100. Go Walkabout travel insurance were the most reasonably priced travel insurance and being that you have to join the National Health Insurance in Japan anyway, it covered more than enough including allowing me to work, travel around and even scuba dive!

Sayounara England! 
The last few weeks before I left were crazy and I always knew it was going to be difficult to say good bye to everyone. I panicked about packing as trying to figure out what I might need for six months was mind boggling. I resorted to being super conservative, knowing that I could wash clothes here and just need to stay as cool as possible in the heat. My final suitcase consisted of:

A spare pair of jeans (I wore one out here)
2 pairs of 3/4 length baggy trousers
1 smart pair of trousers for job hunting
4 dresses, one pair of leggings
5 vest tops
7 T-shirts
3 evening tops
A cardigan, pyjamas and underwear
Contact lenses to last
Laptop, tablet and phone plus chargers

I'm undecided if I will be able to resist buying a few extra items of clothes here but for now, this is doing fine...

I got whisked away by my boyfriend, had a meals with all my friends and another with my family and packed up my laptop and got on the flight. Somehow. I got given Mr Kitty to watch over me (pictured above)

So there you have it, the last six months of my life were scary, frustrating and hectic. I expect the next six months will be pretty much the same. I'll continue with my experiences from arriving to starting school and onwards so hope this might be interesting or useful to others!