My journal preparing and in Japan

Sorry for no Updates

Wej — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:31:03 +0000

It has been busy here for awhile now. Any time I become free, I also become lazy. This week is test week, so I can’t update now. But, after test week I may be able to get some posted. If not, wait till the beginning of January, and I will post everything. I am going to Tokyo from the 27th to the 31st for an anime convention, Comiket. After that, I will start posting more. I will try to build up a habit so it doesn’t get backed up like this again.

Osaka Castle

Wej — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:44:26 +0000

A bunch of British girls came to the hostel we were staying in. We thought it wouldn’t be that bad. They went out drinking Thursday night, and came back. 1 of them snores really loud, and she knew that. She didn’t want to sleep with the rest of the girls that night because she didn’t want to wake them up, but decided it was alright to wake me up and keep me up all night…

On Friday morning, really early since I wasn’t able to sleep, we decided to go to some park, not really having an idea of what was there. We took the subway and popped out near Crystal Building

(click the pictures for full size)

I look over to the side and see

Yay, a castle, lets head there. It took some time to walk there:

The castle area was surrounded by two rivers like this one:

We eventually got there:

We were able to enter for only about 600 yen, so we did. There are 8 floors, most of them were museum stuffs. But on the 8th floor, we were able to look out from the top of the castle.

This is the rest of the area in the Osaka castle place.

One of those statue things on top.

Where we walked from.

It was fun going there, and the first place in Japan we went that makes you think of Japan.

I was really worn out then, but we headed to the anime store 1 last time. After that, we rested for the rest of the day.

That night, to prevent the British girl from sleeping in my area, the girl with me, slept in the bunk where that British girl slept, and we blocked the other beds and ladders with our stuff. We were going to head out early anyway. We were first going to go straight to school from where we were, but didn’t want to risk getting lost with all of our stuff. We headed back to the airport so the Kansai Gaidai pickup could take us there. We easily found our way back to the airport.

The next post will be of the Seminar houses, school, and homestay house.

Japan – Exploring Osaka

Wej — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 06:56:41 +0000

The first days before they allowed us in the dorms (4 nights in the hostel, only 10,000 yen ($100…about…)) all we did was explore Osaka. The girl I came with went exploring on her own, and so I decided to as well. I went outside the hostel and walked straight for about 1 hour. I saw a lot, but all there was was a city, nothing that felt like Japan, ignoring the Kanji at least.

(Click the pictures to see a bigger image)

I went back to the hostel and studied for about 2 hours, and the girl came back. She told me that the subway all day passes were only 850 yen ($8.50 just divide by 100 gets a close estimate. The dollar really sucks right now though, so it is more like around $9, but we will pretend). She gave me her all day pass, and I went to the subway system in Namba, and got off at Umeda, not really too far from each other.

I walked a random direction and found a very very long inside mall type thing. There were two halls and 3 – 4 floors with stuff on them. This thing was so long, they had roads going through them… you had to walk outside then back inside of course. There were a lot of clothes stores, like any other mall. I managed to find a watch shop and bought a cheap watch since I didn’t have one.

After exploring that mall for about 2 hours, I was walking back, and one of the roads that went through it had an “arcade” as they are called, intersecting it. An arcade is basically an outside mall. I decided to follow that. This was also very very very long. Inside this arcade was small shops and big multistory shops. This shopping area is incredibly crowded too. Well…time for pictures.

This is basically what the arcades look like… but sometimes, there is even more people.

This was in the middle of the arcade. Was really cool.

Well, that was that day. A very crowded day it was.

The next day, the girl took me to the anime store she found. It was a giant 4 story building =D. The store didn’t open until Noon, so we walked around a little. We also had… Takoyaki… Basically, octopus ball things. It didn’t taste bad (not good either), but something about chewy, creamy and crunchy didn’t go down right. I could barely stop myself from gagging…

Anyway, pictures of the area… I swear… I had more then this…

Yay for the anime store, Mandaraki

I spent a whole lot less then I thought, but I got what I wanted and a game. Oh, mangas are INCREDIBLY cheap here… You would expect them to be, but still… In America, be it because they pay a lot more people and taxes and whatnot, it is about $10 – $20 per manga. Here, the ones I looked at, were about 100 – 500 yen ($1 – $5) mostly…

After that, we went to a 4 story giant book store called book 1st.

The problem was getting across the incredibly confusing street in order to get there. I only bought this really easy language book made for foreigners. I could have bought them in the US but they were cheaper here.

Then we went to another arcade to look around.

That just about does it for that day. Well, we did see this really weird nonJapanese building among normal looking ones…

There are A LOT of soda vending machines, probably at least 2 every 20 feet (barely an exaggeration). But I was surprised to see

(They are actually all over) Ya… And they think that only 20 year olds (legal age) will smoke?? They also have beer vending machines, which the legal age is also 20. Good luck…

The next day, well… That will be on the next post (and the type of pictures you would expect from Japan)

Japan – First Day

Wej — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:36:54 +0000

Words of advice, never bring over 100 pounds of stuff to Japan. Way to hard to drag around.

Well, it has been about 3 weeks since I left for Japan and I haven’t posted a damn thing… Why? You go to a foreign country and try to take time out of exploring to post… But, I found time I guess… This post will be about my first experiences.

(Click the images for get a bigger image)

Ok, it was a 12 hour flight here. Someone told me it was going to be 8, which didn’t make since at all, but it was 12. I mainly just tried to sleep (and didn’t) and watched 2 movies. They provided 2 meals (both looked like this:)

, and a little sandwich in between, as well as all you can drink stuffz. The bathrooms were not that bad either. Overall, it was easier then people said it was.

By the way, every country looks the same from above. We went from Texas through Canada through Alaska then through Russia, then finally saw Japan.

First site of Japan.

When we first landed in Osaka KIX airport, it was relatively easy to get through customs and whatnot. Exchanging the money (god the American dollar sucks) was also easy. Now for the hard part…

We knew where we wanted to go, but didn’t know the train stations at all… So what do we do? Well, we go to the JR line place and tell them where we wanted to go. They gave us the ticket, and then we headed to the train. We had no idea which one to get on. So, just waiting there, trying to figure out which way to go, I eventually found a cop guy. He told me to jump on a certain one. So we did. It took maybe about 30 – 45 minutes to get to where we were headed. We surprisingly found everything without taking a wrong turn. Once we got to the hostel, we found out that they were all out of rooms. They called another hostel, and we headed there.

We got on the right train somehow, and found the place without taking a wrong turn. It was a pretty nice place.

A top view from the hostel a day later.

A random picture of the airport for you

Last Day Here

Wej — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:56:15 +0000

This is the last day I will be in Utah. I land in Japan on the 25th. I will make a post when I have the internet.

I finished everything that I remember I need to do. I got travel insurance and canceled my car insurance and put my sister on my bank. All is good.

There is no way in hell I am going to be able to sleep well tonight. Lets hope these sleeping pills work.

No more school, about 1 more week till departure!!!

Wej — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:30:55 +0000

I finished school on the 15th. Thank god. Now I have 1 more week to do everything I need to do before I leave.

I received the Certificate of Eligibility and had that sent in to get my Visa. I received that back as well, so all set there.

I have transfered all the bills into my friends name, and we signed me off the lease to our apartment. Everything in that area is taken care of.

I bought a years worth of cat food so the people taking care of them doesn’t have to go to the vet and buy them since it is a special kind I have to feed them that you can only get at the vet.

The only thing I really need to do now is think about what type of insurance to get. I can just get the National Japanese insurance and pay about $18 a month. If something happens (not including a traffic accident, which they don’t cover) they will only pay 70% though. I can find better coverage for about $200 – $300, which I am going to look into tomorrow.

Oh, I also have to cancel my car insurance.

Our speaking partner got assigned to us as well. I thought they would match gender, but they didn’t for me. I got a girl (not that I am complaining. I am actually happy about that).

Can’t wait to go!!! So damn close!

Update

Wej — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:19:44 +0000

It has been awhile since I have made a post here. A few things have passed so far.

-I received my passport in the mail.

-I am still waiting on the Certificates of Eligibility, the thing I need to get my Visa. We were going to drive up there, but since the other girl I am going with got hers first, she sent it through the mail. I hope I get it soon (they sent an email saying they will probably receive it at the end of July). If I get it at least 2 weeks before I have to go, I will send it through FedEx or whatever, overnight shipping. And do whatever it takes to get it back ASAP. If I don’t get it 2 weeks before the 24th of August, I have to drive up there. I doubt my piece of shit car will make it, but it will be the only thing I can do…

-I went to the dentist. I had 5 cavities since I haven’t been there for about 4 – 6 years. 4 of the cavities were right next to each other on the right side, and they drilled a canal, basically, through my teeth. Luckily he used a lot of the numbing stuff…

-I can’t get the scratches out of my glasses, which doesn’t make since… Maybe I will check how much new lenses will be.

-I bought a years worth of contacts, and a lot of contact solution. I plan on using Japanese kind once I get there, but I will need some time before I get settled in.

A while ago, I also received an email (as I suspect everyone else did too) about the homestay program and how too many students want to be in it. They asked people to confirm they wanted to be in it. I, of course, confirmed that I want to. Today I received an email saying I got accepted into it, so that makes me happy.

I think the next most important thing is to get international insurance.

Laptop and Other

Wej — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:43:51 +0000

I bought my laptop, and boy if it isn’t beautiful. I bought it from Newegg.com, where I buy most of my other computer parts. Here is a link to it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220525. I also got a $100 backpack for it. It is a strong and big backpack. I don’t know if I should have spent $100 on it though. But, to protect my laptop, I guess it is one of the best to do so.

I needed a laptop, so why not buy one that will last a long time without going out of date? So I did, and boy is it strong. That thing is better then my computer I made and am currently using, which is a decent computer. Of course, buying a laptop has its problems, like having vista and a bunch of other shitty software installed. If it was 64bit vista, it would be better, but it isn’t. But I am keeping it vista anyway, because the programs I use have some known faults with Wine on a Linux based system.

At any rate, I also got my $5000 from the school today for summer semester. I also looked today on my account for Weber, and I apparently got a Tier State Grant of $1000. Hell, I am happy. I am also being afford $5000 for a Federal Work Study, whatever that is, but I have to accept that one. I am not going to accept it until I figure out what it is.

Loans and Everything else

Wej — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:45:35 +0000

Quite a lot of things have happened since my last post.
1) Got my birth certificate (lost it) and applied for my passport (luckily they are in the same parking lot). Should receive it in July.
2) Completed the loan process for the $12000. A funny story behind this…
I went to the school to talk to a counselor to make sure they were not going to decline a loan that big. The counselor told me that they won’t decline it, but I could only get so much of financial aid. She estimated my needs at about $16000. Now that wouldn’t due. I need about $23000 (I managed to cut that down to about $21000). So she told me to apply for a loan of $3500 and ask for another $2000 for summer classes. So I have to take summer classes. I already applied for the (what i thought was $4500 but the school said $3500) before hand, and all it needed was to be accepted. So we accepted that. I signed up for 2 summer online classes 3 credits each, some botany class, and some family human development class. Neither of which will help me, but needed to sign up for something and all the useful classes were taken.

I checked my email today and it said that I was approved for the $12000 and it was being disbursed. So I was thinking they must be sending it to the school… but when I got home and checked the mail…
3)Got my $12000 loan.

Now wait…this doesn’t count towards my $16000 does it? If it did, the school would have been the ones to receive it right??? Lol…

Now, I also got other mail today…
4)Got approved the $4500 + $2000. Now wait… so i get 4.5K instead of 3.5k? Weber is stupid…but i am not complaining… I should be getting this in the mail in the next couple of days (with summer tuition taken out)

5)Got my official acceptance email today as well. Now I am waiting to get my Certificate of Eligibility in the mail so I can get my student visa.
6)Send my address form that is needed to make sure the Certificate of Eligibility is sent to the right place.

I am happy and relieved that I am going to have no financial problems when I am there. Maybe when I get back, but will deal with that then.

Bought the Plane ticket to Japan

Wej — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:18:49 +0000

At first, I was kind of nervous thinking about where I am going to get the money for a plane ticket. The longer I wait the more expensive it is going to be. I didn’t want to wait for my loans to come in because there is a good chance that it would be full or crappy seats and really expensive. We found one for about $600 on Expidea, but I don’t really have that money at the moment considering I have to pay for a passport, dentist and contacts before I go. One of my friends had money sitting in his account that he isn’t going to use tell next school year. So he bought my ticket. I will be paying him back once the loans come through.

Expedia offered a ticket from SLC to KIX for $603 on August 24th at 6:00AM. It has 2 stops which is why it is so cheap. It goes from Salt Lake City to Texas (complete opposite direction), then to Tokyo then to Osaka. The flight is going to be a total of 21hr 5mn with connections. I CAN’T WAIT!