関東 vs. 関西

I forgot that I never posted about my Kansai adventure.

If you want to see pictures, see 'em on facebook because there are just way too many pictures to weed through. Haha. And if you don't have facebook and you really really really really want to see the pictures, let me know.

Kanto (関東) is the eastern region on the main island (Honshu). That's where I lived, since Tokyo's in the east (Tokyo, 東京, literally means "Eastern Capital"). I've heard that the Kansai (関西) region is pretty different and there was even some kind of a rivalry between the two, kind of like the whole Nor Cal, So Cal thing. Of course, after living in Tokyo for a couple of months, I was ready to see just how different the Kansai region (especially Osaka) was.

Kyoto wasn't that bad. I heard a few people say, "Okini" instead of "Arigatou" and people saying "hen" instead of "nai." I giggled at it because it's so... stereotypically Kansai.

As a sidenote as to what we did, Yun and I stayed at this wonderful hostel near Kinkakuji (The Golden Temple) where yes, a building is coated in gold. It's absolutely beautiful, especially with the momiji (the autumn leaves). There's also Ginkakuji (The Silver Temple) but we decided not to go. We went around Gion, where you may be able to see some maiko (geisha in training) but they're kind of rare to come by, I think. But the coolest thing was that I got to see the Minami-za while on the bus! (The Minami-za is the Kansai equivalent of the Kabuki-za in Tokyo. They're both Kabuki theaters) There was also a statue of Okuni (the supposed founder of Kabuki) and it turned out that we were by the Kamo River (where Kabuki was first performed)!

We also went up the street to the Kiyomizudera (The Pure Water Temple) but didn't go in because we wanted to make it to the Fushimi Inari Shrine (it's the shrine that has the thousands upon thousands of orange tori, or gates) before it got dark. I really regret not going into the Kiyomizudera. Even though it was super crowded, we should've gone in. Because we got to the Fushimi Inari Shrine when it was dark anyway. D:

So yes. Fast forward. We got to Osaka and the lady who owned the hostel that we went to was Korean! It helped with communication a lot because we were having some issues talking about the reservation that I made in Japanese. -_-; She was really nice to me and when Yun and I left, she gave us these little cell phone danglys for free, saying, "It's hard to come across a Korean person like this. We have to look out for each other. Please take these." :)

Ok, so remember how I was talking about the "Okini" and "hen" thing a couple of paragraphs ago? IT WAS CRAZIER IN OSAKA. Yun and I went to the Kaikukan (I forget if that's correct or not...) which is the aquarium there. While we were there, I was trying to take a picture of this little critter that moved around really quickly, as was this girl next to me. It was really difficult to take and after a few minutes, she turned to her boyfriend and exclaimed, "Torahen!" In standard Japanese, you would say, "Toranai!" (meaning, "I can't take [a picture of] it!") so when I heard it, I literally had to choke down my laughter and then walk away 'cause I didn't want to laugh in her face.

Yun and I also went to Kobe (first we went to the Kobe station and then found out that we got off at the wrong station -_-;) to get some Kobe steak. It was incredibly... expensive. But delicious. I ate my steak with chopsticks. Hahhahaa. Mmmm... Kobe steak... I'll definitely be hitting up the next time I'm in the Kansai region. *-*...

As for other things to compare, people in Osaka really are meaner than people in Tokyo. Hahaha. Remember how in my last entry (if you read it), I said that people will always say, "Sumimasen! Gomen nasai! Sumimasen! HONTOU NI SUMIMASENNNNN!"? This usually happens in train stations and on the train and what not. Well. In Osaka, people get on the train, shove you around and don't say a word to you. Or they give you a dirty look. I actually got to take the Hankyu Line (the one that takes you to Takarazuka ^o^~) and Yun, her friend, and I were speaking in English and the people on the train just straight up stared at us. Even if we stared back. o___o じ~~~~~

And, just a note of reference for anyone who might go to Tokyo and then Osaka: in Osaka, everyone stands and walks to the right instead of the left. You know how in Asian countries, people walk to the left and stuff? Same dealio in the rest of Japan. Except Osaka. Even in Kyoto, people walk to the left. I don't know what it is about Osaka but it definitely is different. Hahaha.

Ok, that's all. I suppose that it was a very dry entry because there are no visual aids. :D

Good night.

The Home Stretch!

I have less than a month left in Japan. In three weeks and three days, I'll be on a plane bound for SFO!

School's ending this week for me. I have one exam for Japanese left, as well as a short 5 page dissertation for my Japanese theater class. Which, by the way, I can just send via email to my professor. ;D

My friends and I are planning to hit up the Kansai region this weekend. I'm super excited! Kantou is all modern and what not-- the Kansai region is more Japanese-y. I'm also going to go to Hokkaido on the 26th-28th with a friend from UCLA and a friend I met in my Japanese theater class who, by the way, is a regular 4 year student at ICU. The Hokkaido trip kind of ballooned from the three of us just wanting to hang out. When Jessi (the girl from UCLA) and I joked around, saying that we should go to Hokkaido to hang out, Yuri (the regular 4 year student) immediately said, "Ok!" We thought that she was kidding but she wasn't. o_o;; So I'm going to Hokkaido, folks! And it really helps to have a native Japanese speaker with us!

I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing in between all of that, though. I'll probably have to extend my lease with the Weekly Mansion. In comparison to how much it costs to stay in hostels and what not, it's actually kind of cheap to stay here. I'ts roughly 30 bucks a night at the Mansion.

I'm excited! Nearly three weeks of travel! I finally won't be tied down to having to commute 2.5 hours every day. :) I'll be sure to take lots and lots of pictures! Please pray for traveling mercies! I'll be taking the overnight bus, the train, flying... all sorts of modes of transportation. :)

Can't wait to finally venture out of Tokyo! And can't wait to go home!

Hello, president-elect Obama!

The election coverage in Japan hasn't been as crazy as I imagined it to be. Every morning, I wake up and turn on the TV and watch the news while I get ready in the morning. I can somewhat understand what they're saying and with the aid of being able to see the news, it's easy to piece together what the big news is that day. I was expecting to see a lot of stuff about McCain and Obama, especially last night and this morning, but didn't see much.

But I do remember seeing the town of Obama (Yes, there is a town called Obama in Japan, it seems) celebrating over Obama's win.

Haha I'm only posting because Grace & Wury posted about the election coverage in their respective countries. I didn't see too much hype in Japan. But then again, I'm never home to watch TV anyway, so...

:D

Yeahhhh sonnn!

Very annoying week: Japan edition

Contrary to Grace's week, my week started off wonderfully. Had a wonderful time at church and got to really hang out with church people for the first time. Monday was a pretty normal day and then on Tuesday, I got my Japanese test back and had gotten a really good grade on it (then I got an email concerning our housing mess-- but by now, it had become part of the every day routine). Then I later went to the sadou club (sadou = 茶道, lit. "way of tea") and had an awesome time there.

It was that evening when the bad week began.

I'm not entirely sure about what I have but I don't think that it's a cold. I had miso soup that evening, along with some sausages. I checked the expiration date on the sausages and it was ok. As for the tofu in my miso soup, I think that it might've been a day over the expiration date but didn't check it carefully. (I had miso soup on Sunday and checked the expiration date then and I remembered thinking, "Whew, made it just in time.") (I just checked the expiration date on the tofu... the container was still in my trash can. It was two days past the expiration date.) Anyway, the miso soup tasted fine, perhaps 'cause I was so hungry, but I noticed on my second to last bite that it tasted kind of sour. I was really weirded out but just finished all of it anyway since I only had a little bit more left. Then, literally about an hour later, my whole body went cold. So I bundled up a bit but no matter what I did, I just felt really cold. (I even put on my cute little toe socks :D)

I went to bed right away and just hoped that I didn't wake up with a fever.

...

I woke up with a fever.

I skipped Japanese to hopefully squeeze in more sleep but it was a largely unsuccessful attempt. Finally, I hauled my butt out of bed and somehow made it to school. I went up to the clinic in the hope of getting a doctor's note to excuse me from class but was told that there was a special health examination going on for the staff and faculty, thus the doctor could not see me. So I asked if the nurse could write me a note and she said that she was not authorized to do it, so no. She just kept on saying, "Gomen, ne... yoku nete, mizu wo yoku nonde ne..." (Sorry... sleep a lot and drink a lot of water, ok?) I walked away from the clinic in tears because I just stinkin' wanted to go home so I wouldn't have to sit through my 4 hour class.

I went down to the UC Tokyo Study Center to enlist their help somehow and one of the staff members went up to the clinic with me and talked the nurse into getting my temperature taken and for a note with the inkan (stamp) of the clinic. The nurse asked if that were ok and I said yes, it was compleeeetely fine. (In my head, I was thinking, "YES, IT'S DAIJOUBU. JUST GIMME A NOTE NOW. D:")

So I got the note but I had to kill an hour to wait for the 4 hour class to begin. So I spent it in the library, where I was cold, yet fever-y, and miserable. After that hour, I went up to class, showed my professors (there are 2 professors for that class) the note, and then made yet another miserable commute back home. As soon as I got back at 4:30 PM, I knocked out but kept on waking up at 30 minute ~ 1 hour intervals, all the way until 5 AM. Then I was able to get in a solid 2.5 hours of sleep. :D

I'm thinking that it's food poisoning again (good job, Moon-- you poisoned yourself). I don't really know what to do about it but to try to sleep more and to stay hydrated. I had a fever of 38.1 degrees Celcius (100.58 degrees Fahrenheit) for 24 hours and have had diarrhea for the past 48 hours (doesn't look like it's going to let up any time soon. This'll probably require medical attention?). And now that I don't have a fever, I just have a really gnarly headache and some weird abdominal pain in my gut (not a stomach ache, though). What's wrong with me? D:

Mkay, enough with my sad, sad posts. I can't believe that I've gotten sick twice already. I've only been in Japan for a month and a half. -_-;

Well, I have to go to school tomorrow, headache or not. I'll try to have a picture post soon! Bye bye.

Establishing normalcy

My alarm clock is beeping and my phone is playing a cute song turned annoying. I wake up to a room with dry, stale air. I kick my blanket off and take two big steps to my alarm clock and turn it off. Then I plop back into bed and re-set the alarm on my phone for 8:15 AM so that I can squeeze in 15 more minutes of sleep.

And the sweet 15 minutes pass by. I had dreamt about something but don't remember what it is. In defeat, I sit up and stare sleepily at the wooden floor. Slowly, I put on my slippers and make my way over to the sink by taking 7 steps. My eyes flinch as I turn on the fluorescent light above the mirror and once my eyes adjust to it, I see my sleepy self in the mirror. I laugh at myself and scratch my stomach as I begin to wash up.

Susan knocks on my door at 8:30, telling me that it's time to go.

"Give me twooo more minutes, I need to find a pair of socks," I tell her.

I frantically search my suitcase for socks. I know that I should fold my clothes and arrange it neatly in my suitcase but figure that I'll do it after doing the laundry.

Susan and I walk to the Shin-Egota station to take the Oedo Line, a subway train. We rush down the stairs, touch wallets (with our Suica cards inside) to the card detector and hurry down the stairs. Once we reach the bottom, we frantically check the arrival time for the next subway train-- 8:54. We had just missed it by a minute.

Once the train arrives, it's packed with commuters. Recently, Susan and I have been good at getting into cars that had space for us to get into-- before, we had to make space, as everyone did when there as a packed train.

Soon enough, we arrive at the Higashi-Nakano station. We get off the subway train and proceed to go up five flights of stairs to go to the JR Line part of the station, where we take the Chuo Line to the next station over, Nakano. From there, we taken the Chuo-Sobu Line for 20 minutes to the Musashi-Sakai station. We rush out of the train and hope that the line at the bus stop isn't long. Twice, we had gotten there too late when the line was too long. We couldn't board the bus so we had to take the taxi by grabbing two other people. We had met another foreign exchange student, Ah Song, by our emergency taxi rides.

Japanese class begins at 10:10 AM. We usually arrive with 10 minutes to spare. We walk into Honkan, the main building where all the classes are held, and walk up three flights of stairs. We arrive in our classroom, tired from our morning excursion. It had taken an hour and a half to arrive at school.

Since it's a Wednesday, we have our four hour long core class at 3:10 PM. After Japanese class ends at 12:40, we grab some rather bland tasting lunch from the cafeteria. Then we lounge around in the library where the internet's fast and the air conditioning is strong.

Then we go to class and sit through a two hour lecture, then a two hour film.

After all that, an entire mob of us wait at the bus stop, exhausted from a long day.

And that is the routine.

Everything is becoming familiar. I don't need to think about what train to take, what side of the platform to wait at, what platform I should be at, or if this train goes here or there. My eyes have adjusted to the complicated looking (but not really complicated) map of the train routes and I've learned to read the kanji for many of station names.

It still doesn't feel like Japan. Perhaps I'm in denial or I'm speaking too much English (I suspect that it's the latter).

I walk into the market and check out at the register, repeating the amount that I was told as I hand my money over and then mutter a quick "arigatou gozaimashita" before walking out of the store.

I veer left when walking down the street and lower my head while saying, "Sumimasen, gomen-nasai" when I'm in someone's way.

I've picked up the superficial cultural things, with respect to how I should act when, when to say "excuse me," "thank you," "I'm sorry" without looking too much like a foreigner.

And home is starting to feel like home. I sigh with relief when I arrive at home, just the way I do after a long day of classes in San Diego. I've acknowledged that for now that I have a home here but my mind isn't acknowledging that I'm in Japan. Still.

Best Imeem ad EVER.

Being in Japan and having an IP address that says that I'm in Japan produces ads tailored to a Japanese person. I see Japanesey ads on Facebook, google, and... imeem.

And this imeem ad has to be one of the best ads that I've ever seen in my life. Think that guessing what Eminem's daughter's name is will get you a free iPhone? Well, it can't beat this:



Hahahhahahahahaa. I got such a good laugh out of it. Green card > iPhone, imo.

(Btw, I feel a lot better now! :D)

Picture post!

Yeah, three posts in a row. Wutchu waaaant. (I have a lot of time tonight so it won't hurt to sit down and spend a lot of time on the computer. :D)

I've been really bad about the whole picture thing... I especially want to show my parents where I've been and what I've been up to so here's a picture post! Very abridged since #1: I don't take a lot of pictures (been trying to change this) and #2: I'll be posting my entire Japan experience thus far on here.

Heeere we go!

(Most of these are facebook pictures so for those who have seen them... sorry?)

My cozy little room. Yay.

The microwave. My favorite. The TV. My second favorite. (I only get weather forecasts off the TV.)

My kitchenette. I have to use the sink as my bathroom sink and as my kitchen sink. ... It saves space? Hahahahaha.


My bathroom. Must always remember to step up into it...


This crazy bouquet thing at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildling. There were a lot more of these around the room but it would've taken too much time to take a picture of 'em all so I just picked out this one and another one to take a picture of.


Went up to the 32nd floor (I think it was) of the TMGB. Shinjuku, sprawled out before your eyes! There's probably some Shibuya mixed up in there too.


An intense lightning storm over Shinjuku! (Though I was in Shibuya when I took this picture.)


Hahaha just look at Bae Young Joon and Choi Jiyoo on the left. Hahaha. This is a little thing outside of a pachinko parlor. (Pachinko = the prefered Japanese way of gambling.)


A mosquito that was in my room and bit me three times. And it got what it asked for. Yes, that is my blood that you see on that tissue there.


Kichijoji. Lots and lots of stores. x_x


Shinjuku at night time! Yes, that is a very bright building.


If you come out of the cafeteria, this is what you'll see. Trees. Go anywhere on campus and you'll see that ICU is surrounded by a FOREST.


Harajuku. And yes, as one would expect, people dress up. I did not see any Ganguro girls but just seeing lolita (and a lot of them, dressed all the same way!) was really weird.


A very busy intersection at Harajuku. That is a Gap that you see there. Cute clothes. But very expensive. T_T


au bear. It was so cute. I couldn't resist.

Mmmm. Strawberry crepe...

The Harajuku station. It's cute. :) Wikipedia says that the bathrooms there have changing rooms for the people who dress up all crazy. D:!

Shin-Okubo station. Koreatown.


The spoils of my Koreatown expedition.

Mmmm. 꿀꽈배기.

Whew!

Ok, so I haven't posted pictures of the hotel and what not... for those who have facebook, I made an album. :) For those who don't have a facebook... go get one. Hhahaa. Just kidding, I'll make a separate picture post later after I'm all settled in.

It was an adventure getting here! It took us about two and a half hours. We switched trains three times and then walked for about fifteen minutes in pouring rain. I bet that my body's going to be crazy sore tomorrow morning. I'm not looking forward to it because it's not being sore from working out. It's being sore from the lack thereof, thus reminding me of my weaksauceness.

Met someone from UC Irvine. We're going to have dinner with her tonight. :)

There's a mandatory orientation tomorrow & on Monday. I'll be sure to take pictures & share with you guys!

In Japan!

Yes, I was the last of the three to go. But we can finally live up to the name of this blog now! GMW are now all abroad!

I got here safely and it turns out that my basic, noob Japanese is enough for me to get around. Haha. :D Someone from my church at home told me that some Japanese speak Korean so I should be on the look out for that if my Japanese isn't cutting it. Haha.

Will update with pictures later! I'm at the hotel right now, waiting for two of my friends to join me.

Yaaaay!

Please don't forget to pray for me! & Wury! & Grace! :)

Still alive.

I'm at home. Not much is happenin'. I turned in my visa application to the Consulate of Japan in San Francisco yesterday. They said to come back to pick up my visa on Monday. :D

Bought a suitcase that will be big enough for me to live off of for 3 months. Also got a nifty duffel bag backpack kinda thing that I'll probably use for the rest of my life. Haha. All that I have left is waiting for the visa, packing, and waiting for August 26!

I've been super lazy about studying Japanese back at home. Perhaps it's because my schedule's kind of sporadic but that's me trying to put the blame on something else. I really want to read Bible in Japanese so I can get familiar with all the Christian-ese that I will inevitably use (yes, inevitably-- I really want to share the gospel in Japanese, even if my vocabulary's limited). Please be in prayer about that! & about church! Go check out John Yang's blog about church in Japan. It sounds promising but I'm thinking about it... and I'm wondering if they'll have services in English! It'll be a problem if it's in Japanese. I'll probably only understand 25% (that's an overestimation!) of what's going on.

Anyway, that's all for now. I will write a celebratory post once I get my visa! Assuming that I don't nearly die driving in San Francisco again. 8D;;; (It was my first time driving there yesterday. I avoided it for a reason. I almost got severely injured/killed! I'm not kidding!)

Good night!

Certificate of Eligibility!

Good news! The Certificate of Eligibility which ICU got for us (bless their hearts!) so that we can get a student visa is on its way to the UOEAP office as I type! Amy, the wonderful woman at UO, projects that they'll be in by this Thursday. Then she'll mail 'em out and hopefully, it'll come in the mail by the middle of next week!

I need to fax in my housing stuff. I keep forgetting to do it. o_o I shall do it tomorrow, after a long day of school. Yippee! Something to look forward to!

I think that John Yang has a lead on a church. Well, a church plant. From the looks of it, a location hasn't been decided yet-- who knows where in Tokyo is could be? I will be willing to commute for a couple of hours or so to get there. :D

Well, it is nearing my bed time. Will update with more later!

Check out my apartment in Japan!

We finally got the email about our housing in Tokyo. Just as an fyi, Japanese people call their apartments "mansions" sometimes, I guess to make it sound more luxurious? So no, I am not living in a huge house in Tokyo somewhere. I am living in a small, single room. 8D

Tokyo Weekly Mansion is the name of the company that owns these short-term apartments. It looks pretty nice. Here are some pictures from their website:



In the last picture, the room on the left (or center? Probably the left one) is the layout of the room.

It's pretty snazzy. It has air conditioning too, something that the dorms at ICU don't have. Hahaha. It will be good for the first month that I'm there! I'm trying to read the stuff in Japanese on the site, about other stuff that they have. We can get a rice cooker by going down to the lobby and asking for one, free of charge! So awesome. :D The units come with a refrigerator and a kitchenette, with cooking utensils and everything.

These apartments are about an hour away (by train and bus) from campus, though, so the commute will be pretty killer. I think that I'll just get a lot of reading done or something. @_@;; Hopefully I'll have friends to commute with. Haha.

There's a TV there as well, but considering that I don't even watch TV in San Diego and that it'll all be in Japanese... @_@;;

The biggest thing, though, is how much this apartment is. If you think that my paying $423.75 a month for rent right now is a lot, you're going to cry with me when I tell you that this room is 99,000 yen a month. 99,000 yen = ~990 USD. Yep, nearly a thousand dollars for that room a month. Meaning that it'll cost me about $3000. I wonder if they'll charge me that much, though, 'cause I'll be there just two weeks shy of a three months. o_o

Anyway, that made me really D: D: D:. I didn't break the news to my momma yet-- I'm biding my time, waiting for the right time to tell her... haha.

I also have to buy a monthly commuter pass for the train and the bus. For the train, it's ~9,200 yen (~$92) and for the bus, it's ~7,500 yen (~$75... you starting to get the trend here?). I guess that it's not too bad, considering that I'd want to explore Tokyo a bit during the school year. :D I do have to worry about the shinkansen (bullet train) 'cause I want to go up to Hokkaido and stuff but riding the shinkansen costs just as much, if not more, than a plane ticket! If that's the case, then I might as well forget Hokkaido and hitch a plane down to Okinawa! Haha.

Wow, an actual update about EAP stuff for once. I had been waiting for this email. It's all very exciting (and painful on the wallet)! The only thing that I'm really waiting on is the certificate of eligibility! Then, Lord willing, I'll be all set for Japan! :D

Mkay, back to lipid rafts (THEY'RE SO COOL).

Doko ni itara ii no?

After Grace Mao made that humungous post about where she wants to go in Chile/Argentina, it got me thinkin' about where I wanted to go in Japan.

To be honest, I haven't got a clue. I do know that I don't just want to stay in Tokyo but I want to travel around, maybe even catch a plane to Okinawa after I'm done with my quarter at ICU (Okinawa is like Japan's Hawaii). But what to do while I'm there is completely lost on me. I don't even know where to start looking. I definitely want to hit up tourist hot spots 'cause man, I gotta do it while I'm there! But at the same time, I don't really like being in the big city and stuff so I'd rather go somewhere scenic and where there aren't a bunch of tourists and stuff. Where should I start looking?

I should probably ask my Japanese lecturer or something. Hahaha. And then ask her where all the good restaurants are in Osaka, since that's her 'hood. Ahahhaa. I hope that I didn't pick up an Osaka accent from her. 8D;;

Back to the joyful world of BILD3. *barf*

Oh yeah. I keep forgetting. Word of the day!

生物学 (せいぶつがく = seibutsugaku)
Definition: Biology (as a discipline)
Example sentence: 私の専攻は生物学です。
Translation: My major is biology.

Dear Japan, why are you so expensive?

I didn't think that spring quarter would be this busy. I'm taking JAPN 20C, LTWR 100, BIMM 100 (molecular biology), and BILD 3 (evolutionary & organismic biology). It sounds easy but the workload's not as light as I thought it would be for JAPN 20C and LTWR 100. D:

Anyway, I told Grace that I'd write a post like hers where she goes through all the stuff that she had to pay for so hereeee I go:

Putting the ICU application together:
* Passport sized pictures: At least $20.00 -- the first set that I took wouldn't show my shoulders when I cut them down to 4 cm x 3 cm. This also costed me an ENTIRE DAY because I kept running around to get them taken. Then I had to manually cut down the 2 in x 2 in pictures down to 4x3 cm.
* Printing and photocopying: At least $5.00
* Buttering up (to use Grace Mao jargon) the lecture who wrote my letter of rec: At least $20.00 (This is an underestimate. The card and chocolates were so expensive.)
* Sending three separate things via overnight mail: $54.00
> Total: $99.00

EAP & Japan health clearance stuff
* Blood test (to see my blood type. I'm A+): $3.59
* Urinalysis: $10.00
* Chest x-ray: $37.00
* Health history review (I think? It's just listed as Health HX Rev): $30.00
* Travel visit: $35.00
*PPD immunization (wait a minute... I didn't get this...): $9.00
> Total: $124.59

UOEAP stuff
* First payment: $450
* Extending my overseas health insurance for 30 days: $35.70
> Total: $485.70

Things I have yet to pay for:
* Hepatitis A immunization (w/SHIP): $25
* HPV immunization (w/SHIP): $62.50
* Flu: TBA ( D: )
* Oral typhoid vaccine: ?
* Cipro: ?
* Second payment: $1,158
* Final payment: ? It doesn't say how much but it says that I have it! D:
* Plane ticket: ~$1200
> Total: At least $2445.50

What the heck:
* Orientation, activities & services fee: $75
* Mandatory health insurance (I thought that this was included in our UOEAP payments, though?): $115
> Total: $190

Grand total: At least $3344.79!


This doesn't even touch how much I have to pay for boarding and food once I get there. Here's a link to the projected costs. On the table, my program's "Joint ICU/UC Fall Term," the last column. That includes the costs of everything (minus my health stuff and the silly costs that I added) that's related to the program. It projects that the program'll cost me $13,538. This is the second most expensive program on there. But the thing is that ICU is going by the quarter system while all the other universities are going by the semester system. With that in mind, my program is the most expensive. :( :( :( :( :( :(

And look at this! According to google, 100 Japanese yen = 0.9994 U.S. dollars! 100 yen = 1 USD is a rough conversion factor. It's been fluctuating a lot, though; one day, 100 yen = 1.0666 USD or something like that. Then it dropped to 0.98-somethingsomething USD the next day. -_-

Well, there you have it. And considering that I'll hopefully be traveling in Japan and buying souvenirs and stuff, I think that I'll be spending well over the projected costs. :(

As doom & gloom as this entry is, I still vouch for people studying abroad in Japan! (Even though I haven't even gone, yet. 8D;; I'm sure that there are better things to come!)


Oh! Word of the day!

お金 (おかね = okane. For you gringos, it's pronounced oh-kahn-eh)
Definition: Money
Example sentence: 今お金がありません。 (Ima okane ga arimasen.)
Translation: I'm po'

EAP Japan ICU Fall

Since I'm working on my lab report and am in need of a break every now and then, I'll be writing a brief (hah... hah...) post on the application process for EAP Japan & then the application process for ICU itself.

So for y'all that don't know, I will be attending International Christian University in the fall, Lord willing. It's in the suburbs of Tokyo. Or something like that. I just remember that it takes an hour to go to downtown. Anyway, this is the entire process that I went through (if anyone is interested in applying for this program or for EAP in general, feel free to ask one of us -- we'll be more than happy to assist you):

1. Sign up for first steps. It's a pretty short informational session that equips you with the things you need to know in order to find not only the program that is right for you (OAP or EAP?) but also universities in the countries that interest you. What's crazier is that you can see classes that students took before and got UC credit for.
2. Go online and do your application. They give you the link for it at the first steps seminar. It's pretty thorough and time consuming. ... Well, I guess that the whole application process is thorough and time consuming. D:
3. Get a letter of rec.
4. Get 2987928749238 signatures (ok, maybe just 3-5, depending on if you're going to take classes that count for something at UCSD).
5. Write a statement of intent.
6. Turn it in. (I might be missing something here o_o)
7. Wait for about a month.
8. Find out if you're in the program of not! If you get rejected from the program, please proceed to the last paragraph. If you get accepted, continue onto number 9.

9. Get a travel appointment & UC health clearance. That means that depending on your country, you need to get a blood test, urinalysis, immunizations & x-rays. Travel appointments and UC health clearance appointments are necessary for every student going abroad through EAP.
10. Apply to your host university. I don't know if other countries do this but for ICU, I had to apply to the actual university itself. This application process was more laborious than the EAP application process but they both are laborious in their own special ways. To apply for EAP, you have to get a letter of rec, write a statement of intent, and then run around and get some signatures. For ICU, I had to get a confirmation of financial resources (had to go to the bank for this), print out probably 20-some, 30-some pages of paper for all the different forms that I had to fill out, an x-ray of my lungs, and then 12 passport pictures that I had to cut down to 4cmx3cm.
10. Mail your stuff in! I had to express mail mine in yesterday. It costed me $16.25. WOW. I can buy a week's worth of groceries for that amount. Or half a tank of gas. @_@;;;

What's next? I guess that I'm just waiting around for my certificiate of eligibility. ICU is going to apply for me in getting that and after I get that, I can go up to the Japan consulate in LA and get my student visa. After that is chill time with the whole process.

I will also be looking for a church in Tokyo. Grace recommended Tokyo Evangelical and I checked out their website -- their statement of faith seems pretty right on but I read their gospel presentation and they don't mention God being holy... D: I'll listen to a few of their sermons to see.

So yes, that's probably the biggest thing for GMW -- finding a church abroad. Please pray for us as we look into churches and do a thorough investigation before we go abroad.

Ok, that's all. :D Bye. (G & W, update with your experiences with the application process too.)