こんにちわ再び-Hello again

hey everyone, so its been a while since my last post and of course ive been doing LOADS while here in Japan.

• Meiji welcome party
• my friend Nina came to visit before going to her university in Okayama
• started classes
• FINALLY bought a phone ......the process made me cry inside.
• experienced Natural disaster ...1 level 5 earthquake and 2 thyphoons ...fanphone and vongfong ....who names this shit.
• explored Tokyo -Akihabara,  Harajuku, Shinjuku,Ueno,Shibuya, Asakusa,Ebisu

because it has been such a long time since ive written anything i will write up all this in smaller posts over the next few days....until then ....じゃあまた

Enrolment at Meiji Uni

soo I've been in Tokyo just over a week now, and yesterday I had my first day (of many) of my enrolment week.
It went pretty well, considering I got lost on my Bike and had to stop half way to get the train so I arrived in time D: ..... my crappy directional skills haven't magically improved in Tokyo.

The first day of enrolment itself was mostly spent watching a power point about various things including health insurance, dorms, ect and filling out a form, we did get a posh looking Meiji bag full of Meiji booklets though.

 we were then given an hours break before returning to take our first Japanese language proficiency torture test. We had 1 hour 30 minutes to answer 150 multi choice questions in Japanese, starting easy and getting harder, all the way to fluent .... luckily they had a わかりません ( I don't understand) option, which I definitely abused towards the end of the test. After the test "Larni was freeeee" though they didn't give me a sock, just the morbid promise of an interview test on Friday.
I left as quickly as I could to get back to Ueno station, where I had left my beautiful Mama Chari (in some kind of bicycle trap parking thing that I had to pay to remove it from >.>) but on the way got distracted by beautiful nerdy things.

 My nerdy greed meant that I spent too much money ended up getting trapped in a freak rain storm and so had to kill a few hours before I could cycle home. Getting my bike out cost me 200 yen .... crying inside.

(The storm represents my tears)

My room in Tokyo

Heyy everyone, so after my last boring informative post I've decided to show you all where I am living. Instead of choosing to go for student accommodation because of all the rules (curfews....no thank you D: )  I decided to find my own place to live. I signed up to a house share agency called sakura house, and now I am living in one of their share houses in Uguisudani, Tokyo  heres a quick video showing where I live.


                                

I'M IN TOKYO!!!!

Hey everyone, so I've M.I.A for a few weeks, partly because of being really busy preparing everything, and saying goodbye to friends and family, and partly because of lack of good internet connection.... anyway I'm back now and im posting from tokyo (wooohooo).

 I flew from Heathrow to Narita leaving on the 2nd September at 1:05 , and arriving on the 3rd September at 8:50 am (ish) before i get into life in Tokyo I'll talk about getting here.

preparing for life in Japan. 

heyy soo since i havnt written anything i thought id write a really short list of some of the basic things i needed to get ready for coming to tokyo.

• certificate of eligibility and visa
• book flights
• order yen 
• yakkan shoumei - importation of more than 1 months worth of medication 
• contact bank

They may seem obvious to some people, but if you have any questions about anything listed please feel free to ask :)

On Arrival

When you arrive in Japan there are also things you need to do. When  you enter Japan at one of the major airports, you queue up at the immigration counters, hand over your passport/visa and if you are staying for over 3 months they  give you an "Alien residence card" or a "zairyu card". on arrival in Japan you then have two weeks to register your address at your local city/ward hall.  When you have registered your address you also have to apply for Japanese health insurance.

 

..... I'm off to register my address tomorrow .... I think I've forgotten all the Japanese i know ..... help me D:

It's the final countdown ......sort of

Heyy everyone,
so I now have under a month (just) until I fly out to Japan. I'm excited, nervous and .... excited. I fly out on the 2nd of September, and start orientation at Meiji University on the 10th which means I have a week to settle in and do fun things before everything gets a bit more serious.

Since its still a little while before I can start blogging about exciting goings on in Japan I thought I would talk about some Japan related things I've been up to.

VISA...... I now have one.

(shameless embassy photo...i stood in the sun :'( ) ^^^

Me and my friend Viv  (above) went to the Japanese embassy in London last week and applied for our visa's. I got a hideous Visa photo taken,  handed in my application, waited 4 days, parted with £20 and somehow came home with a pink Sakura visa.


They look a little something like this. (or a lot like this if you are in fact batman)

The other Japan related thing I got up to was going to a Japanese culture convention in London called HYPER JAPAN. It was great fun and was probably one of my favourite conventions this year. I wore cosplay all weekend.

Here is one of ( left to right) Myself, Viv, and our friend Lauren, when we got asked for a photo for the HYPER JAPAN photobook.

HYPER JAPAN is a great con if you are interested in Japanese culture. I got to try loads of different foods and drinks that I would never normally be able to get hold of in England.I had my first Takoyaki, and even though I could still see the suckers on the fried octopus I really liked it.  There was also (of course) a lot of stalls and events from Ninja displays, to cosplay masquerades. So if you like Japan, and/or its culture then I would recommend it.

Flights and Visa ..... my poor wallet

Hey everyone,

So I've just done the thing and booked my flight from London to Tokyo. I used a website called STA Travel, who I heard about from my classmates. They do really good student deals and also have an office near my Uni in Norwich so I know they are legit :p, So if you’re going to Japan on an exchange as part of your degree I would definitely recommend at least taking a look at their site. I got my flight for less than half price according to the virgin Atlantic search.

when you search you get a page like this which links you to student deals on a variety of airlines.

I highlighted the flight I chose in green. Before you commit to buying check the requirements for each flight by clicking on the "student-youth fare" option if there is one. Some have special requirements that mean only certain people will be eligible. (better than half price though, why would you not)

 

 

Altogether with the IYTC card and ISIC card that I needed to buy to be eligible to book that flight, the flight cost me around £478 (the cards costing £12 each).

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The next exciting thing to talk about is my Visa....woo. Applying for a Visa to study for my year abroad in Japan has been quite a long process.

• First I had to apply to a university in Japan and fill out an application for a certificate of eligibility then I had to wait for the university to process my application and complete the certificate of eligibility, And now I have finally got back the complete certificate of eligibility and letter of acceptance, which means I can finally apply for my Student visa :D

To apply for my Visa I will need to take my passport, certificate of eligibility, letter of acceptance, and passport photos (oh lord) and £20 (it used to be a hefty £100...phew) to the Japanese embassy in London and fill out some paper work and stuff there. Apparently it takes a week to complete or something, but I will let you know how that goes when it's been done.

Here have a picture of what the certificate of eligibility looks like

It's really official and scary looking D:

That's if for now :3  the next blog entry is going to be less boring I promise XD

Hey guys, a little about me and my blog

Hey everyone, so this is the dreaded first post of my new blog.
soo a short introduction. I am Larni martin, Japanese language student at UEA, Norwich and from September I will be making my way to Japan to study at Meiji University in Tokyo. I am a giant nerd, and i love all things Japanese, be it anime, manga,cosplay, Japanese pop culture, Japanese history, etc.

In this blog (lets be honest) im probably going to be talking a lot about Japanese popular culture as well as the study abroad application / studying process. The blog itself is going to be pretty informal, looking at what I've done, and my experiences in Japan, from everyday life, to special occasions, to how it is to be treated like a pale blonde gaijin.
I'm hoping to mix it up with videos, pictures, gifs and as many other different media I can find to try and make this blog as exciting as possible.
Since I don't leave for Japan until September. I'll be updating will all the Japan related things ill be doing between now and the start of my study abroad adventure, for example in a few weeks I will be going to hyper Japan in London so keep tuned for a post on that.

(I mentioned it briefly earlier but I love to cosplay ..... so expect many nerdy cosplay related posts to pop up when I'm in Japan) >> embarrassing cosplay photos to break the ice.

The Inspiration for my blog title