I recently found out that the scholarship I was going to use to fund my graduate education will not cover Temple University Japan campus (the school I had planned to go to), because it is located outside of the United States. Although I have the acceptance letter from TUJ, I’m not sure I want to take out a lot of loans just to go to Japan again. If I go, I’ll lose my scholarship and right now that’s not a decision I’m willing to make. I’ve applied to graduate school in the U.S. and I’ll see how things will go from there. For right now, I think I may just make blog post here about my previous time in Japan or wait again until the next time I have an opportunity to go to Japan.
Preparing for Japan
I received my acceptance letter…, but now what? Luckily, I have been to Japan before, although it was only for a semester and that taught me a lot of things about what I need to know and bring. But, I haven’t even applied for my visa yet and there’s still a lot of things I don’t know. This time, I’ll be going to Japan for 2 or more years. Unlike with studying abroad, my university does not automatically have specific housing options for me to choose and set up before I go there. I looked online and most of the housing links were for real estate companies or well-known share houses.
There’s still a lot of things that I have to figure out. I have been doing a lot of searches on the Internet and asking a lot of questions. And the results from that are pretty great. I have found some Facebook groups for foreigners that live in Japan with incredibly nice communities that answer my questions without personally knowing me. I’ve discovered a lot of resources for finding apartments in Tokyo through YouTube and just by looking around the internet (and the undergraduate website for my university). There’s a lot of information out there and I keep finding more! Although my Japanese language skills are not the best, it has allowed me to discover a student apartment search option from a website I saw a YouTube video about.
Same blog, new posts
Originally, I intended to use this blog to chronicle my first experience studying abroad in Japan, when I studied abroad in Japan during the Spring 2013. However, I did not do a good job of keeping the blog updated. I considered deleting this blog, but never got around to doing it, thinking that I may update it after returning to the United States. I am glad I did not delete this blog, because I can use it for a new purpose. I will be attending graduate school in Japan and will try to post about life and food there on this blog!
My first meal in Japan
Airplane Food
I recommend flying Japan Airlines; it has good food.
On my way to Japan, I flew with Japan Airlines. They just fed us a lot of food, multiple times. They also had the tendency to give us ice cream cups after each meal (Häagen-Dazs). Even though, I kept accidentally ordering multiple drinks and couldn’t eat everything they gave me, it was a good experience.
How to stay in touch…
How to stay in touch with family and friends while you’re in Japan
1. Facebook
This one seemed kind of obvious for me. Facebook is worldwide and many of the people I met in Japan had Facebook, so it was a good tool to stay in touch with family and friends as well as with the new people I met here in Japan. Facebook was easier to update than my blog too, so it also served as a way to show my family and friends what I was doing.
2. Line
I didn’t know about Line before I came to Japan. It’s a smartphone app and computer application that allows you to call and IM/chat with other Line users for free . I used this a lot. It can be a little addictive with all the cute/cool stickers available to use on it though. I heard that it’s not very popular in the U.S., though. But you can use it worldwide as long as you have an internet connection and a computer or smartphone.
3. Skype
I started using this, but I began to have computer problems with my webcam, so the free video chatting feature didn’t work out too well.
4. Google Hangout
I like the idea of Google Hangout, because I can video chat with multiple people, but it’s only good if everyone has a good internet connection.
5. Other applications
There are a bunch of smartphone applications that allow for free texting such as Whatsapp that have similar features as Line.
Do you know of any others applications or ways to stay in touch with family and friends?
15 post later…and it’s time to go home
I realize that the whole idea to document my experience in Tokyo, while I was here was a complete fail, because it’s already time for me to return home. But, I’m thinking about writing posts after I come back about what I did/bought while I was here in Tokyo, either on this blog or one of my other ones.
Cheese
While finding good cheese is not impossible, it seems pretty expensive here. I’m a fan of New York Sharp Cheddar cheese and was lucky enough to find something similar to it in taste. I was at a grocery store in atré and tasted a sample of some kind of French cheese and it tasted very similar to the kind of cheese I usually eat. So, I bought some! New York cheese at Food Lion in America is about $7.00 per pound and the cheese I bought was a little over $10.00, and it wasn’t a pound. Needless to say, I won’t complain about prices in America as much for cheese, since it is an expensive commodity in Tokyo. I did find a Mexican restaurant with chicken burritos, which had mostly beans in it, but there was cheese on the top, so that was nice. Pizza is expensive here too ($8-10 for a personal pan size pizza) and there seems to be a general aversion to cheese in general. One girl, that I talked to, said that too much cheese would make you fat. I don’t really believe that, seeing as I consume a lot of cheese and I’m not big yet, but that might be because of my high metabolism. At first, I thought that was a joke, because the amount of cheese on food here compared to in America is so different that I cannot realistically see the small amount of cheese here making anyone fat. Of course, that’s my own biased opinion based off myself and my experiences. Although, another friend also confirmed that statement. I am a little scared that when I do return home, I will not like cheese as much as I liked it before study abroad, since my eating habits have changed a little since coming here. But, only time will tell.
Why I don’t write more often
Life in Tokyo is really busy. I’ve been taking Intensive Japanese and two other courses. This month is my last month of school before I return home. I feel like I should write since my time here is winding down.
Banana, Peach, Milk drink
I just tried a new cold drink from one of the vending machines on campus. It’s banana, peach and milk drink. It looks like banana milk. It taste like a smoothie. It’s really good.
Spring in Tokyo 