Category: Japan

The Stressful Part of Studying Abroad

Published on by SophiaLeave a comment

This past week in Japan has been insightful and a little stressful. First, I went to the local municipal office to register my address. Then, I registered for classes at Waseda. Finally, I went back to Waseda and received my welcome gift and my Waseda ID card. I found these situations quite stressful since I felt lost.

The first thing that was a priority for me was going to the local municipal office to register my address and sign up for Nationwide Health Insurance in Japan. This is something that you must do before anything else. I heard that it was going to be a hassle and a long process. I was told that I could walk into any municipal city office, fill out a form, and they’d help me from there. Simple enough, or so I thought.

When I arrived, I quickly realized I was on my own. I didn’t fully understand the signs, and with my Japanese still being a work in progress, I felt overwhelmed. It took some time just to figure out which form I needed and what the process actually was. Eventually, I learned that after filling out the form, I needed to grab a ticket and wait for my number to be called.

I did just that—but unfortunately, I had filled out the wrong form. That meant starting over from scratch. Thankfully, a staff member kindly handed me the correct form, and I got to work again. After completing it, I grabbed another ticket for what I thought was the correct counter and waited.

When my number was finally called, the worker looked at me with a confused expression. I had taken a ticket for the wrong station. Once again, I had to start over. At that point, I felt defeated. Failing twice made me feel foolish and I honestly just wanted to go home. But I reminded myself that I could figure it out; I just had to keep trying.

I went through the steps again. This time, I got everything right. The staff helped me submit the correct forms and they began processing the registration of my address onto my residence card. It involved even more waiting, and in total, I was there for about two and a half hours. I didn’t mind too much, though; everyone else seemed to be waiting a while too, so it felt like a normal part of the process.

My only real delay was due to my earlier mistakes. Finally, I received my updated residence card and was told I could go. Looking back, it was a stressful experience, but not as bad as it felt in the moment. I learned a lot, and I’m proud of myself for sticking with it.

The next stressful part of this whole journey was class registration. There were so many videos I had to watch and actually understand just to figure out how to register for the right classes. After going through all of them and doing some research on what courses I wanted to take, I finally had a game plan.

Back at DU, registration is super competitive; once your time slot opens, it’s a race to grab your classes, first come, first serve. So, even though Waseda clearly said that registration wasn’t on a first come, first serve basis, I was still really anxious about it. Just out of habit (and panic), I woke up right at 9:00am and registered the moment it opened.

Of course, right after that, I remembered that registration would stay open for two full days, and there was no rush. That realization hit me hard. Instead of knowing right away, I had to wait the full two days to find out if I actually got into the classes I wanted. Thankfully, when the results came in, I did!

After that, I needed to go get my Waseda ID card. I accidentally missed the first day of picking up the ID card, so I went on another day that was available and got it. It was quite easy despite my distress. I was overprepared, which was not a bad thing. I was in and out of the building in 5 minutes.

These struggles kept me on my toes but ended up being an easy process (for the most part). After that, I was able to do some more exploring around the city of Tokyo, so I took the time to do just that and study my Japanese while I was exploring. Despite being by myself, I have had so much fun going to these exciting places and taking pictures. Although it can definitely be a little awkward when asking strangers to take my photo.

I went to a pretty well-known car dealership because I love cars. It was super fun and exciting for me.

Then, I went to the famous Meiji Jingu Shinto Shrine. It was a lot of walking, but I had so much fun.

Finally, for my biggest journey yet, I went to the beach! This was two hours away by train from my place, so I woke up early and started my day. While on the train, I listened to music and practiced my Japanese. Then, I toured around the beach towns and met a really cool older gentleman from Michigan who also studied Japanese and psychology in college. We ended up eating our late lunches together and chatted for 2 hours. I was able to learn so much about his life in Japan, as he had lived in Zushi for 20 years and had so much knowledge to offer. It was a great time.

I feel so lucky to be here and genuinely grateful for the amazing people I’ve had the chance to meet. Everyone’s been so supportive. They often applaud me for doing this on my own, which I really appreciate. Hearing their stories and experiences has been incredibly interesting and eye-opening. I’ve learned so much just from our conversations.

That’s all I’ve got for now; thanks for reading, and see you next time!

It’s the Little Things

Published on by Katie SandovalLeave a comment

This week has been fairly simple. It felt like I didn’t do much, yet, at the same time did a lot somehow. This week I spent more time in my room, either getting things done or just taking it easy. Every now and then, I’d visit a small, lesser-known shrine near my dorm, and one day, my friends and I went up to the observation deck at Kyoto Tower—which had an amazing view!

That said, I realized I’d been spending more money than I expected this early into my time in Kyoto. So, this week, I tried to be more mindful. I stayed in more often, looked for free or low-cost places to explore, and even bought groceries so I could cook simple meals instead of eating out all the time. Even though I didn’t go to as many touristy spots, I still did quite a bit.

Although not necessarily visiting places, this week was when class registration opened. There are two registration periods, advance registration, the one that opened, and general registration, which will be open this coming week. The advance registration also had two stages. In the first stage, I applied for three classes but only got into two. During the second stage I applied for another two classes—and luckily got both. I say luckily because when a lot of students register for a certain class it becomes a type of lottery system, and it chooses which students attend the class at random. While I now have four classes, with general registration coming up, I’ll need to think about which classes to keep and which ones to drop so I meet the required credits for both Doshisha and for University of Denver.

Aside from that, campus was really lively this week because of club recruitment. For three days, there were a lot of clubs and performances to recruit new members into their clubs. I went with my friends for two out of the three days, and we were surprised at how packed the campus was—it was the busiest we’d ever seen it. At first, I personally felt a little overwhelmed, but once we started walking around, I was having fun looking at all the clubs there were. Students were handing out flyers and happily explaining what their clubs did. Some even spoke English, but we tried replying in Japanese, which kind of surprised them, and they would always say our Japanese was good. Everyone was super friendly, and we had a lot of fun just exploring and watching the performances.

By the end of the first day, we had so many flyers—some even doubled or tripled of the same ones! We went back on the second day thinking we might see different clubs, but most were the same as the first day. So, we skipped the third day, but overall, it was a fun experience and a good way to learn more about campus life here.

Lastly, my friends and I joined a picnic event where we got to meet both Doshisha students and other international students. We were split into groups and introduced ourselves in Japanese. It was a bit tricky to understand each other at first, but once we understood, everyone got excited. A little later, our group split again, and I was with one of my friends and three Doshisha students, all second years. They were super friendly and asked us all sorts of questions—why we came to Japan, what was our favorite Studio Ghibli movies, and more. They were not afraid to ask questions, and even though my Japanese isn’t perfect, they were always so happy when I answered, which helped me grow comfortable talking with them.

At one point, we played a type of trivia game in English which were trick questions. Even though they were hard to figure out, everyone had fun guessing. Our group didn’t win, but afterward, we started chatting with other groups. What started as a group of five eventually grew to nearly thirteen people. The picnic lasted about three hours, and by the end, I was really glad I went.

So, even with a slower pace, this week was definitely one of the most memorable ones by far during my time in Kyoto.