Japan Style

Hey there,

I got my ISIC card yesterday. It's an international student insurance card, and it will help cover repatriation and other things that my regular health insurance won't. It also has lots of neat discounts for things.

Megan and I are looking for flights to Japan...she has points on Continental, so we're going to fly them most likely. Unfortunately, the layovers and flight stops are really weird; They either take you through Chicago or Denver, or have a 6-hr layover. Megan's best and cheapest actually would take us from Houston to NYC, and then an 11-hour layover to Japan. There's just not a good flight to be had around that time...so we'll just have to make do with what we can get.

I'm hesitant to even book a flight right now, as our application process is unknown at this time. We should already have our deadlines, application forms, and instructions, but we only have the deadline. It's not our Study Abroad Office's fault, either. Here's the lowdown:

The Kansai Gaidai website changed a couple months ago, and the application forms are no longer available on their usual page. Instead, the instructions there say to apply online using K-GENESYS. A google search of that acronym results in nothing relevant whatsoever.

Speaking with our SA Office, they said they should have received the login information already. She emailed them, and their reply was a letter saying to visit another website for the application.

That website doesn't exist anymore. I checked the cached version of Google, and it used to have everything. Now it's a "404" page. That's just great.

Kat, our SA person, is apparently not receiving info from Kansai Gaidai, so her advice was to fill out the forms for last semester and be ready to submit them upon confirmation that they'll even work at all.

That's wonderful news. Go ahead and spend time filling out something that might not even be the real application, in hopes that they'll have pity upon you and accept you anyway. Should we really be looking at flights when we're not even sure we can apply yet?

Argh, I say. This is frustrating. Hopefully some answers will come about soon.


Tyler

Study Abroad Orientation was 5 hours long...it was long.

I'd heard much of what they had said before, when I had gone to Japan with the Wings of Rotary group back in 2008. Things like packing light, reverse culture shock, Skype, etc. The things of interest to me were about scholarships, financial aid, application paper deadlines, and how to get the most out of your study abroad.

Lunch was my favorite, though. We got to eat first(!) out of everyone, and we sat out on the porch with Naho, Keiko, and Wooka. Naho and Keiko are exchange students from Kansai Gaidai, and they were friendly. The easiest Japanese people to talk to are young Japanese girls - they're the most excited and animated out of anyone. And very easygoing! I was speaking Japanese with them the whole time, and it was quite fun. We talked about Kansai Gaidai a lot, as well as their own adjustment in coming to OSU. Tyler Weirick was also there and we talked a little about Shinshu, too.

I'm more excited for my travel, and I feel a little better prepared for it. Unfortunately, they didn't tell us Kansai Gaidai goers about how meal plan will work, or list the actual host university application deadline in our papers...so now we have to figure out what to do and when. Oh well - they're working pretty hard as it is, and I told them in the meeting that I expect accurate information regarding housing, expenses, and meal plans.


Tyler

I started around 5pm with getting the rice cooking and then Jesse arrived. Trey came too, and we all helped make the edamame in the kitchen. I sorta used a recipe from WikiHow.com, and it turned out okay. I shouldn't be allowed to drop things into boiling water...I splashed some water onto my hand when I threw a bunch of the beanpods in. After that I just prepared other things. haha!


Tyler

Before our orientation and before Sam and Jesse leave for Shinshu, I wanted us to all get together and have dinner at my place. Jesse, Sam, and I bought supplies on Thursday at Wal-Mart and this cool place called Sultan's.

While in Wal-Mart, Sam was telling me how he received the JASSO and how that made him ineligible for the really cheap housing on campus, so he has to rent some expensive apartment now. How lame! If I'm offered the JASSO, I will check and see if there are any restrictions like his. :-(

Sultan's is just off of Main ST near Studio ONE, and it's the next best thing to the now-defunct Asian Food Mart. They have ramuné, mochi in several flavors, and my favorite favorite furikake of all time, goma shio! That stuff is delicious on rice.

I also bought us Baklava for the ride home. It was quite tasty.