Japan Style

I arrived in Osaka on Saturday evening. It was quite a trip!

My family went to Tulsa with me Thursday to Tulsa, and we went out to dinner for my parent's anniversary which was the same day. I have terrible timing, eh?

Friday Morning, they took me to the airport. We had a somewhat tearful goodbye, especially for my Dad.

Through lots of flying and waiting...I finally arrived at Tokyo! It was there that I met some fellow Kansai Gaidai-ers: Chris, Priscilla, Brittany, and George(?). They were a lot of fun, and I got to know Priscilla pretty well on the plane ride to Osaka.


I had no idea how to get to the Dotonbori hotel once I was in Osaka, but luckily my new friends were getting a friend to go take them to the dorms. I followed them up until my stop, and then a very nice woman helped me to my next subway train.


She was super nice, and wasn't even getting on the same train as myself! Upon surfacing, a different hotel gave me directions to the Dotonbori, and then a homeless man guided me to the correct crosswalk. It was all very interesting, but at that point I was so exhausted I just wanted a shower and some sleep.

The next morning I went to go pick up Megan and Blaine, but they had spent the night in Guam at an Internet Café and didn't get any sleep. They hadn't really slept in 40 hours...poor guys. They had booked a hotel (without me knowing) at the airport and they went straight to bed. We didn't hang out at all Sunday. At first I was upset because I had spent $9 and an hour of my time to come get them, but I can understand how tired they were, and they probably wouldn't have been much fun in their state anyway.

So I spent the day in Osaka by myself. I went to Melissa's favorite ramen shop in the whole wide world. It was really delicious! Then I hit up an arcade at this place called "Nanba HIPS" and played some Taiko Drum Master with a little boy who was better than me. The escalator up to the arcade was really cool.



After that, I just started wandering around. There were lots of people walking around. After a few minutes of sightseeing, I was approached by these two young Japanese men. They were comedians and took a great interest in me! I was really excited. They were really cool. There names were Kattchan and Mattchan, and they (along with Chiakk) showed me their comedy club. I watched their performance for only 500円! It's a comedy style called "Manzai," and it was a lot of speaking and word humor. However, I got enough of it to have a really wonderful time. It was in a very traditional looking room with seat mats - you even had to take off your shoes to get in. Most of the audience were girls. There were about 25 of us watching the show. It was really neat. Afterwards, I walked with the guys back to the bridge and we chatted the whole way. Every so often I'd see them again in the street and they'd come up and hug me or shake my hand. It was great to feel so welcome here.


I also heard a street band called "524" and they were really good. I liked their vocal harmony. They noticed me and were very friendly. They all came up to me after their song and greeted me. We all took pictures together, and I signed up for their fan club. It was really neat.



After some shopping (Melissa, I found an omamori toosan!), my backpack started killing my shoulders, so I went back to the hotel for a brief nap. That was 4pm. I briefly woke up 3 hours later, then went back to sleep until midnight. Not good for my sleep schedule.

I decided to get some tonkatsu at this restaurant called "New Host," and head to bed after that.

It's now 2:30am. I should probably get to bed. This morning I take the pick-up service to Kansai Gaidai!


Tyler

I've been at OSU since Wednesday afternoon, just hanging out with Markus and saying goodbye (and hello) to some friends. I've done very little studying on renshuu.org over the week, but that's okay. I'm probably about 15% packed - my Pelican case is ready to go, but not much else. So much packing to do.

I have to be in Stillwater Monday afternoon, so I'll get started on Tuesday. That'll give me two solid days to pack.

It's coming up so soon. Yesterday I got really sad about it. But I don't have it as bad as Blaine does. Poor guy, his passport and certificate were lost in the mail so he has nothing right now to get him over there. I do hope they retrieved it, otherwise it will be several thousand dollars and a few weeks until he can get here.


Tyler

In less than two weeks, I will be boarding a plane (several planes, really) to Osaka Japan's Kansai International Airport (KIX). I have reserved a hotel room at the Dotonbori hotel in downtown Osaka. It was pretty cheap as far as hotels go. I decided not to stay in a capsule hotel my first night because I've read a NYTimes article talking about the bad conditions there, and also about how salary men are staying there for months at a time because it's cheaper than an apartment. I'm not scared of salary men, but I think people who live in hotels for long periods of time tend to bring a place down a little bit.

I bought a big Pelican case to take all of my photo equipment to Japan with me. It's a 1640 Pelican case, and it is almost too big to fly with. It barely made the size limit by just .6 linear inches! The case itself weighs 35 lbs, so I can't take much more in it without paying overweight penalties. Good thing photo equipment isn't too heavy.

I've been studying pretty regularly on renshuu.org to be ready for the placement exam once I get there. I talked to me friend Trey yesterday at OSU, and he said you don't have to write kanji for the placement test! I was so relieved - that is single-handedly my weakest area. I understand stroke order very well, but I have trouble recalling which strokes to make at all. I can identify and read around 250 kanji, I think, but not much more than that. Grammar will be my weakest point on the placement exam because it's harder to study outside of class.

Everything is looking good! This should be a great adventure.


Tyler

Hey!

Don't listen to what the websites tell you about the yakkan shoumei. Turns out it is easier to get one than you think!

Yakkan Shoumei is a paper that allows you to bring more than 1 month's supply of prescription medication with you to Japan. You need the yakkan shoumei form on your person when you go through customs. Websites will tell you that you need to mail it to the bureau

First off, if you can fill out your application digitally (via Photoshop, GIMP, etc) then I recommend you do that so you have a copy for yourself. Also, you will need a digital copy if you are faxing via the internet or computer.

Grab the application from the internet - a search for "yakkan shoumei" will get you started. Fill out the application using the instructions and example pages in the PDF as your guide. I recommend you use information sheets/leaflets for the medications you will be using. These can be substituted for the "explanation of products" page. Make sure you have information for each of your medications.

After your application is filled out, make sure you have the following things (either printed or in PDF format):

Completed Yakkan Shoumei application
Copy of flight itinerary
Copy of prescriptions signed by doctor

Take all of these things and fax them to the Kinki Regional Bureau in Osaka, Japan. Their fax number can be found on the application. If you aren't going the digital route, then you will probably need to scan each document to fax them.

My fax took about 17 minutes to send everything - I had about 18 pages in all. You should receive a return fax with a statement saying your original will be mailed to you. The fax will also have a scan of your yakkan shoumei completed!

No postage stamps, no "Coupon Réponse International", and no 2-week delay for your yakkan shoumei!


Tyler

Hello!

I have wonderful news! I have been accepted into Kansai Gaidai. I received my acceptance letter via email last week. Megan has received hers too, but we are still waiting on Blaine's...more on that later.

I was looking through my information, and it seems that Kansai Gaidai picks us up directly from the Kansai International Airport. The pick-up service is ¥2000 and runs from 9am-6pm on the 23rd.

However...my flight doesn't get in until 7pm. What's more, they don't run the service on the next day (Sunday), so I couldn't use the service until Monday - almost 36 hours later. I think it would be fun to make our own way to Kansai Gaidai, and potentially cheaper by about ¥500, with exception to the hotels. However, hotels are a sunk cost, given the circumstances. That expense will happen either way.

Megan and Blaine will arrive about 13 hours later than I! Wow! That means I have to figure out hotel arrangements all on my lonesome the first night. Should be interesting...! Oh my, the possibilities.

I think, if, possible, I'll be booking through Orbitz or something similar on the state-side, so that when I get there all I will have to do is show my papers to get my room.

I still need to get my visa. Waiting on KG for that one too.


Tyler

Man, this keeps bogging me down!

I received an email last week from Kansai Gaidai saying that they'd received my application, but there was a concern on my medical evaluation form. They wanted my doctor to send another letter explaining that I was just fine. As if the first one wasn't enough.

So...my application still hasn't been accepted and it's upsetting. I should have it fixed by the end of this week. Time will tell.


Tyler

At long last, my application to Kansai Gaidai is complete! I received the medical evaluation from my Mom via email yesterday, and turned in the application to Kat today. She also had me sign a contract saying that I agreed to pay OSU room and board, tuition, and fees in exchange for those same services at Kansai Gaidai.

We talked briefly about the girl that was there this semester that came home early. I don't want that to happen to any of us next semester!

Apparently the meal plan over there works like this: You are given breakfast and dinner at your residence hall, but lunch is reimbursed monthly. This is good, I think, because I can eat off-campus or wherever I would like for lunch everyday.

Still working on my course equivalency. I thought it was due today so I panicked and got a lot of work done on it today. This is a good thing, too! Sometimes I just have to get kicked into motion.


Tyler