The End (For Now)

This is extremely belated but after five and a half years, my time in Japan is finally over.

As I was doing the Okinawa recap, I tried to think about what to do with this blog. I'm definitely not deleting it, but I highly doubt I can blog like before. So for now, I guess I'll just have to say goodbye. And I'm not good at goodbyes so this will be a fairly short post.

If I ever have something Japan-related to say (or if/when I go on a trip to Japan because I do intend to see my friends), I will definitely update this blog, but otherwise, there won't be any new posts.

Lastly (and perhaps more practically), I will be creating an additional section for the guidebook and emailing it to everyone who downloaded a copy when I'm done. It's basically going to be a guide for moving back based on my experiences.

For now, here's a to-do checklist that I made and used. I hope it helps if you're thinking of moving back:

Car
- Break insurance (fairly easy, although be careful about the day of last payment)
- Sell car (I sold it back to the guy I bought it from so that was very convenient)

Home
- Inform housing agent and pay the penalty fees.
- Hire a moving company and Pack (If you're going with Yamato Transport, like I did, then you should budget time for them to deliver the materials to you. I'm not sure how long other companies take)
- Break the internet contract (the most complicated since I had to liase with my housing agent as well)
- Stop the water
- Stop the gas
- Stop the electricity
Note: You will either need to have cash on hand or be around for a few days to make the last payment.
- Set up mail forwarding if you have an address to forward mail to.

Job & Other legal stuff
- Inform Immigration that I've left my job
- Inform prefectural government that I'm leaving and close all related accounts (insurance, pension, etc). The specific paperwork is: 『住民票の転出届』, 『国民年金の手続き』,『国民健康保険の脱退手続き』 』, and『個人番号通知カードまたは個人番号カードの返納』

Do these last
- Close your bank accounts
- Cancel your phone contract

And that's it (according to my notes). Goodbye for now and thank you for reading!

New Vlogger for MEXT (Osaka)

Hey everyone!! It feels like forever since I've posted about MEXT. Today, you have Mona to thank, because she's started a new vlog channel about her MEXT experience (and she's studying in Osaka University for her language year) and I just had to tell you guys about it. After all, the more information, the better, right?

Here's her first episode:

And here's her self-introduction:

Hey guys! I'm making a vlog about living and studying in the osaka campus through the mext scholarship :) I realised there wasn't much information and/or photos, so I hope my vlog could help! I'll try to update weekly and it's my first time vlogging so I hope that you would support me :) Would really appreciate it if you could subscribe and like my channel, thank you!

Definitely go watch her videos!

Graduation Post

I got back to Sasebo yesterday (almost typed Fukuoka out of habit) and finally have time to write this post. So as you probably know, I've graduated!!! And I managed to wear a hakama for my ceremony, something that I've been wanting to do.

+Whitney Yee I went to go research about Hakama, like I promised. There's a wikipedia page, but it has the "additional verification" thing needed so I searched in Japanese instead. According to this page: a hakama is something worn over the kimono (for girls). There are two types of hakama like 馬乗袴 (umanoribakama) and 行灯袴 (andonbakama). The hakama for males are different too.

As for its history, it was first worn in the 古墳時代 (kofun era) as a sort of trousers. In the Heian period (平安時代), girls of high status started to wear them. And then it was banned in the Edo period, except for court ladies. And then I think it started trending in the Meiji era. And now it's what most girls wear for their graduation.

Luckily, I had my own kimono, so all I needed to do was to rent the Hakama (which was more like a skirt than pants) and have my hair done. Final version:

Graduation Ceremony:

I just realised that I only asked one friend if I could upload the photos I took to this blog, so I guess it'll be scant on photos of people wearing Hakama >< Sorry everyone!

The ceremony was held at this hall and only students were allowed in. Family and guests had to go to lecture hall to watch from the TV screen.

Luckily my bear made it in! It's a present from my cousin :D 

And this is the inside of the hall:

The ceremony was split into two sessions. The morning one was for everyone and the reason why I didn't get enough sleep (because it's held at Ito campus, thus adding to the travel time). The ceremony started with a performance by the philharmonic orchestra. Next, we "received" our degrees, with one person (the one with the highest GPA) from each faculty representing all the students in said faculty. After that, the principal made a speech that was basically "here is what happened in the past and here is what we're aiming for" and then one student rep made a speech on our four years of uni life. After that it was time for the various awards for extra-curricular activities and special programs and the entire thing was done in an hour!

Also, my friend looked really pretty and we all gathered to take photos of her (and then with her) and she said I could post the photo here!

The afternoon "ceremony" was really just us getting our certs and the school making sure we returned our student IDs and filled out the "what are you doing after graduation" forms. Oh, and we were heavily encouraged to join the Old Boys/Girls' Association, and I have no idea if I did or did not.

I actually thought it was pretty nice of the school to give me an English copy of my graduation cert, since everyone else only got the Japanese version.

And this marks the end of my university journey. I can't believe that it's been five years in total - it feels like I just started this blog last year or something (and then I get asked something about my application to MEXT, realise I've forgotten and then I feel the five years). I have been extremely lucky to meet tons of amazing people who have been incredibly supportive and friendly. If it weren't for them, I probably would not have done as well in school and I probably would have had a pretty miserable time as well. And though it was pretty tiring to take two zemis at one go, I am glad to have taken them and worked with my classmates and I would absolutely do the same thing again in a heartbeat.

To end things on a practical note: I rushed to the immigration office right after the ceremony (arrive 20 minutes before it closed) because I needed proof of graduation to change my visa status and my company wanted me to change it as soon as possible. Luckily, I managed to get it done and I'm getting ready to start working in Japan!

I've Graduated! 卒業しました！(Next steps?)

Hey everyone! Just a quick post to say that after five years, my journey as a MEXT scholar has come to an end. Yesterday, I graduated from Kyudai, ending my university studies.

昨日、私は九州大学から卒業できました。あっという間に５年間が終わりました。たくさんの方々からお世話になりましたので、お礼を申し上げたいと思います。ありがとうございました。

I have wondered about what I should do after I graduate (I do have some travel posts which I plan to finish but who knows whether I'll do anything other than work once it's April), since this is blog was started mainly to chronicle my MEXT journey. So if you have any ideas/suggestions, please let me know. And let me know if you're interested in a more detailed graduation post - I'm currently travelling with my family and don't have much internet time or I would have spammed you all with photos right now.