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.

A Note About the MEXT Scholarship Allowance and Grocery Money

I met with a kouhai called Amber last Friday. By the way, I think she's gonna do great in Japan - she's very realistic about her expectations, and she's already fluent and familiar with the country. But a comment she made, and the few days of eating/fattening up that I've been experiencing after, got me thinking.

During my first year of MEXT, there was this period of time where I made several food posts. Like this and this and oh dear, I can't bear to look anymore. At that time, I thought I was being smart and frugal and all that, but well, the truth is, my eating habits were horrible. The food I was cooking was simply not enough, and actually affected my health negatively, prompting an emergency trip home.

And when I moved to Fukuoka, I simply forgot about this, until Amber mentioned it. Apparently, I had scared/made her think the allowance was so little that I had to restrict my food intake. So today's post is to share pictures and information of what I'm actually eating nowadays and reassure everyone that yes, the MEXT allowance is enough.

Eating/Cooking Habits
Since last year, I started cooking school. So nowadays, instead of cooking once a week and living of that, I cook about twice a week, and I cook a lot more. I also eat more vegetables and meat. Plus, there's a Hotto Motto near my station, so I don't have an excuse for skipping meals anymore. Oh, and for lunch times in school, I have a prepaid food card, so the hit to the wallet happens only about once a year. (Each school lunch costs about 340 plus to less than 500 yen, depending on what I choose, and if I add desserts/bottled drinks)

According to my Japanese friends, you should be able to cook healthily and eat enough (for a girl) for under 10,000 yen a month. Since I end up buying omiyage with my groceries, my bills are higher, but I think that's roughly correct. And if you buy rice from Rakuten, or share meat from Costco with friends, your bills will probably go down more.

So yes, please don't worry about food, and don't be as silly as me when it comes to eating habits. Health first guys! (And thanks Amber, for pointing that out)

Recent pictures of meals I cooked (So you know I'm telling the truth)

Nasu tomato spagetti 

Hamburg (with rice, not pictured)

If you need proof it was me who cooked

Mapo doufu

It's um, Green-tea salmon (my friend suggested the recipe), fried mushrooms underneath
and that tofu thing I like (forgot the name argh). With rice, of course. 

I hope this reassures some scholars who may have been worried about the allowance!

ゼミ results (Part 2)

A while back, I talked about how I was torn between two tutorials. Well, today, I got the results for the first tutorial application (we have to application periods - the second one is if you failed the first one).

But first, which ゼミ did I choose in the end? 

As I said before, I really like both tutorials, but in the end, I applied for the Corporate Finance tutorial, and will try to get into the Economics of the Internet tutorial as my sub-tutorial. The reason was that after talking with my family, it seems like Corporate Finance will make me more employable than Economics of the Internet (it doesn't teach programming, it's really just analysing internet companies).

More about the Application Process

For all tutorials, you have to submit a form (printed correctly), either nicely typed out or handwritten. The form asks for your reasons for wanting to enter the tutorial, but different teachers have different requirements. The Corporate Finance teacher wanted us to add the things that we can contribute to the class (mine was basically "I CAN DO FOREIGN STUDENT OPINIONS AND BRING YOU TO SINGAPORE. PLEASE TAKE ME IN").

For the Economics of the Internet tutorial, there was an added 面談 (mendan - interview) which I did because I want to take it as my sub-tutorial. Now that some of my friends are considering whether to take a sub, this requirement is a bit of a turn-off.

In the interview, which took place during a lesson -gulp, I MISSED CLASS-, the teacher asked me about why I wanted to join the class (insert story about ebook revolution and my interest in how it unfolds), and why I didn't want to take it as my main tutorial, and then, he brought out my result sheets and asked me why I only got a C for Microeconomics and Statistics. That last part was a shock. But I managed to explain why, and assuming that there's space in the class, I should be able to take it as my sub-tutorial. YAY!

Announcement of Results (結果発表）

 The results were announced at noon today. Of course, I didn't know the time, just the date, so I went there in the morning and was puzzled at the lack of results. But since we have our 政治経済学 (um, Political Economics?) final exam part 2 from 1pm, I went to study.

Oh yes, Kyudai decided to announce the results one hour before a final exam. And since there was one teacher who had 40 students apply, there are at least 30 students who will be disappointed before they have to take a compulsory exam (This subject is compulsory for us).

The results were stuck on the board. I tried to blur out all the student numbers, but I think you can still get a feeling of what it's like, to be pushing your way through the crowd to look for your number.

My future teacher is all the way on the left.

Thankfully, I got in!

For the exam season, this is probably one of the best ways to end my week.

Encouragement

Tis the season to hear from Kouhai's. I've been so so happy (and flattered) that some of you new MEXT scholars have emailed me to tell me you got in! Every time I get the email, it makes my day. And since we're well into Christmas season, I thought it was time for a more reflective post.

Here's a pretty but completely unrelated painting to start. 

Recently, I got a comment from +Zahratul Amanah my Post-Exam Wrap-Up post. If you don't remember the post, basically, I was sad because my results were not as good as I wanted them to be, and I was feeling a lot of pressure about what to choose for my university.

Of course, two years down the road, you all can see that I'm absolutely happy with my choice of Kyudai, because I have awesome classes (Studio Ghibli class anyone?), good class, and loads of chances to travel. And wear pretty kimonos.

I'm not saying this to rub salt in anyone's wound, but I'm trying to encourage you guys. It might seem like a big deal, but it's really not the end of the world. Tani-sensei has said this before, that we foreign students come here thinking only of Todai. We think the only good university is Todai (and maybe Kyodai). But actually, it's this gradually sliding scale. There are loads of good universities. Hokkaido University, Kyushu University, Osaka University, Hitotsubashi University... there is more to life than Tokyo University. Plus, move out of Tokyo and your living costs go way down - that means more money for things like fun and traveling.

And remember, MEXT chose you to get the scholarship for a reason. You may not understand why, in fact, I still don't understand why I got the scholarship. Especially when it seems that everyone else are much smarter than you. But the fact is, there's something special about you that stood out. Don't you ever forget that.

So yes, study hard, don't even think about cheating and choose your university wisely. But please please please, don't stress about it too much. And if you guys ever need to talk about university applications or stress or whatever, feel free to comment/email me. I'm always here to support you guys. 一緒に頑張ろう！

Here's a pretty picture from Mount Aso - PLEASE CONSIDER KYUDAI! 

I Graduate Today!!!

Today (as you can obviously see from the title), is the day I graduated from my one-year course at TUFS. The reason why this post is written so late is that today was also the day of my farewell from Kendo, and a last class dinner.

For some reason, I was chosen to be the representative of the humanities students, which means that I was the first one to get my certificate, and I got it way way earlier than most of my friends:

Oh happy day!

After the party (which had a lot of food), I went for a second lunch with the kendo team! They were all so sweet! I got some awesome presents from them (no photos sorry! Do you want to see it very badly? I could take one and upload it I guess....)

I love my kendo team. Kohai's: Go join kendo! 

Incidentally, I was told that my clothes were very casual by the kendo team. O.o I thought I was semiformal!

Sorry, this is the only full-body pic I have (I think) It's not very good.

Also, I got my official acceptance letter from Kyushu University!

And if you're wondering what the graduation certificate looks like, these two photos should satisfy your curiosity:

The cover

The left side is in English, the right side is in Japanese

I'm happy to graduate, but I wish I didn't have to leave my friends behind. Sadly, I'm the only one going to Kyushu University.

To My Kouhai's

So you've gotten the MEXT scholarship! おめでとう！

Now, if you're anything like me, you might have started worrying about preparations, and so, look like this:

Or maybe it was just me.

But I think some of you have questions (and a few of you have asked me, I hope I helped!), and I'd like to help. Please tell me your questions via comments, and I'll do a blog post and try to answer. You can ask about things like what to pack, how much money do you really need (if you don't trust the embassy(; ), what do the rooms come with, orientation and such.

My Room (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies International Hall 1)

I realised that even though I moved here in April, I haven't posted anything about the living conditions. And I would think that all those that want to come here under MEXT would be pretty curious about this topic (well, I was very curious anyway). So, to calm your worries - the living conditions at TUFS are really great.

The basics: I'm in Hall 1 (there are two halls, although they're building a third hall now). What this means is that I have a toilet in my room, while those in Hall 2 have to share a communal toilet. At least, that's what I heard from the students in Hall 2 (there was something about how that's very uncomfortable during winter).

The rooms themselves are quite small. Including my toilet, I have 15m squared of space. On each floor, the first room is occupied by a Japanese tutor, who is available for advice and support. There is a common laundry area (floor 6 and if I'm right, floor 2 as well) and two common rooms (floor 5 and floor 7). On the first floor, there is a small music room (there's a piano!), a exercise place (you can play ping pong there), a kitchen, a Japanese-style room (occasionally, there are classes like Tea Ceremony there), a TV room (with a very nice TV inside). I think there's also a study room, although most people study in the common room.

So those are the shared facilities. And now, onto to the rooms (basically, my room). So, here are the photos (Warning! A lot of photos ahead!):

 This is my room from the door

 The clothes rack is right next to the door. It's really really small. (Tip: bring as many hangers as you need when you're coming)

 And right below the clothes rack is the shoe rack. As a side note, don't you love Magic Mop? It makes cleaning so much easier!

 We have individual heaters and individual heating bills (remember to always turn off your heater when you're not using it. This is especially since electricity bills are going to go up!). While I've heard of a senpai who (apparently) never turned on his heater for the whole year, I definitely can't do that. I have another senpai that bathed in cold water during winter (with very low electricity bills as a result. If you want to try, his advice was to "try and remain conscious when the cold water first hits you."

 My mini-kitchenette! It's an electric stove (so if you get a kettle, get an electric kettle), but it's adequate for all cooking needs. Or at least, I haven't had to use the kitchen on the first floor yet.

 I use the space below the stove to store all food-related items. In the right corner is my beloved blender. Right now, I go by "which dish uses the least ingredients" method of selecting things to cook because I don't have the space to store a lot of ingredients.

 My bed. There's a board next to it, so I'm trying to fill it up before I leave. All those notes are either prayers or verses.

We have a balcony on which I can hang clothes! Can you see my name on the yellow towel? Well, you can't really see my name on my dogi (simply put, it's the kendo top) though...

 The view from my balcony during sunset! (after a bit of editing)

 The real, unedited view. This is the school track. I wake up to the soccer/baseball team practicing (I wonder how they find time to go to classes since I always see some people practicing....)

I have no space. Which is why all my clothes must be foldable (only formal wear is the exception). And yes, it's over my refrigerator) 

 My bookshelf ^^ Because of this, my room is known as a mini-library (and I lend books out too!)

This is how I decorate my library shelves - with toys from Kinder Surprise (I love Kinder Surprise. Kinder Joy? Not as much) 

I really have no room, which is why my rice cooker is next to my bed....

Just know that the toilet is small but contains a (deep) bathtub, a sink and a toilet bowl. There aren't any full-length mirrors, but there's one small-medium sized mirror hanging over the sink.

So, here's my room. It's small, but really cozy ^^

ETA1: 24/7/2014: If you need to see more of my room, +InasWH did an excellent vlog about it! Click here to go to the video

ETA2: 14/6/2015: If you're looking for information on the Osaka U-Program (the Osaka version of TUFS), +Devangi Yadav made an excellent and detailed post here