Goodbye Year Abroad… TTYL Japan!

The day before we left we reserved for walking a suitcase full of stuff to the local Hard-Off (yup, they called it that), to sell and hopefully make a bit of cash. It seemed like a great idea! But after an hour’s walk (we wanted to see the scenery), we were very ready to be rid of everything. However… they wouldn’t take a huge amount of it, and only paid us pennies really. It was still a good way to get rid of stuff, but I think I should have done it in dribs and drabs over the year…

On the plus side, we found a place for extra fluff cuddles, and even found a present for a UK friend that I’d been searching for ALL year. Less last place you look, and more, last DAY you look. Lucky!

Mitch with our big case of stuff

Finally found this for a friend!

Cuddles ❤

Dinner at our favourite curry place too, and bonus Michael!

Despite having sold a few bits…. Packing was impossible. We thought 4 suitcases and two rucksacks would be enough…. But apparently me wanting to take every single book home was a bad idea. We didn’t post anything because I feared the expense… But in the end I think I had to leave so much stuff for the scavengers that I really should have posted. We stayed up until about 4am packing and repacking… Deciding if I could part with books for my fancy towel, or if I really needed that one jumper I loved. It was a really painful process, mostly because I didn’t know if all this stuff I had to pile outside my door was just going to waste or if someone would actually use it…. Never again. I will be packing weeks in advance from now on!

Before I took this all down. It has grown so much since day one!

A last look at my lovely view.

All our kit, finally packed.

I walked past this almost every day for 9 months. It was like a garden gnome to me.

This jumper was one of Mitch’s favourites… It was crazy old and we left it behind. That was a hard choice..

Bye bye keys!

So empty…

Off we go!

Bye Japan 😥

And hello UK!

And… That’s it! My year abroad in Japan has officially come to an end. If you read any or some or all of my posts, thank you for coming along for the ride. I can’t quite believe it’s over. I know that I was definitely not done in Japan when I left. But thankfully, we live in a world with Airplanes. See ya’ll next time!!

Signing the year abroad off,

Maisy xx

Forms, forms and more forms!!

So thanks to today being a day off due to the typhoon, I had loads of time to sort out my forms! (As for the typhoon, it was pretty much just normal English picnic weather, so nothing to worry about there!)

I think this post will be less fun and interesting and more like a ‘useful for others going to TUFS or doing a year abroad’ post, sorry family! 😛

Basically I hadn’t yet found any time to go to the bank with my really helpful Japanese buddy person, so I hadn’t been able to do any forms! But today I did 🙂 So firstly, we went to the bank, and after some address and name writing I got a bank book, much like the one I used to have with Nationwide when I was young. In about a week I should get my debit card too 🙂 Here’s a picture!

I love how my name didn’t fit so they just wrote it on the end 😛

The whole process took about 15 minutes and they didn’t need any crazy info except for my medical insurance card (another reason I hadn’t done it until now; it only arrived recently!)

So after this I had to do my dorm fee form, my electricity bill form, and ask about how to pay water and medical insurance fees. There were an awful lot of times per form that I had to write my address! At least I now know my address and telephone number off by heart! So my dorm fees come out quarterly, the first installment being in December for 63000 Yen (about £400) which seems like a pretty good price to me! The price I pay here (probably even with bills on top) is less per month than my last house in London cost per week!! How crazy is that? On top of the £133ish per month I have health insurance at 1000ish Yen (£6.35ish) and water and electricity bills. I think for all of those they send me monthly letters which I then take to the nearest convenience store and pay with my shiny new debit card!

Other than dorm fees and bills, I also did some forms for a fancy part time job! Yay! I’ll be speaking English (so nice and easy) with some Japanese people in the ELC (English Language Centre) in my Uni for 90 minutes per week and I get 2000 Yen for my trouble 🙂 That will about pay for my fun trips into central Tokyo I reckon! Lastly I also did my class registration form and general info form.

On a side note, I had my health check the other day; it was weirdly efficient! You go with your little info form filled out and your pee in a crazy stick/pot contraption and they pass you from one numbered station to the next, checking a different box each time. They did blood and urine tests, height and weight, blood pressure, eyesight, a doctor’s consultation and finally an X-ray. So in about 20 days I’ll get a certificate that (hopefully) declares me fit and well to work! I felt a little forced into an unnecessary health check and did seriously consider not going, but I guess it was free and if I want any other kind of job here then I’ll need that certificate. Plus it only took about half an hour despite them telling me it would take hours of waiting!

So now all that kerfuffle is over with I think I’ll sit back with my Matcha Latte and do some more homework!! I hope this is helpful to someone in the future, or at least that it was interesting on some level!

Maisy

A super long post about all the things I have been doing in the last week!!

Hello humans! Things have been rather manic and filled with a haze of confusion over the last week or so, so I haven’t posted at all; sorry! But today I will sit here and write about all the things 🙂

I think I’ll start with the packing. What a kerfuffle! I started with just the one smallish suitcase and my super duper rucksack, so I began by collecting all the items I thought were essential, like clothes, shoes, tiny toiletries, pens, textbooks and so on. Once I’d stuffed everything I wanted into the case I still had a pile of things I wanted to take given the room, but there wasn’t any 😦 Mum offered me a bigger case so I filled that up, then realised it was way over the weight limit! So rather than pay £40 for an overweight bag, I paid £34 for an extra one and just took two! It meant I had loads of room to get in extra things I wanted and even some I didn’t realise how comforting they are, like my own pillow! The whole process took about 5 days to sort out my Japan stuff from my going back to Mum’s stuff and moving out etc. It was pretty sad; I really detest moving so much; I have moved 12 times since 2009….. I’m a home-maker not a nomad!! I feel like all I ever do is move boxes in and out of my Mum’s….

I like to pack and sort in organised chaos 😛

So next I want to share the goodbyes! I went to my older Brother’s house the Saturday before I left and we just hung out for a bit, had late night chicken and wedges (which was amazing) and then moseyed home around midnight. The next day I took my little Brother to Go Ape! Which was good fun 😀 My older Sister, Brother-in-Law, Niece, almost Niece, Dad and Dad’s Fionce all came to point and laugh, as well as say good bye. So far I hadn’t cried so I was feeling pretty strong and ready. On the Monday my Mum and little Bro came over and I cooked them cottage pie (something I shall miss dearly!) and said my final bye to Tim. After that we drove to my Nan’s to spend the late part of the night watching silly quiz shows and drinking tea. I cried when I had to say goodbye to her. Not so strong after all! Panic sort of stated to settle after we got back in but Mitch and I just cleaned up a little, finished packing and went to bed ready for the 8.30am phonecall that my Mother decided I needed! Booooooo… I wanted until 9 😛 But we left around 10.30 as planned, Dad drove up to meet us at the airport and after some coffee and a bit of a chat I had to head off. Even at this point, the whole thing felt like I’d be coming home in a few days time. I cried when I hugged them all goodbye; I’m a total sop. I managed to compose myself for security just about though.

So after I left I went straight to my favorite skincare shop in the duty free; I saved £6 on what I wanted!! Yay 😀 Gate time…. plane time… It still didn’t feel real. How weird is that! The food was fine, I watched The Internship which was awesome and chatted to the Japanese lady next to me. Sadly I didn’t sleep, but it did mean I have lots of pretty sunset and sunrise photos! And Dad; you were right, Russia is just nothing nothing nothing hut, nothing nothing hut!

Is it just me or does that river say ‘gone’ ?!

Well after 12 hours I was pretty tired and uncomfy but I still had a good 2 hours to go with the journey as I live the opposite side of Tokyo from the airport! So I was ready to curl up in a homesick ball and go to sleep when we got there but the lovely Japanese TUFS student who met me at the airport and I still had some paperwork to do and some things to find. So I had an evening nap about 4pm after Skyping my Mum and Mitch. I got up about 6 and had a desperate need to find food! I got some random stuff from the closest convenience store and came home again. Dinner was an onigiri, a Yakult and a melon pan 😀 I also bought breakfast for the next day; pancakes with maple and butter 🙂

Today was orientation; which was more like ‘have loads of paperwork and oh by the way, even though we said the placement test was next month it’s actually tomorrow’. So I’m pretty stuffed I hope it’s ok and not super hard…

Other than that I went for a wonder with Leo, the other person who is here from SOAS (It was so nice to speak English!!). So here is my first ‘I’m in Japan and there are cute things’ picture:

And now after having amazed my Nan with the wonders of Skype thanks to Mitch, I’m off to bed again!

Thanks for reading 🙂

More prep!

Ah the list is never ending! However, this load of prep stuff is loads more fun than the other stuff!

So firstly, after a slight hiccup where they didn’t see one part of the application and I had to send in a bit I’d missed, I’m allowed to take my meds to Japan! Yay for no babies!

Next, on a more fun and awesome note; I ordered the most amazing and gorgeous backpack from Surfdome and it’s big enough for my laptop!!! No bag has ever managed this feat without an awful lot of stuffing, and it’s actually the way my previous bag of the same make broke. So I’m mega mega happy and am now looking for keyrings to attach 😀 😀

I can finally carry my big-ass laptop!!

There’s a dark beauty to it don’t you think?!

Secondly, the photos that I want to take with me arrived yesterday! Here’s a few of the little beauts that will adorn my hall walls:

Plenty of nice memories. Yes that is a cup of tea.

Lastly, I realised that I need year abroad insurance!! I totally forgot about it so I’m going to do that tonight… wish me luck!

Prep so far

So I thought I’d go through a few bits and bobs I have been up to in preparation for Japan-ing. So far I have done a butt-load of paperwork! From the initial application to the Uni in Japan (which included essays, photos, several application and scholarship forms etc), to the medicine form (which is still underway) and other stuff like my Visa. I don’t hate paperwork like some people do, but it’s not a hobby for sure! So I’ll be glad when it’s over. I’ve also been and opened a Metro Bank current account. Their branches are like bloomin’ casinos!! Black and white tiled floor, a ‘magic money machine’ a load of colourful posters and more. A bit mental but they were friendly and I now have a card that’s free to use abroad 🙂 I’ve finished at my Fudge Kitchen Job! Quite sad, but I’m glad I have a week to get my stuff together without 8 hours of being on a sugar high! 😛 I’ve done a car boot sate to make some extra funds and get rid of some stuff, and have also been doing some photography for Tula Wellbeing to make a bit more money too 🙂 That has been really fun actually, and I have learnt a lot about my camera in a short space of time so hopefully I can put some of that to use in Japan. Here’s two of the shots:

I also went to London to attempt to buy some clothes in the fear that I’ll be too big to buy them in Japan. However, it seems I’m also too big for England; my options in the shops I went to were ‘skinny’ or ‘super skinny’. What happened to normal sizes?!?! I couldn’t even find any in Tesco. I might have to go to America for jeans… Grumble Grumble etc. Now all that’s left to do is pack, study, SORN my little car and hope that Student Finance send me another letter telling me I can have another £1400 again!! That was a nice surprise after work today 😀 Thanks for reading =^_^=