007 – Comic Market 91

Posted on by

I snort as I snap awake, the cold, early morning air biting my face. I look around me, blinking sleep out of my eyes. I have no idea how long I was passed out for. Endless hordes of what can only be described as nerds are all around me, sitting on tiny stools and wrapped up in winter clothes, their noses in books. It’s late December, and it’s not even 7AM yet. I look to my friends, hunched over their Nintendo DS’s. I then glance up at the massive, iconic building before me; Tokyo Big Site, the home of the legendary Comic Market: the veritable Mecca of otaku.

A tiny part of the lineup. We sat here for HOURS and watched the sun come up…

HI UBC BLOGS.

I AM ALIVE.

You will not believe what I have been through in the last few months. Real talk, some of it’s actually been pretty serious and I haven’t quite told UBC what happened yet, so I figured I’d hop back on the blog and catch up and slowly unravel my tale, since it’s no fun doing what the Japanese like to call neta bare, also known as spoiling the story line! I may as well make it interesting, eh? I deeply apologize that I have taken literal months to update, things got kind of nuts from the end of December and it didn’t all calm down until this month (my goodness where did 2017 go?).

Let’s go back to December.

The massive tome in my arms is the size of a telephone book and is filled to the brim with tiny panels showcasing each circle offering their works for sale. For when we finally get into the building anyway.

Twice a year, Tokyo Big Site (a large international conference building) plays host to a giant event known as Comic Market, aka Comiket. Hundreds of thousands of people will ride the first train of the morning and line up just for a chance to get into the building, where tens of thousands of groups that make comics and fan fiction, called circles, will sell their latest works to the public.  Along with amateur artists, pros will also sell their works at tables that are lined up through massive halls, all lettered and numbered in an order that takes at least a week to learn and understand (at least that’s how long it took me to figure out how to navigate the place!). Unlike anime conventions back home, where many different forms of media will typically be sold, artists generally only sell dojinshi, also called fanzines. These are slim, often exclusive works drawn and penciled by fans of official media, often making up their own story lines and scenarios for their favourite characters. On the other side of the massive building, there will also be an area for official anime and manga companies to set up their own booths and sell exclusive merchandise.

Comiket is run over the course of three days: always a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Comiket 91, which we attended, was held on the last three days of the year, as is common for the event when held in winter. Day 1, we lined up for seven hours to be able to make it inside the merchandise area, all for my friend to be able to get her hands on exclusive keychains and similar goods that one would not be able to find elsewhere. I also managed to purchase an exclusive clear file with Revy from Black Lagoon, an anime series that I enjoyed as a teenager. There were so many people that we had to be herded around like packs of hungry dogs, all eager to be able to get into the large, packed halls full of people all lining up to buy those fanzines and goods that they’ve been waiting months to get their hands on.

Day 2 was all about the books that we wanted, especially because it is notorious for women-only circles, who tend to specialize in a genre known as ‘Boy’s Love’ (BL). These are stories where main male characters will be paired with each other in romantic and often exaggerated stories, regardless of their sexual orientation in the original works they’re from. I was lucky enough to attend when Yuri on Ice!! had just come out, an anime series that featured overly pretty male figure skaters with massive homo-romantic overtones. I have never seen so many illustrations of half-naked men covered in glitter in my life.

It was beautiful.

Me running around in pure happiness, Tokyo Big Site looking majestic as heck beside my penguin-like body.

One thing that Comiket is also known for is the cosplay scene, which tends to explode here. Cosplaying in public is generally frowned upon here (I will post more on this later), so any chance for the locals to come out and strut their stuff is greatly appreciated. Not to diss Vancouver, but damn, Tokyo’s cosplay community is insane! There’s less pressure here on cosplayers to make their own outfits and look, so people tend to purchase more components of their costuming, and as a result, they end up looking pretty darn legit. I saw some amazing stuff, and many of the nerds that had lined up for hours made a beeline for the cosplay-designated area once we were cut loose, high-resolution cameras in hand.

All in all, Comiket 91 was a raging success, after weeks of planning with friends and coming up with buying strategies, as well as how best to line up. I feel as though I have passed some sort of initiation rite, and become an otaku myself, aka a crazed fan, albeit specifically for comics. It was most definitely worth all of the suffering, and I even specifically booked my flight back to Canada to be AFTER Comiket 92, because I have to go back. I even applied for my own table so that I could express my own artistic love of comics… but more on that later… 😉

006 – Escape From Tokyo

Posted on by

“You haven’t changed at all,” she says, her Japanese accent thick with the Hiroshima flavour. She squeezes my shoulders, her face beaming. “Not one bit.”

“Neither have you!”, I answer, laughing. It has been four years since we have seen one another, and it’s true; nothing has changed.

It’s been an action packed two months! I apologize for my tardiness in posting, I am afraid my studies proved to be more time consuming than I expected. However! I have been taking notes for when I finally had time over this winter break! So to recap, let’s rewind back to October!

I ate black sesame ice cream and I almost died of deliciousness.

Sophia University was having a week-long festival, which meant a glorious week off from classes. If I had been part of a club, I would have perhaps cared about the festival, but as a rogue student, I decided to take the opportunity to jump on the shinkansen (aka bullet train) and head West. My first stop was Kyoto, a city that I had only previously visited for small day trips, So this time I spent four nights there, staying in a small backpacker’s hostel in Gion. If that name sounds familiar to your, it’s because it’s famous for its history of being the centre of geisha culture. It is one of the few places left in the world where the art is still practiced. I glimpsed a few whilst out walking one late evening, accompanying a procession of a dinner party that appeared to be taking place between two companies. Seeing them in full dress and livery was absolutely stunning. I also encountered a real life sumo wrestler, larger than life and clad in completely traditional clothing. I befriended some very cool dudes and had a blast, visiting temple after temple and eating some of the most delicious sushi that I have had in awhile!

The Kanji Museum of Kyoto. This is a giant sized version of a popular mug that is sold around Japan, covered in the many written names of fish.

I also got to visit the newly opened Kanji Museum, a building full of exhibits showing the history and importance of Chinese characters as they are used in the Japanese language. It is something that I study two days a week in school, and have come to read much more easily thanks to living here and facing it everyday. Kanji is an important part of Japanese life, and this museum is the latest attempt in ensuring that it does not fade into history, especially with the popularization of electronic forms of communication. It’s not too different than the plight of cursive writing in English, a tradition I myself do my best to uphold.

After Kyoto, I took off again on a train bound for Hiroshima. Famous for it’s World War II history of being one of the two cities to have an atom bomb dropped on it, it has now become a city that promotes peace. It is famous for it’s particular dialect and excellent cuisine, including their fried oysters and okonomiyaki, a sort of savoury pancake. It is also the home town of my good friend, who had previously spent two years in Vancouver studying English. She and I had become close, and I was desperate to see her again. I had also visited her once previously, four years ago, where I had met her whole family and attended the local fire festival with them. This time I came with gifts, including Tim Hortons coffee, and had a wonderful lunch with her father. She also had a day off from work, so we took the ferry over to Miyajima.

My friend and I in Miyajima.

Miyajima is a small island off the coast of Hiroshima, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On it’s shore stands a beautiful temple, as well as a large park and a mountain that is popular to climb. It is also covered in wild deer that calmly walk around and try to eat peoples’ food. It was a little early in autumn, so the leaves had not quite turned yet, but it was still absolutely beautiful. And it was wonderful to catch up with old friends, as well as make some new ones. As much as I love Tokyo, it was nice to get out of the fray for a few days and catch my breath. My classes are quite time-consuming, and Tokyo has a way of keeping you busy. For anybody on exchange, I definitely recommend branching out from your home base and seeing other sides of your host country, it is a very rewarding experience. As for what has been happening around Tokyo, let’s save it for next time!

 

 

 

005 – Meeting Sophia and Settling In

Posted on by

I’m standing in Japan Post Bank, people waiting in rows of seats behind me, clutching file folders full of paperwork. I’m waiting at the registration counter, having already spent the last half hour working on trying to open a bank account. The banker, a young Japanese woman, comes rushing back, handing me back the form I just filled out. 

<I’m sorry… please… write your name again, all capital letters…>

I sigh. This may take awhile. 

img_0323It’s been a few weeks since I arrived in Tokyo. It’s been a whirlwind of paperwork, settling into my dorm, and starting school.

Oh, and giant Gundams.

I’m living in Fujimidai, which is located in Nerima Ward in Northwestern Tokyo. It is a glorious town, complete with excellent access to the Tokyo Metro (very close to the bustling area of Ikebukuro), Shakuji-koen, the second largest park across Tokyo, second only to Ueno, and it only takes 45 minutes to reach Sophia University, that gorgeous centre of knowledge, nestled in the middle of Yotsuya Ward, which also plays home to the Japanese Diet Building and the very controversial Yasukuni Shrine!

img_0369

A friend of mine (right) and I posing with the Fujimidai sign at our train stop. The name roughly translates to ‘place from which one can see Fuji’.

First of all, I have got to mention the stuff I had to go through before classes finally started, not to mention the reason it took me awhile to finish this post!! Japan is notoriously famous for their efforts to find illegal workers, the two most prolific being police asking foreigners to see their passports (not carrying it with you results in a fine), and the fingerprinting and mugshot process you go through when entering the country. Now, since we as students are staying longer than the typical tourist visa, we are issued resident cards to avoid the inconvenience of having to constantly carry our passports around. While this is nice, we also have to go register our addresses at our local ward office within 14 days of landing.

Now, I speak pretty decent Japanese, especially after UBC’s grueling Intensive Intermediate Japanese courses, which I took last year. Thanks to that, I was more than capable of filling out all of the paperwork at the aforementioned ward office. I had to write out a form notifying them where I live, as well as do this whole other process to get national health insurance, and get a certificate to prove that I did all of this for Sophia. Halfway through the process, I realized something striking: there was absolutely no other language support. Being in Japan, this wouldn’t be a surprise, but one look around my dorm will tell you that a lot of students that come over here can barely string a sentence together, because they’re either beginners or low-intermediate speakers at most. I immediately realized how much I took my skill for granted, because most people had to bring a friend or a helper along to do that paperwork, as well as open a bank account, get a phone sim card, or fill in applications at school.

Once that was all dealt with, it was time to take my Japanese Language Placement Test at Sophia. I was amazed, again, just how prepared I was for it, thanks to UBC. The intensive program in Vancouver was really difficult, mostly due to its fast pace. We went through the entirety of An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese in a year, which is no easy feat. The good news is, Sophia’s Japanese language program has a course that immediately follows that textbook, and I totally got in. Because I am obviously amazing. I could not believe how close the classes were, it pretty much picked up exactly where the last one left off. So for the last couple weeks, I have been taking Intensive Japanese, which is a double-credit course that is three hours every freakin’ morning. We have quizzes every morning, a presentation, a unit test, and a written composition every week.

Maybe this is why I get called a masochist?

img_0273

This is me pawing at a sign of my favourite restaurant’s food, a simple dish called doria, which is a bowl of rice topped with pasta sauce, meat, and melted cheese.

My other classes are very nice, I am taking a literature course all about Modern Japanese Fiction, and an Anthropology course about modern and post-modern theory, which is actually taught by a Canadian professor who is visiting this year! He is literally the only other Canadian person that I have met on this whole trip so far. Everybody else that I have met have been students from all across Europe, Pakistan, Indonesia, other parts of Asia, and the United States. When I take the train, I stick out like a sore thumb that has gotten infected and probably needs to be amputated. As a result, I have been stared at a lot, and the usual profiling that I expected has indeed occurred. If I speak Japanese to people, I often get answers in broken English, even though I am speaking in full sentences, and I have already been turned away from a gym because of my tattoos (because I totally look like a yakuza gangster, right?). Worst yet, some of my friends have been turned away from restaurants for being foreigners. I am doing my best to ‘read the air’, as they say in Japanese, which essentially means to read the mood around you and act appropriately, because I am horribly aware of the stereotype that has been slapped onto foreigners (‘gaikokujin‘), and it’ll take a lot for those labels to start going away.

Not like it really matters though, I love Tokyo and I have otherwise gotten right back into the swing of things here! I can navigate the transit, I am way more functional in the language than I expected, and oh my god all of the food. It doesn’t matter if it comes from a convenience store or a full restaurant, it is just all great. My school’s cafeteria has everything from pork cutlet rice bowls to Japanese noodle soup, and it’s all much cheaper than Vancouver. Every weekend, I am making an effort to go for nice walks in the local parks (one of which is chock-full of rare birds!) and exploring different areas, like Shibuya and Odaiba, which is the place with the really, really big Gundam.

Tomorrow, I will venture out to Saitama, a town to the north of Tokyo, which has one of the oldest temples in Japan. From there, who knows what could be next? I definitely want to check out Kamakura, Osaka, Hokkaido… sky’s the limit, really! ‘Til then, I big thee adieu, and until next time, reader!

 

004 – Onward! To Japan!

Posted on by

My dreams abruptly end as I snap awake, inhaling sharply. I blink several times as my blurry vision takes its sweet time to come into focus. I sit up, realizing I am not sitting in a hostel bed, as per usual, but a fluffy, comfy Japanese floor futon. I look up and see that I am lying on tatami floor mats and there is a sliding door made out of paper before me.

Oh right, I moved to Japan. 

I’M FINALLY HERE.

COMMENCE FREAK OUT SESSION.

オ・マイ。ガー！

 

FREAK OUT SESSION COMPLETE.

Hi there! The last couple weeks have been an insane amount of travel, to the point that I cannot believe that I am still alive. It took a little while to get set up, but it’s all finally done, and I can sit and blog in peace without glaring at any unpacked backpacks or clothes strewn across the floor.

SO! Last time, I updated from South Carolina, where I was heading to Myrtle Beach for a wedding, since my friend decided to get married five days before I was supposed to be in Tokyo. It was beautiful though! All done on the beach at sunrise, food was all a giant breakfast buffet, and guess who caught the bouquet?

img_0144

This gal! Everything was blue, as is evident from the picture, and it was all ocean-themed. It was a really great time and I was happy I could make it!

I spent an extra day in South Carolina, then I took a flight from Myrtle Beach to New York City. I took a shuttle between airports, then killed a few hours there until 1:30am, which is when I boarded my China Airlines flight, which would go from JFK to Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan.

I spent fifteen hours in that airplane. And to China Airlines’ credit, they have amazing planes. The seats were insanely comfy and the little monitors with in-flight entertainment were incredibly new, compared to flights I’ve taken in the past where you are basically smacking the screen (and the back of someone else’s seat) trying to make a selection. There was also the bonus that since this flight left at such an odd time, there was barely anyone on the flight! So I had a whole row to myself, in which I set up a nest of blankets and pillows and slept throughout most of the ride. The meals were also pretty good! Funny side note: all of the juices that they served on the flight were Greek. What.

So I land in Taiwan at five o clock in the morning, wander around the airport for a bit, awkwardly wash up and brush my teeth in the tiny washroom by security, then head out to face the day. I opened the door and Typhoon Meranti came out to say hello.

img_0208It was a terrible time in southern Taiwan, although I was lucky because I mostly hung out in the Taipei area, so all I put up with was some rain and wind, but nothing like what you’ve seen on the news. I met up with my awesome friend who lives there and had some breakfast and lunch, as well as was treated to a wonderful massage and having my hair washed, Taiwanese style.

This is apparently a thing. It was amazing to have my shoulders attended to after backpacking for so long.

End of the day, I took my flight to Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture. This is the main international airport by Tokyo, although it’s kinda far. Another friend of mine was sweet enough to come out and meet me, which ended up being a long wait for her, since I was not the only long-term resident to show up; about eight of us were told to wait in a corner while all tourists were processed and put through immigration. I presume that they were short-staffed, it was almost nine o’ clock at night and people had probably gone home! To make matters worse, most of the others were confused when asked to amend their paperwork, and the gentleman who was helping us only addressed us in Japanese. I was one of the only three or four people who had everything completed and were allowed to proceed right to the photograph and fingerprinting station! When I finally got through, I made a dash for the exit to meet my friend, so that I wouldn’t inconvenience her further! I was excited to see her again, though. She is a student at Sophia as well, and she had come to UBC last year on exchange, so it was exciting to see a real exchange in action!

The immigration process, for those who are curious, is all outlined on the Immigration Bureau of Japan’s website, but long story short, it goes like this: Get certificate of eligibility, go to embassy in your country, get visa, land in airport, bring certificate and visa, fill out form, give to attendant, get fingerprinted and photographed, get resident card, leave. If you want to be allowed to work a part time job, print out another form from the website that’s called “permission to engage in other activity”, sign it, and hand that in with your other stuff.

So I was able to leave, enter Japan, and go sleep over at my friend’s house, since my dorm’s office hours were closed for the day. I stayed over, got up the next morning, dragged my backpack over to Nerima, and moved into my dorm room. The room itself is perfect, just enough space for a bed with built-in drawers, a desk, a chair, a bookshelf, a small closet and a small fridge. The showers and kitchen are shared spaces on the first floor, and they’re well-maintained. I can definitely survive here for a year. Dorms are definitely the way to go if you’re only here for a year, since most apartments require a two-year commitment, not to mention six months’ worth of rent up front. The only things I had to add on were a bright pink kettle and a bright purple laundry hamper. Not only are they useful, but they add some colour to the place!

I also have a balcony with a clothesline, and just a block away, I can see the trains go by, which really makes me feel like I’m in Tokyo! The station is up the street, and I have already been riding the metro and JR lines everywhere! Orientation is tomorrow, so I’ll blog again soon on starting school in another country! ‘Til then, have a great day, wherever you are, and hope your day remains typhoon-free!

003 – There and Back Again

Posted on by

I’m sitting in a pub in the beating heart of The South. College football is playing loudly on the televisions over the bar as the server frantically serves drinks and food. I get my delicious burger and start to dig in, but I cannot help but pause to take notes, as the football fans in the room are roaring at another touchdown and dancing and cheering in ways that I have never seen sports fans do. The anthropologist in me needs to take notes. A cranky older man taps me on the shoulder, looking absolutely scandalized. 

“Let me ask you somethin’,” he says, his southern accent making him nigh incomprehensible to my northern ears. “Y’all came down here to enjoy a nice beer, good food, and friends, right? So why in the hell are you writin’?!”

I smile and almost feel a little sad for this man who believes that writing could not possibly be fun. My friends snigger and continue working on their drinks, amused that the Canadian has managed to garner further attention for her weirdness.

I excel at confusing people. I think it’s gotten to the point that they get so mixed up with what my plans are that they just ignore it until I update my Facebook profile to let them know I’m not dead.

Phase 1 of my very indirect route has been completed, reader. I have this friend, y’see, that has been my pen pal since I was twelve years-old. Well, several months ago, she invited me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding. She lives all the way in South Carolina. I really wanted to be there, but her wedding is five days before I am supposed to be in Tokyo. So I had to figure out a way to get there and back again.

IMG_3256

Kyiv Pasazhyrs’kyi (Київ-Пасажирський), aka Central Railway Station.

So to start, I was in Athens, Greece. I flew out on a nice sunny afternoon from El. Venizelos Airport (ATH) to Borispol International (KBP), which is located just outside of Kyiv, Ukraine. Why the heck did I go to Ukraine, of all places? Well, Ukraine International Airlines recently started a very reasonably priced flight from Kyiv to JFK Airport, in New York. From there, it was just a small hop to get down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina! As a bonus, I was able to enjoy Kyiv for an evening, as I had an 18 hour layover there! But after eating pierogies and borscht and meeting some amazing people at one of the local hostels, it was time to move on.

The flight was amazingly smooth, barely any turbulence, and even though it was ten hours long, it seemed to go by in an instant. Before I knew it, I was landing in New York. I had to switch to LaGuardia Airport (LGA) for my next flight, so I had pre-ordered a ticket for a shuttle bus (NYC Airporter), which was fantastic because it meant I would get to skip the agony of backpacking through the metro during rush hour. It even had wifi onboard.

Unbeknownst to me, Hurricane Hermine had decided to crash into the east coast earlier that day, killing two people and spraying debris and chaos all over. It hit fast and was downgraded to a tropical storm, but it meant that the flight preceding mine had been diverted to another place, so they took a very long time to get back. The flight ended up being delayed by close to an hour, which given the circumstances was very impressive. However, other flights had also experienced hiccups, and LaGuardia had a lot of construction going on. So we ended up taxiing on the tarmac for an additional hour, watching the sunset from our little windows.

By the time I finally made it to Myrtle, my poor friend and her fiance had been waiting for me, having driven three hours in a tropical storm to pick me up. I’ve never been more grateful.

IMG_3280

A menu in an ‘Asian/Mexican’ fusion restaurant, clearly displaying Inuit art over an image of Mt. Fuji. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

Out of any country in the world that I have visited thus far, I never feel more like a fish out of water than I do in the United States. Perhaps it’s the fact that performative patriotism is strongly encouraged, so there is much evidence to support the suggestion that Americans feel the need to assert their identity, i.e. flags on everything, signs on businesses claiming to be ‘American’, etc. It’s everywhere down here, and if you are not American, like myself, then you feel a little out of place. I can’t help but keep notes on everything that happens while I’m here, because people are very outspoken and even though we’re only a few hours away by plane, the US and Canada are vastly different.

It is also good training for my upcoming year in Japan. Sometimes I seem to get a swelled head and think I know how something is going to go down in a cultural setting, and then I am surprised when it goes differently. I have to remember to basically stop being a know-it-all and go with the flow, as I suggested in my last post. It will hinder my capacity to learn if I don’t. So I’m grateful that my friend chose now to get married, and gave me an excuse to enact my ‘indirectness’ resolution to be able to take such a crazy path leading up to Tokyo. It’s helping me grow as a person and preparing me for many more surprises.

I’ll be here for the next week, then I’m off. Of course, I can’t fly directly to Tokyo from Myrtle Beach. Tune in next time to see how Phase 2 works out. Hopefully this time with a little less hurricane!

002 – My Five Steps For Preparing to Leave

Posted on by

I’m sitting at my desk, air conditioning on full blast behind me in Athens, Greece. I’m reading over my acceptance letter from Sophia University, glee filling up my chest with a weird tingling sensation. I have so much excitement running through my body that I could jump up and dance like a maniac right now, and I haven’t even had my first cup of coffee for the day yet. 

Has this ever happened to you?

It’s the end of August. If you’re going on exchange, or you’ve ever gone on a trip, I’m sure you can relate, anyway. Maybe not the dancing part. Or the excessive caffeine consumption part.

This post is mainly about preparations for your exchange trip (with a focus on Japan, of course), and how to deal with the anticipation, as well as coming to terms with the fact that you’re, well, leaving. I always find this part tough, especially because of my aforementioned New Year’s resolution: take the most indirect route to your destination possible. I have some very specific packing to do, but based on past travel experience and what have you, I hope some of what I have to say will be useful. And again, you can just get a chuckle out of the struggle I face.

Step 1: Wise words from Douglas Adams himself:

dont-panic-and-carry-a-towel

When Arthur Dent was suddenly pulled away from his home planet (which was subsequently demolished to make way for a hyperspace freeway) and forced to go on a long, arduous journey with Ford Prefect, he was told to do two things to prepare: drink a ton of beer and bring a towel.

While I can’t condone the first one since you’ll be flying and sitting at a high altitude (read: one in the air is two on the ground), the second one rings true with travelers: don’t carry much, but carry something that is simultaneously comforting and useful. Something that might remind you of home if you’re the type who gets homesick, or something for loneliness. I like to carry a little agenda to write little thoughts down in and collect tickets from my travels to help me reflect back on what I’ve been through. If you’re one of them young’uns who grew up with computers and mobile devices, a tablet or a laptop may be a nice option as well. At the end of the day, though, make sure it’s something lightweight. If you’re a backpacker like I am, you don’t want to carry something heavy. And if you hate tablets like I do, you try to find something that can withstand a great deal of punishment.

My weapon of choice is a Lenovo ThinkPad T420. This bad boy was used as the laptop of choice for rentals from my college’s library. It’s battery lasts and it’s build is very strong. It’s not very heavy, and it fits in both my travel and school backpacks, so I can drag it across the world or just down the street to a study group.

As for literal towels: Packtowel Personal Towel by MEC is pretty useful, especially in Japan, where the public washrooms do not usually have paper towels or anything for your face and hands.

Step 2: When packing, take about half of what you think you need. 

A lot of people say this in blogs, to the point that it’s become a sort of stereotype for packing. But I stand by it all the way. I always think I need that extra pair of pants or that one extra shirt that makes me look amazing, just in case I go to some sort of nice function or whatever. But do you really need that extra hat or that whole Nancy Drew set? Chances are, it can stay at home for a year.

The best thing to do when packing is consider where you’re going: are there supermarkets everywhere or just a street market on Wednesday? Consider what you use in your everyday life: is something you use specifically only found in your country? Can you live without it? If you’re like me and you’re a larger size, local stores might not carry clothes that fit you. I know that here in Greece, I’ve been stocking up on a couple extra pairs of pants that fit me, since I am curvy and have trouble finding my size in Asia. But I’m not bringing many shirts since my size actually exists in Japan. I’m also bringing stuff I prefer like stick deodorant, a small toothpaste and toothbrush for my stopovers (all five of them in the next two weeks) and a few small gifts for friends and acquaintances: in Japan, it’s customary to give a small gift when first meeting somebody or when helped by a family/friend, it’s called omiyage. I’ve given small Canadian flags and things like that in the past, but this time around, I figured I’d bring small Greek trinkets like koboloi and seashells and whatnot, they go a long way in helping you acculturate. 🙂

Step 3: Get your visa and paperwork ready! 

So you’ve been accepted, and you finally have the tools to go get your visa set up. If you’re staying longer than three months in a country for the purpose of study, you typically need a student visa. As I recounted before, I made a sweaty trip to the Japanese embassy here in Athens. I filled out the application form, gave them my COE, my Canadian passport and a photocopy of the acceptance letter from Sophia. In return, they told me to wait a week and gave me a 23-page booklet entitled, “Guide to Living in Japan”. It’s actually a nice guide, it covers what to do in an emergency, how to approach your neighbours, so on and so on.

The visa will gain you entry to Japan as a resident/student. When you land, they fingerprint you, take your picture, and issue you an ID card that you must carry at all times (all of this was also explained in the guide). If you want to work while studying in Japan, you need to fill out an additional form called, “Application for Permission to Engage in Activity Other Than That Permitted Under the Status of Residence Previously Granted”, which you hand in after you land in Japan.

At the end of the day, everybody’s paperwork will be different, depending on where you’re going. The best thing that you can do is make sure you’re organized and informed on what needs doing. I keep all my stuff in a standard-issue file folder that I picked up here in Greece (they’re not too creative when it comes to stationary), and keep it all tabbed and ready.

Step  4: Say Goodbye 

Now, this is what I did back in April. I was about to leave for a summer in Europe, and I knew I was not coming back to Vancouver for a long time. So I packed a day early, made sure it was all ready to go, then I did what I love to do in that city: I went to a cafe and I drank coffee with some of my favourite people.

They wIMG_2304ere sweet and made me these adorable cupcakes, which spell out ‘GANBARE’ in Japanese, which means ‘Do your best!’ Shout out to my homie Meghan, who baked these goodies. It was so sweet and I was flattered.

After drinking all the coffee and enjoying all the friends, I went home and stayed up all night with my little sister, binge-watching our favourite TV shows and playing video games, since I had to leave at 5 o’clock in the morning. It is a fond memory I can look back on, and also made me ten times more suspicious-looking when I went over the US border a few hours later by bus.

Next week, I will have my last day in Athens, after having lived here for the last three months. Again, I will do what I love to do: walk around, drink my coffee, go say goodbye to my favourite people, and make sure my beloved backpack is all ready to go.

And then I will cackled with glee as I flee from this disgusting summer heat.

Step 5: Let the Culture Shock Hit You Like a Sledge Hammer

This is weird advice. I realize that. But I think it’ll be useful for you. Bear with me here.

When you leave, stuff isn’t always gonna go your way. You can prepare for months and months, using algorithms and boolean searches to try to predetermine how to act and what to do and all this stuff, but from the moment you land: you don’t know how it’s gonna go. Stuff isn’t in your control, and that is both a scary and exhilarating notion.

Stuff is gonna be different, your everyday life is nonexistent. Replacing it is a new life that will be wonderful and unexpected, but getting used to your new surroundings can be a real challenge. Your very beliefs will be challenged. So in this step, I advise you: Stop fighting what’s happening. Be yourself, but try to be open to change. Culture shock is gonna hit you, what with the new language and rituals, and you will feel isolated and weird. The best way to combat this is to be okay with the fact that you are going to do a lot of growing this upcoming year, and the only way to let that happen is to acknowledge this change and growth and come to terms with it. Listen to music, meditate, do what you gotta do, but try to remember to breathe and relax.

Example: When I was last in Japan, I was called out a lot for being white. I imagine this will come up a lot again in the coming year, not just for me but for all exchange students of different backgrounds. With my anthropological training, I accept that there is no such thing as race within the human race, just minute differences. However, in Japan, that is not a popular belief. It clashed with my own, and all I wanted to do was prove to every Japanese person that I met that I was human like them. But with this endeavour came frustration and tension. It just wasn’t a good time. Every time a Japanese person freaked out because I could speak in sentences and used chopsticks, I would be annoyed and insulted. Recently, when this happens, I’ve changed my approach. I have finally accepted that those Japanese people have been raised to believe a certain way, and it is not my place to impose my beliefs on them. I can show them who I am as a person and leave it up to them to think what they want, but it’s not something that I can control.

So let the culture shock hit you like a hammer. At first, you might feel like it’s breaking you down, but trust me, that’s a good thing. After you’re broken down, you’ll build yourself back up, stronger and more savvy than ever before. Also, maybe even a little more attractive~. ;D

So do what you need to do, peeps. Have coffee with friends, pack your bags as carefully or loosely as you want, go to that one last party before you leave for a fun year abroad. Either way, you’ll have a blast, and you’ll learn a lot!

Those be my five steps! I pick up my visa in two days, then I leave on September 1st. As I mentioned before, I’m not leaving directly for Tokyo. Ehhh, but we’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

001 – Paperwork in 40°C Weather

Posted on by

I’m marching up one of the main streets of Chalandri, doing my best not to twist my ankles on the broken sidewalks. Cicadas surround me, seemingly screaming at me from the trees. Squinting through the haze of the Greek summer heat, I see a white flag with a big red circle in the middle of it, waving like a wet towel over the Embassy of Japan. I clutch the bundle of documents in my hand, praying that my sweaty palms have not damaged them… 

Oh, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Hi, I’m Vikki. I’m pursuing a double major in cultural anthropology and Japanese culture and language at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. I am just beginning my third year, which will be spent on an exchange year in Tokyo, at Sophia University (上智大学).

This blog will appeal to you if…

  1. You’re thinking about going on exchange yourself.
  2. You like anthropology/Asian studies/gender and sexuality studies.
  3. You’re a super cool person and like to read stuff written by a reasonably together writer/student.
  4. You need a laugh at the end of a long day, reading about me stumbling through yet another new culture.

I’ll try to make this blog informative as I can as I go. It’ll also help me out, writing down my experiences. This ain’t my first rodeo, but it will certainly be my longest. Before I get this party started, let me give you a little background on who’s writing this thing.

I am a Greek-Canadian dual citizen who worked in retail for five years before deciding she should probably go get a Bachelor’s degree or something. So now I’m in my third year, pursuing the aforementioned double major. It was always my dream to attend school in Japan, as I taught myself the language’s basics when I was twelve. I’m hoping to get into research, preferably about gender and sexuality in Japanese media.

Eh, but we’ll get to that later. Where’s the fun in telling you everything in one go anyway?

For now, let’s start at the beginning.

May, 2016. I had just left Canada and landed in Reykjavik, Iceland. Why? Well, I was on my way to London and Icelandair asked me if I wanted a free stopover. I said, sure, why not, put me down for four days. Turned out to be four days full of geological beauty, cheap outdoor thermal baths, and wonderful new friends. Then I hit up London, Paris, and Brussels, mostly visiting friends and sightseeing. It was fabulous. I’m making a video of it, so I’ll save it for when I post it when it’s done.

Anyway, I then came here to Athens. I thought it was important, to come back to the motherland to see my family. I also made a New Year’s resolution to take the most indirect route possible to get to any destinations I had. So I had that done. Again, the video will show it in detail, but let me just say it was the best resolution I’ve ever made. It was well worth keeping.

Now, as far as the paperwork is concerned, being in Greece has made the entire process very interesting. Most of it has been online work, thankfully. When I was in Vancouver, I got all the medical physicals and stuff done, so I was prepared. Also found out that I don’t have TB, which was cool. (Why they asked me for a chest x-ray is still beyond me.) However, I did have to receive some documents here before I could get my visa application done. I was also away for two weeks on a road/camping trip with a friend through a bunch more countries, and it got a little scary waiting. Why, you ask? Because Greece: total mess when it comes to snail mail.

Also a mess at everything else that would be convenient in any other country.

I digress. Despite all of my stressing, documents showed up, including my acceptance letter and the Certificate of Eligibility (COE) (the thing that makes the entire process way smoother and faster), and that’s where we come back to my sweaty trip to the embassy. I landed back in Athens last night from Amsterdam and went first thing this morning, dressed in the lightest yet most decent-looking outfit I had lying around. I’ve been backpacking, which means I’ve looked like a homeless person for months. So it felt weird strutting down the street in a decent blouse and nice pants. I entered, stumbling through security with my limited Greek, which has endowed me with the eloquence of a five year-old, before finally being able to speak Japanese and sound like an adult again. The air conditioning was a welcome relief as well, not to mention the quiet, although the cicadas’ cries still rang in my ears like a fire bell.

Let me tell you, reader, the visa process itself is pretty easy. If you get a COE, which your university takes care of for you, it’s a cake walk. I can’t speak for everyone’s experiences since I am in Greece, but the embassy here only needs a week to process. In the past, I have also gotten pretty big visas, especially for China, and it was similarly straightforward. It helps to have a plan though. As soon as you know what you want, research and set up for the future as much as you can, especially when it comes to finances and logistics, like where to get your visa picture taken and lining up appointments. I find making lists of all of the stuff you have to do ahead of time very helpful. It’s also very satisfying to strike each item off of said list.

I hope it’s going well for my fellow exchange students. I’m sort of cut off out here, being in a country in economic turmoil where people barely get to go on exchange. I mean, there is Erasmus, but still, I’m unbelievably lucky.

Anyway, I better wrap this up, I got studying to do. It’s exactly two weeks until I leave Greece, and I need to review my Japanese grammar and whatever. And before you ask; no, I am not going directly to Tokyo. That would be ridiculous.

Where am I going?

Let’s save that for next time, shall we?