 |
| Waseda's Okuma Auditorium |
This time I want to talk about the settling-in process that we experienced.
This will be a long post so bear with me!
Before coming to Japan Waseda sent over some documents and forms along with the Certificate of Entitlement that we needed to apply for the Visa and schedules for our enrollment process once we arrive in Japan. One of the included sheets was an application to get a Japanese work permit.
Getting a visa
Getting a visa was not as complicated as I had thought. I downloaded the application form online and was able to fill it out in my own time and compile all the extra documents needed. When I was ready to apply for the visa my dad kindly went with me to the Japanese Embassy to do so. We went really early expecting a huge queue, but in the end it was only us and a group of guys (probably also students) that were waiting for the doors to open. In order to get in you need to show your ID to a security guard and then put your bags on a conveyor belt to be scanned. After that you can go up to a counter and explain what you wish to do at the embassy so they can direct you to the right place. The waiting room for visa applications was through a glass door just to the side of the desk. There were chairs and tables and even little desks to complete your application in case you haven't done so beforehand. You take a number at a little ticket machine after pushing a button underneath for visa applications and wait until your number is called. Of course I faffed around and panicked a bit going through all my documents (thank you to my dad for putting up with me!), but it wasn't long until my number was called as we were the first ones through. We went through some wooden doors into another room which led into an area with a few counters. The process was quite quick, the guy behind the counter checked all my documents and took them along with my passport. He then handed me a slip with information of my application and the date that I could pick my passport with its new visa. The slip tells you how much the visa costs - you pay when you come to collect it. My visa only took 4 days to arrive, pretty quick! At the time I was desperately trying to organise a rather sudden trip to China so I really needed the visa to come quickly so I could apply for my Chinese visa straight away.
The webpages all advise to apply at least a month in advance - Which would have meant that my trip would have been impossible as I was leaving in only two weeks! But from my experience this really wasn't necessary, both visas only took 4 days to be ready for collection. Thankfully!
Before applying for visas you need to have your plane tickets and accommodation already organised as this information is necessary for the application form!
Although I was working with a really tight timescale, luckily everything turned out well! The process was also made much more bearable by my dad keeping me company so I didn't get too stressed! Thank you!!!
Arrival
As you know I arrived in Narita Airport on the 12th of September, where we were picked up by Waseda students and dropped off to our respective dorms.
As Waseda had sent me the application form for a Japanese work permit before I came to Japan I was able to apply for the work permit as soon as I arrived at the airport. After arriving Amy and I had to queue up to receive our foreign residence card - this is important ID that we must keep on us at all times while in Japan. While waiting for this to be issued we also gave in our application for a work permit. It was surprisingly fast! They take your fingerprint and picture and then print your card out straight away! And because we gave in the work permit form we were immediately given a stamp on our fresh residence card which gives us permission to work in Japan! How efficient!
If I want to go outside of Japan during my stay I will need to apply for a permit to go overseas. So I may still be applying for more permits in the future!
Dormitory
As soon as I arrived at my dormitory I was given an orientation along with the other new students.
We were given booklets with lots of information on how to settle into our new home. This included information on rules, payment dates and methods and other useful information and contact details.
Then we were shown around the building, told about how to use the appliances and introduced to our rooms.
I plan to cover my dormitory including my room in more detail in a separate post. So sit tight for that!
Settling into Waseda
We had a free day before we had anything else important to do so we were able to go and buy necessities and recover from the journey.
On the 14th We had General Orientation which pretty much lasted all day. We were introduced to some of Waseda's clubs and given detailed information on how to sign up for courses. They also helped us to fill out important forms for our Health Insurance and residence registration. We were given soo many books and pieces of paper that I still don't know what to do with them!
 |
| we were given this to guide us through registration |
 |
| This book informs about the Waseda computer system |
On the 18th of September we went with members of Niji no Kai to apply for our Health Insurance and register our addresses. It took a long time with so many students there but it was worth the wait to have the help of the Waseda students.
On the 19th of we had Academic Orientation. This was another day in Waseda where we were guided through the sign up process. We were given a chance to look at the text books for each level of the Comprehensive Japanese Course. There were also some advisers we could talk to that could help us decide which courses to take.
Before signing up to our courses we had to take a placement test to give us an idea of what level courses we should be looking at. The results of the test seemed to be really varied, with some people getting what they thought was accurate and others that seemed to get results that didn't quite match their levels. I was in the latter group. Out of 8 levels (8 being fluency and 1 being beginners) I was placed at level two. Now, I know I didn't do much revision over the holidays but this was just too far off. When I looked at the text book for level two I found that it was Minna no Nihongo - the book we started with in year 1 of university! I then checked the books for level 3 and 4 and we had covered most of the content in these books also. On checking the book for level 5 I decided to go into level 4, as I was worried about choosing a level that was too high. My test results had also made me nervous as to how difficult it would be. Now that I have been taking a few weeks of lessons I think I may have been able to go into level 5 but it would have been quite challenging. Luckily we didn't have to follow the marks we got in the test, it was only to be used as a guide.
There was a session for us at Waseda where they explained us the details of various banks and helped us to fill out the forms. It was pretty helpful because we were given an explanation in both English and Japanese and it meant that we could just take the completed forms to the bank without worrying about how to fill them out.
Registration
Our first registration was on the 20th. I used the blue book and the online Waseda Web Portal to search the different courses I was interested in and then select the credits I wanted. We had to choose a minimum of 13 credits up to a maximum of 14 credits. I am a JLP (Japanese Language Program) student so I picked courses from the CJL (Center for Japanese Language), If I wanted to choose credits from other departments I could have done so. If you take courses from other departments you can take more than the maximum of 14 credits, but it depends on the department. Next semester I plan to take a credit in Korean which will be from another department.
The results from the 1st registration come through on the 25th - the day before classes start.
On the 24th we had to go in to collect our ID cards. Mine unfortunately had a mistake in the name - even though I had given in a form on Orientation Day correcting the spelling of my name - so I had to go back at a later date to pick the new one up. I also had an orientation for the scholarship that I will be receiving so I attended that.
On the 26th we started lessons!
The second registration was from the 26th to the 28th. I found that this was a bit frustrating as we had only been able to go to a few of our classes by the time we had to have completed the 2nd registration. I felt that I didn't have a good idea of whether my current course choices were right or not by second registration so couldn't really feel like I had enough knowledge yet to be sure which courses I should drop and which courses to replace them with. I knew there were some courses I wanted to change but lots of courses were filled up to capacity so it meant that there were lots that were not possible to take. It was frustrating as there was one course I really wanted to take but it was full at the time. Although there were lots of courses I felt I wanted to change they were already full from the first registration so I didn't change much in the 2nd registration and waited to see if anything came available in the 3rd one.
the 3rd registration lasted from the 3rd of October to the 4th. Luckily some of the courses I wanted to take now had some spaces from people dropping them in the second period. However I felt that many people probably did what I did and kept subjects they didn't want because there weren't suitable alternatives for them in the 2nd registration meaning that places that would probably be dropped in the 3rd registration were still taken up! There were only very few places on the courses I wanted to take so it was risky!
When I got my results for the 3rd registration it turned out that I got all the courses except for 1 - such a shame! This meant that I had to go to the CJL desk in building 22 to fill out a form to pick out one of the left-over courses as I needed one more credit!
 |
| My final timetable for first semester! |
Waseda was holding health checks from the 3rd to the 4th of October. It wasn't mandatory but if you want to use the gym or the pool then you needed to take the health check. For the pool it is necessary to take an ECG as well.
The health check tested things like your height, weight, eyesight and even your urine! There was also a chest x-ray and an interview about your health.
So with all this we were pretty much all ready to start our year abroad in Japan. The only thing we did not have guidance on was getting a Japanese mobile or an inkan (signature stamp).
Thank you for bearing with this long post!!!
I hope it was at least a little bit interesting!
No comments:
Post a Comment