2 months left!

Today there is only 2 months left until our take off. The last month was rough between waiting to get some good news about job situation and doing some one-day shifts as a bartender and studying Japanese. Though the last mentioned received terribly small amount of attention between everything else. I have now settled down all the arriving details with our landlord and now we are only waiting for our visas. They should send then COE data for us in the end of next month (November), so that we can do the last payment (payment for 6 months of school) and after that receive our real visas from the embassy here in Helsinki.

I have been forming a bucket list for Japan for a year now and been able to gather plenty of interesting cafés, restaurants, city areas and also events that I would like to see in Tokyo, but also in other places in Japan. We already know where our holidays (two weeks at the time) are settling, so if we just have enough money we want to visit Osaka during spring and maybe Kyoto at the autumn. We also have a list of our family members as well as some friends that are planning to come to see us while we're there. My greatest concern is that we're too busy with school to actually guide people, but that is left to be seen in January. The school comes first after all.

I miss Tokyo so much and I can't even express how excited I'm to get there so soon. Piece by piece we are having everything done for the trip. I already stopped my contract with the gym I've been using due to two months expiration time and also arranged our internet to end few days before leaving, after all we're going to hand over the apartment keys days before actual depart so that we can spend some time with our families.

Here is some autumn pics I took few weeks ago <3

 

 

Go!Go!Email

I want to keep you updated for how all the things work with Go!Go!Nihon, so during this day I received an e-mail from them giving me more instruction for how to plan the trip. It was pretty nice, informative message listing up what all has to be done before jumping to the airplane, when is the best time to arrive to Japan (if arriving at night you may not be able to get your key right away and need to stay in Hotel so on so on), what to study beforehand if you are starting the beginner course, a list of the places to search for accommodation and also a word about health insurance. 

For us most of the knowledge was right now pretty useless since we already have booked our flights, arranged apartment and we are applying for intermediate course. Even so it was very nice to receive a message from Go!Go!Nihon for a while because when we are mostly just waiting all the time for different things, you almost feel like you have been forgotten and that of course is not the case. From my personal opinion, I would get to the business especially with the apartment a little bit earlier than 3 months before arriving, but because Japan seems to be a country where every this kind of a thing is handled “one month before arriving” (like the visa will be issued one month earlier as well), it seems that for normal agencies for apartments applying this close is ok. “-- most housing agencies do not allow reservations earlier than 1 month prior to your arrival.” That’s the exact thing what was written in the e-mail. That also explains why our landlord was a little bit hesitant to reserve for us since we booked our apartment 1 year before arriving…

I wish to write a lot of more about Go!Go!Nihon and the experience with them when we actually are in Japan and the process is over. But as my travel journal, it is kind of fun to read later when different things happened, don’t you think? For now, thanks for Go!Go!Nihon for helping us out!

Harajuku (Tokyo) 2012

Autumn and JLPT4

The autumn has finally really arrived, the leaves are turning red and yellow and the weather is colder, though it’s still warmer than it usually is during fall. I’m a big fan of all the foliage colours and it always makes me just want to knit something warm and paint a lot with bright colours. Too bad I haven’t really had time for those things. For few weeks now I have been running from job interview to another and actually I managed to get contract with two companies which hire extra workers for grocery stores, cafes and bars. There is no such a thing as a minimum hours in a week, so it’s really mostly about luck and how volunteer you’re jumping to the metro and getting to work whenever someone calls you. I have done this couple of years ago and it’s easy as long as you don’t do any other plans you need to keep. And the variety of places you will work in is actually quite fun.

Japan… I don’t know how many times I have already written that it is getting closer. An obvious fact, but I guess writing it up makes it easier to wait ^^. I have been a huge fan of this blog called GaijinPot, very nice articles about different phenomena in Japan. One of the most interesting ones was this post about the “UchiSoto” culture in Japan. Reading that made me see the Japan little bit differently and also I had a great wake up experience about our last visit in Japan. It made me really see the natural reason behind the help we received and why we were treated like we were. I recommend reading that, it’s not that long.

From the subject to another, I’m actually really proud of myself for completing the first Kanji Book. I’m still going to do the reviews about the chapters (always after every 4-5 chapters I think) to check that I actually am still able to do even the kanji from the beginning. The next book will be little bit different to study because with this Book 1, I decided right from the beginning that I would study every kanji from that book no matter if those ones weren’t on the kanji list for JLPT4. In this point I guess I have to point out that for JLPT tests there doesn’t exist a real kanji list anymore. After the test was renewed few years ago they dropped all the official material out, leaving the situation hanging on those very flowing sentences about one’s skills (see them in on this blogs page “Project data”).

But because many people feel that it’s really hard to study without any base, most of the people still use these old kanji lists which you can still find from the web. Here is the list where I have based my estimation about JLPT4 kanji (the list is cumulative with N5 kanji too). One reason why I decided to read the whole Kanji Book 1 including all the 251 kanji (even when I circle out the lists kanji there comes only approximately 170 kanji from the book 1 and rest from the book 2) was that the list is old and not valid, though it still gives you a quite a good glimpse what is to be expected.

Cheers

Acha

Roppongi (Tokyo), 2012

Öland (Sweden), 2010

100 Days!

Yeah, so today there is exactly 100 days until we will get to the airplane and fly to Japan. Our apartment is already strating look like someones moving because we started to pack books and such already. We know that expesially December will be very busy and probably we don't have even much time to do packing and that is crazy because we have to think so many things already now! For example our apartments contract is expiring 31th of December, but due the fact that we don't have much time to do moving and leave the key close the date we are flying, we already have to do it about two weeks earlier. It's all for work. The December will be always the busiest month from the whole year since we both have something to do with retail business (though my job situation is not much clearer than before, I should get the information during next week).

But since this is 100 days until Japan -post, I try to write more about Japan and japanese language ^^. I'm very close to finish off the Kanji Book 1 which includes 251 kanji and after that there is not that much to go to have the whole amount for JLPT4 (we don't have to discuss about the other goal okey, please...?). Minna no Nihongo is completely other thing. It's massive amount of info, but I think the harder part is the selective reading in the beginning. We have been using different book series for the beginner parts but we wanted to purchase the book 1 as well to make sure our knowledge maches the expected (in our school they have used Minna no Nihongo serie in beginners course). But it's really frustrating time by time because so much you already know, but there is always something new in every chapter (or then the new thing is only disagreeing with the earlier info).

This is maybe the first time I have actually been worried that our level is not enough for the intermediate program. There was no sense to applicate for beginner program and our contact from Go!Go!Nihon thought this is the best program for us, but yeah, I still wonder. The others have been in Japan for 9 months already, talking and using japanese. And then we come with our knowledge made up from the tv series we hear and grammar books we read. It's not very comparable. I don't mind working my ass off to get the situation balanced but I for sure am worried that what if that is not even possible. I guess if we are too much behind we will just drop to the beginner (damn I hope not).

But here is something usefull for instance. Our real "savings versus how much we think we're going to spend in Japan during 9 months" -plan. So this is actually the estimation how much we will have saved in total in January, but since it's such a short time, it's going to be pretty correct.
I have to point out that all the amounts are just estimations and tried to be estimated too high (only rent is basically precise)!

Savings minus
- Public transportation for 9 months // 900 euro
- Phone and internet bills for 9 months // 900 euro
- Rent for 9 months from one person // 2700 euro
- Food for 9 months from one person // 1800 euro
- School for 9 months from one person (all costs + insurance, exaggerated) // 5 000 euro
-> Free money for entertainment for each month: approximately 320 euro

ps. I finally got a new computer and blogging is actually enjoyable again ^^
pps. This post has been changed (+ pictures added later 18th since the blogger for some reason didn't publish the last version about it...

Helsinki 2013

Linnanmäki (amusement park) 2013

Question time!

I got over the flue super fast. I guess that was all thanks for sleeping that much. The past few days I have been wondering a lot about Tokyo, maybe because soon it's only 100 days to go. Moving is starting to be very near and the list about things to do gets shorter all the time. I want to make sure I actually write an answer for myself about these questions buzzing in my head so I've decided to list those questions in here and answer to those in Japan, a small ordeal for myself. And I hope these little questions and in future the answer to these help others because I've had some trouble finding answers for some of these :). I'll keep the full list on "Project Data" page.

Here are the first ones what I have been thinking during the ongoing week:
Will my look draw that much attention? (because I didn't pay much notice for that last time)
Do I start to feel it annoying that people don't acknowledge my Japanese language skills?
Will people actually start to acknowledge my skill?
Will I face look-related special treatment or troubles with basics like doing mobile phone contract?
What is going to be the hardest thing to get used to our new life during the first month?
Will I receive negative attention about my weight?

For the last one I can comment a little bit. I'm considered completely normal in Finland and I don't find myself really as "fat", but knowing that in Japan people are in normal scale thinner and the ideals about "being fat" are lower, I'm kind of scared to be thought as a fat person there. For only the trip I have made a decision to lose 3 kilos (to be 60kg), but that doesn't bring me any close for those super thin Japanese people, so I'm a little bit scared. Last time I didn't really face any problems, but I noticed that when I had to pick the size L instead of S in cloth shops, it already in a short period affected my thinking. We will see what happens~

ps. I finally ordered new computer and then I can get rid off this one! Yey!

Shibya (Tokyo), 2012

Job worries

This week is going to be very intimidating because my work contract ends (determined maternity leave substitutement) after this week's Sunday and due to staff reduction consultation we had earlier on this Summer in my company, my contract can't be continued to the of this year like it was first planned to do. Luckily there is still one good option that might happen. The place where I work can hire season help for the upcoming Christmas, so there might be a chance that I can be hired for that. If that would be the case, then my new work contract would start from 1st of October. There is only one and that is that those season help contracts has to be first offered for those who had been fired due to staff reduction and of course, they might take all the places.

So every day I go to work and I'm terrified to hear my superior to tell me that all the places were taken because for our saving for Japan, that would be a catastrophe. I know that with my attitude I believe I can get some job, but I'm a little bit too honest person. I wouldn't dare to leave out a fact that I can only work for three months and that has already been reason for Mikko not been hired for one company (gladly he got another job with relations). So thumbs up people! ;)

I have also been sick since Saturday and after work I have been mostly sleeping. The pause from the work would do good for my kanji studies and Minna no Nihongo though. And I need to get healthy again, there is so much to do! It's so hard to believe that after this month we already have to cancel our gym memberships (2 months term of notice) and some other contracts as well. Japan is already so close!

 Shibya (Tokyo) 2012 & Asakusa (Tokyo) 2012

Productive day

Today has been a very productive day. I begun the studying the first thing in a morning and continued 6 hours with a breakfast break. The result was 24 new kanji learned which helped me to fill the gap what the last weeks of August left. So now I'm once again in a right speed, but my right hand disagrees badly with the entire writing practice I have done today ^^.

I spent some time yesterday watching videos from different Youtube bloggers (who blog about Japan) like Rachel and Jun and Kanadajin3. I find it interesting to hear different experiences and I have to say that some of the tips they have given, if we would have known those when we first time visited Japan, some things would have been much easier. So I warmly recommend following those channels, especially Rachel and Jun are very nice to follow.

Some of those videos raises questions of course. One video told that Japanese don't use any deodorant and of course when you compare it with our culture in Finland it sounds really weird. One of our friends has been in Japan as an exchange student and she has confirmed this info for us earlier, but it still feels odd. In Japanese culture there is also plenty of rules about behavior that are very important but if you don't know those rules, you might break them but no-one will note that up for you.

The culture of ignoring misbehavior in order not to misbehave yourself is pretty interesting and gives a lot to think about. For example during our last visit in Tokyo, people in trains would just sit quiet doing their own things, just like in Finland. Speaking in a phone in a train is considered highly rude and there are signs that tell you not to speak in your phone in a train. However, if someone does this, nobody really says anything, they just maybe give you a bad look and continue what they were doing and that is a complete opposite what would happen in Finland. Here someone would shout that someone to shut up or at least would mumble to a closest person how irritating that one person is being.

I'm highly fascinated by this twist in Japanese culture. I often feel like some of the Finnish melancholic attitude comes from complaining out loud about everything and people tend to hang on with the unequal and bad happenings so long that they forgot to move on. I look forward to see the difference since in Japan it sometimes feels like they let go about things even too easily and move on.

Long story

I haven't been able to write for a while, a reason for that is that me and Mikko took off 22th of August and drove all the way to the northern Finland to first meet Mikko's mother who lives in Vuokatti. We made a stop on my grandfather's grave in Savonlinna and arrived to Vuokatti at 3am. We had lovely time and I took quite a lot of pictures. At Sunday we continued our way to Muhos which is close to Oulu, one of the biggest cities in Northern Finland. There live my grandparents from my mother's side. The weather was rainy almost all the time, but we had few moments without it as well and that time we used in the forest, picking blueberries.

We also had a great completely thoroughly rainy horseback riding experience. We contacted Sirpa who keeps a stable in Muhos with adorable Icelandic horses. Either of us had rode Icelandic horses (oh fine, me when I was something like five and barely remember) and it was delightful experince! The new gaits like tölt were really interesting and the trip was awesome. We went one hour (half of it in a pouring rain which wasn't so nice but experience itself) in the middle of nordic forest, galloped and had plenty of fun with tölting. When we arrived back to the stable I had literally about half a liter of rain water in my boots and we were completely wet. Gladly we expected something like that and had something warm and dry to put on ^^.

 

On Friday, After 8 hours of driving back to Helsinki we were exhausted, but at least bunnies were thrilled to see us. Our dear friends took care of them while we were gone. The idea about relaxing comeback didn't last too long because we had to start to do preparations for Saturdays bunny exhibition in Pyhtää. So when the morning sun started to shine we were already in a car driving to Pyhtää. It took about 1,5 hours to get there but when we were there we were happy that we left because it was great to meet our friends from those circles. We usually don't meet those people outside of the competitions. We didn't have much expectations from our bunnies, but they did very well and received some prices as well. We were so proud!

It's maybe unnecessary to say that we didn't spent that much time with Japanese on a way. While driving we did learn ne vocabulary but kanji studies were left aside. I'm glad to have this day as well as tomorrow completely free to study and take back the lost time. Mikko got accepted to school as well and now we are just waiting for COE for both of us and of course trying to improve with Japanese!

Flea market

So last Sunday (17.8) we were in the park flea market selling our unnessecary items. The weather had been really unstable for the whole last week so we had our doubts but luckily the day was all sunny and warm. This time we took our small table with us because last time we had problems with arrangin stuff any reasonable way. The day took off really busy and we did a lot of selling. We had some design items with us and we actually got the price from them what we were asking for (which was kind of surprising). After 14pm the groud suddenly vanished and we had some items we very so sure to sell left in our hands. Luckily we can still give them away against couple of cents for our friends. Our total was little bit over 130 euro, we are happy with that!

Last week wasn't really productive when I think about Japanese. I really feel bad for it, but I was terribly tired. Not any new kanji learned, I really struggled with Minna no Nihongo aswell. Sometimes I really doubt can our goals be acchieved but nothing good comes out doubting that. I'm so glad that I have my last holiday week starting from Friday, I really need that!

Tokyo Memory

It was really hot day, last days of July 2012. Our original plan was to take off from our Asakusa hotel and head off to Chiyoda but because we did miscalculation with the trains we eneded up very much more far from the park we than what we planned. I have problems with the sun, have always had and I started to feel it getting me again so we took a fast stop in a Combini, but it already had effected to me too bad. We couldn't continue walking in the sun but didin't know where to go so we just decided to take first stairs down thinking it was a tunnel for subway.

It was one of our surprising experiences in Tokyo. We didn't find a subway but an underground shopping center with different small stores almost like a small labyrinth right under the office building area above us. We stopped in a small bakery and had awesome strawberry cake made almost only from whole strawberries and whipped cream. There I also saw first time the luggage bag which later on would be my most expencive purchase from the whole trip (since we ran out of bags in Kyoto ;) ). We were able to stay inside long enough for me to feel better, but it was already too late to continue to Chiyoda so we headed back to Asakusa and spent the evening there. I wish to go see that place again soon!
 

Tokyo Railway Station

 

Tokyo Station 100 years old

Short animation "Passage of Time"

Accepted to Study!

Yesterday I got accepted to Yoshida Institute in Tokyo and now there isn't much I can do anymore to speed up the events. I received an e-mail from Go!Go!Nihon telling me how the system is going to roll from now on but summarized the application has now been sent to Japanese immigration to be accepted and then they are going to issue a certificate of eligibility (COE) for me. The I am required to pay school fees for 6 months in order to receive the original copy of my COE. When I receive the paper I need to take it to Japanese Embassy here in Finland and they will prior my arrival to Japan and add visa tags to my passport. And all this won't happen before last days of November because the Japanese immigration does the visa results only one month before scheduled landing.

I'm pretty relieved as well as excited that the first part of the paper war has been won now (though to think that we only had to make sure they had all the papers they needed with right kind of translations, it wasn't even a fight, more like a pleasant journey). For few last days all this has become more real and true than it has been ever before. It's also little bit scary and it is almost like you didn't really comprehended what you were going to do before.

Our (hopefully) last second-hand happening is on Sunday and we really hope to get all the extra things out of our hands. There are pretty much things we never expected to sell and let me tell you, if we weren't moving to the other side of the planet, we never would sell those items. But we're lacking storage space and we cannot take everything to be held in our relatives' places. It has probably been the first real growing up experience from this project, to be able to left so many things behind. I haven't even considered before how much unnecessary things we actually keep in our apartments (even though I have moved before and done this in a little bit smaller proportion). Like I thought we don't really have that meny things (and that is actually true to compare to any other normal couple (it's all because of our saving, we haven't had money to buy things! ^^)), but there is still so much to go. Oh well, let's see how the Sunday turns out!

(on the left our adorable Natta when he was only 3 weeks old and on the left all the 

8 boxes of flea market stuff we hope to sell on Sunday

(Natta won't be sold on Sunday ;) ))

Flights booked

Last night Mikko was doing once again checking with the flights and with trying even the most nonsense options like two way flights (so that we won't use the return flight) he found an option we had to consider for a moment. It was a two way straight flights from Finnair lasting the minimum flying time and arriving to the destination daytime. The price was 599 euro for each and to think that last time we flew to Japan it cost me approximately 750 euro (one stop in Heathrow) and for Mikko a little bit over 800 euro with straight flight, so these ones were really cheap. We went over the budget and we never considered flying straight, but when we have compared prices with one way flights and those costs about 550 euro without stopping in Moscow so we did the decision to spoil us now a little bit and we booked straight flights! The take off is now 26th of December and we arrive Japan 27th of December. Yey! I went to sleep feeling like we would be flying next morning! Now we only have to hope all goes fine with the visas. ;)

Roppongi (Tokyo), 2012

Shinjuku (Tokyo), 2012