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KOOOON CHI WA!!!I am completely and utterly jet lagged and I need to drive back to Charlottesville tonight, bah! I ended up passing out yesterday after breakfast and slept from 8am til 5pm. Grossness.
Well, to the main point of this post, I've been trying to sort through all this getting a visa nonsense and I just wanted to make sure I was wading through properly.
1 - GETTING A VISA
Thanks to jen jen for her awesome linkage, I filled out the form, have extra copies of ole passport photos and think I am kind of set. Does the person whose getting the visa have to show up in person or can't I just ship my mom off to do it for me? She's the one who got my China visa for me, which allows me to enter and leave the country as much as I please for the space of 1 year. I'm also going to photocopy all of the forms just to make sure I have something to fall back on in case life gets wacky.
2 - THE FORMS THAT NEED TO BE MAILED BACK PRONTO TO SOPHIA
Okay, the first form pertains to whether or not I want to be language intensive. I think I do, but I'm not sure if that's what I want to do. I feel like just by being in Japan and taking regular classes, I'll be learning plenty plenty of Japanese. Also, when they ask you how many kanji have you learned, how many am I supposed to put down? I don't know how many I know. I can read tons but writing them out is a problem I will have for the rest of ever. Plus, we stopped with chapter 9 last semester, right? I'm still in Springfield and have none of my materials with me, so I'm just trying to fill out forms as much as I can.
3- AIRPLANE GOODNESS
Are we ALL going to be flying United? I know the Ninja-3 are riding in on UA803 departing on 2/25 from IAD. Me, too. What abouts Mia, Jeanette, + Sehyun bka Sean? Apparently, it's going to be a lovely 14 hours of fun at 36,000 feet for the majority of us. Remember to bring muchos distractions and lovely delicious Unisom to knock you OUT! I'm almost wishing that I am at DK now because of the whole letting you move in early and all that. I'll be crashing at the Yayogi Hostel. I am begging you now, please let hugabug you in Japan! The Hostel has a majorly weirdo rule that says I need to be out of the place between the hours of 9am to 5pm. That means I either live out my days at random cafes studying Japanese *yawn* or I play play play with you all. Because I totally *heart* the Ninja-3 and know the feeling is most mutual, OSEWA ni NARUUUUUU~ *grins*
4- GOLDEN WEEK AND RANDOM VACATION FUN
I know this is a bit early and all, but since we all will be enjoying the most lovely Golden Week and perhaps any other random bits of fun while we're in Japan. Do you guys have any activities you absolutely want to try? I for one kind of want to see the whole Mikoshi thing live and in the flesh. Men in sumo like thongs running around the seats with a thing on their shoulders and all that. Good fun for all in my opinion. I also want to take TONS of purikura! I don't care if it's not so in anymore, I want HUNDREDS!!! How about you all?
5- I'M JUST ADDING THIS HERE BECAUSE 5 IS MY FAVORITE NUMBER
Random, yes, I know, but who cares? I am beyond caring right now. Careless, schmereless.
*flies off to pack the rest of her stuff away*
T
P.S. Should we start discussing luggage nows or later? How does laundry work in Japan? I remember from my previous jaunt there that they hang dry all their clothes. How about coping with the rainy season? Humidity? A.C.? Does internet come with where we're all going? I bought a international cell phone and just need to get a SIM card for it. Where to?
If any of you have answers to the above, most appreciated!!!!!!!
3 comments:
ZOMG PURIKURA, I WANT IT MORE THAN ANYTHINGGGGG!!!
More commenting when I'm not at work, but aweesomme post Teresa!
Jen and Greg.. what hidden village are we from? All I've got is.. The Village of the Hidden Column (for UVa..) but the column-3 sounds pretty lame. And we're not very lame at all, so that doesn't really work.
hmmm...
a ninja village? how about hidden village of the genki?
it works well since jen and greg were both in genki 3 and everybody knows genki genki genki.
^^
just my random suggestion *winks*
hahahaha you guys are funny.
ZOMG PURIKURA. I agree. It's so much fun. And maybe we'll get super fast and clever at designing them.
Yeah, I've always had someone go on behalf of me to get my visas for China, but then the sheet said go in person for this? I dunno, I ended up driving there (whoa D.C. has way too many 'circles' to drive through, but I'm super proud of myself for making it there) with Dan and it was super easy. Also it'll be done by Monday.
Oh, about intensive Japanese. Dan said when he got there, everyone was super scared of intensive so no one took the placement test for it (they split up for 'beginner' and 'intensive' tests but they're the same apparently), but in reality, the intensive class isn't all that...intensive. Sure, 3 hours a day but...
Also, I have no idea how many kanji I/we know either. I think I put down a few hundred. Dan said that also doesn't really matter.
And yes, we stopped with chapter 9 of the IJ textbook.
Oh geez, don't worry about it Teresa, we'll totally play play play everyday!
I say we definitely start thinking about some stuff we want to do! It seems one of Dan's friends there is pretty proactive in planning bunches of events so I'm sure we can get involved with that and come up with our own stuff. Anyone got a good guide to Tokyo/Japan?
P.S. reply: I cannot think about packing just yet...although I do need to think about some presents I can bring for my old host family whom I intend to visit at some point.
Laundry...I'm sure you won't have a problem with your host family. From when I lived with mine, I did a load basically every day and hang-dried on da clotheslines.
DK House peeps - is our laundry like pay by coin or something?
We get internet at DK...not sure how it works, like if we need our own cord or something.
Host family's access is more limited, but you can definitely use internet in computer lab/library at school, though it closes every day at 5pm.
AC-Dan had issues with his host mother in that she was pretty controlling on how much he could adjust his A/C unit and all. So definitely variable upon how your family is.
Humidity? IGH.
SIM cards...check online or at a phone company place? Or maybe you have to buy it there? I'm not sure. What I was planning to do about a phone was buy a prepaid one there (long story about doing that this winter break, if anyone is curious.)
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