Neighbour and Friends in Osaka

25 March

Long time no see.
It has been so many days that we have reached Osaka and so far so good with the experiences. We finally got our cell phones in Japan (yaay!)

I got a Samsung Softbank 740sc, it is really good enough for my daily life, though not as good as Darren’s one but will make good use of it.

We actually went to different places around Hotarugaike by ourselves, we had our first experiences of getting on Hankyu, Monorail and walking to and fro one station twice. We figured out shortcuts to go back our home and we really enjoy the experience there.

It is really cold outside (even reached 1 degC!) there and we always want to stay at home and turn on our air-conditioner (which blows warm air of course +_+). Despite the temperature, I still manage to exercise to build up myself, after those exercise, my body always could cope with the cold and continue the rest of the day. =)

Ah.. Forgot to mention this. We actually moved into a quite nice room, the unit we live in has 3 rooms, 2 Japanese style room and one western kitchen + toilet. The address is:

3-13-10, I room, Hotarugaike, Kitamachi, Takahashi Bunka, Toyonaka City, Osaka.
豊中市，蛍池北町3丁目13-10，I室，高橋文化，大阪。


So for whoever want to send me something, please.. Haha! =)

Our bedroom, left: Darren; right: Franco

Window at our bedroom, nice view

Fusuma (a sliding door) between the bedroom and the middle room.

Entrance

Recently, around our place, we actually knew a few nice people and it is really the culture that newly moved in people to greet the neighbours and chat around. We actually did that and we got to know some kind people. First of all, we managed to meet Wilman Septina , who helped us with the room and took care of our affairs. He then introduced two Malaysian to us, Xi Kei and Yap. They are very nice people and they taught us to go around Japan and showed us some cheap supermarkets and different ways of living in Osaka. Yap offered us into his room (which is VERY Warm!) and we chit-chat at his room for about 30 to 45 minutes. He was also very kind to offer us his WiFi internet for us to surf and that saves us a much money for the internet subscription. I must thank God for all the arrangements, they are not just merely coincidence.

Through Koji and also by friends, we also managed to know that there is a International Student Room at the School of Engineering Science at Osaka University. Koji said that this place is a place to have snacks! Many international students will be gathering there during free time and according to our friends, we managed to know that the head of the international student centre, Ms. Tasaka Emiko (田坂恵美子), who is a VERY Kind and Friendly people, she could really help us in our life in campus, we could also register for Japanese lesson from her, which we need THE MOST! The class will be starting on 5 April 2010. Finally we have an official teacher to learn Japanese and I finally could have a teacher to help me study for my Intermediate level of Japanese. We felt so excited and we had a photo with Ms. Tasaka:

Photos with Ms. Tasaka

After the meeting, we had our very first lunch at Toyonaka Campus! I was quite unfamiliar with the system but eventually we managed to make an order and got it all settled for 490 Yen.

Lunch at La fore

I would want to thank Koji especially for helping us to settle so many things, I know that Koji was constantly busy with his research works and yet he was willing to take time for us, wiling to eat lunch with us, went to 100 yen shop with us, helped us with the mobile phone. I really appreciate his effort and we hope that we can adapt to the life in Osaka soon.

Now, in this environment that everything is Japanese, I believe that I could improve my Japanese further, listen to more Japanese speaking, I could improve myself with the language.
Experiences in Japanese environment:

1. Buying things in Supermarket
   
2. Asking about international card at Convenient store
   
3. Going to City Hall and listen to the instruction
   
4. Opening bank accounts at Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank (They do not understand English at all, I think…)
   

I am really enjoying the experience and I hope for more!

Tommorow (26 March) we will be going to Kyoto for 5 days, will be coming back on 31 March. Will update you all more on that! See ya!

Updates in Osaka

March 23:

We went to the Toyonaka City Hall to settle our Alien Foreigner's registration (外国人登録証), we spent a 3 minutes on the Hankyuu (阪急) Train to travel from Hotarugaike (蛍池) to Okamachi (岡町). This was the first time I am stepping on the platform of Japan's train station after watching and seeing so many TV and Minna No Nihongo videos. Really excited, as you may know, there are different types of train in Japan, 普通、準急、急行、特急 etc. All will be arriving on the same platform at different times. We will have to check the time properly and the train arrives PUNCTUALLY on the dot!

3 minutes have passed and we found ourselves at Okamachi Station Entrance. We walked our way to the City Hall and during the journey we stumbled upon a mini shopping street. There I also found a Shrine and took plenty of photos there.

Finally we arrived at the City Hall, the friendly staffs assisted us with the Foreigner's registration process and gave us useful information packs. The lady at the counter was also very considerate that she spoke so slowly so that we could understand. We took our temporary pass in about 5 to 10 minutes and we left for Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank (三菱東京UFJ銀行) to open our accounts.

Here comes a 'mini adventure' with the Japanese.

The people at the counter was not able to speak English, well it was more or less expected. So I tried my very best to speak with them in my lack-of-practice Japanese, with my barely adequate listening skills to follow their procedures. There was some hindrance here, they need a document to certify that we are really living at the place we are living at. We didn't have that, so we were directed to the counter and told that we should get a form of certification from the City Hall again and come back. Well, WE WALKED BACK TO CITY HALL and took bought the documents and walked back to the bank. All the things sort of went well after that, the only thing is that I did not have an inkan (印鑑) which is compulsory for Japanese to replace their signatures. The banker is kind enough to accept my signature and told me to get an inkan next time when we come. All things settled and we went to settle our lunch. It was already 3:50pm.

After that we made our way to a shopping street at Ishibashi (Walk near to Hotarugaike) and had our late lunch over there. We went into a food shop named Matsumise.

The food ordering system was quite cute there, the workers do not take orders but we order using the food-ordering machine:

After that, we were given a receipt and we will pass the receipt to them and they will prepare the food for us. It is quite efficient and fast and it could really manage large crowd. =) In less than 5 minutes, the food is ready red hot on the table:

Well, within 10 minutes, the meal became:

After that, we went back to our home and had a nice rest.

Journey to Japan

945am: On the car to airport. Later, will have friends coming to send us off.
10pm: reached airport. Took photos talked to Darren's parents.
10.30pm: shawn and tom came for us. Saved me from being alone while Darren is with his 'WonderGirls' :)
11.10pm:They left. Darren still with his friends. I'm talking phone with my dear parents and my dear dear:)
12.20am: rushing in departure gate. First time meeting so many Japanese at a time. Excited.
1.10am: flight departed punctually.
1.30am: Feeling so excited abt the flight tv in front of me. :)
2am: Can't fight against the Z monster.
5am: Woke up for bfast. Enjoyed the in-flight sunrise.

7.11am: Reached kansai airport safely

Proceeding to the Immigration @ Kansai Airport (Not allowed to take photo further inside)

Photos Outside the Airport (Temperature = 10 degC)

A Japanese waiting for his flight.. T_T (I wonder why his hand like this...)

All Ready to Fly

Yesterday we (Me and Darren) were successfully obtained the Japan Student Visa. It is eligible for us to stay for one year in Japan. It is really faster than expected..

Tada! Our visas.

Straight after the collection of visa, I went to China Town to change another sum of SGD to JPY. I am all ready for the flight to Japan in 14 more hours time. It was really a good experience.

Today I will finalize everything I had and I am ready to go.

Confirmed Itinerary

Yesterday, myself and Darren went to Japanese Embassy at Nassim Road to apply for our visa. We went out early in the morning to find the way, and worried that if we go later we will have long queue.

We arrived at the embassy at around 10am and the guard gave us the pass, and took queue numbers, and I was quite impressed by their efficiency. This is Singapore. =) The happiest news that I knew is that, Our Visas will be ready on 18 March (Thurs)! Wow! It is totally unexpected! Thank God for his arrangement.

Now, finally, and finally.. The itinerary is confirmed:
Flight SQ618
Venue: Changi Airport (T3)
Time: 1.10am - 7.20am

Now travelling documents are ready, now what I have to do is to pack things up. Ready for Japan!

Documents arrived!

As stated in Darren's blog, we have received our CESR certificate and we are ready to apply for the visa. We are all ready now and when I arrived at SG on Monday, we could go apply for it on Tuesday.

When we go there, we will take our flight tickets and try to negotiate with the Embassy people to process slightly faster in view of our situations. Hopefully all go well.

Koji has also agreed to accommodate us with the possible change of flight dates. Now we are not so worry about the time constraints already.

Prepare for the adventure and excitement after those mundane stuffs in Singapore!

Finally...

As stated.. FINALLY..... the CESR documents were received by Osaka University!
Ms. Sasaki Yoko has made a call to Darren on Wednesday (10 March) morning told him that she will be sending us the CESR to Singapore and it will take ideally 2 days.

If the letter really reached in 2 days, that means, it will arrive today (Friday, 12 March). Latest will be arriving on Monday. I will be reaching SG on Monday evening, which means we will be going to apply visa on Tuesday morning (16 March), 3 days for visa = 19 March.

However, we will try to ask for special consideration due to our flight ticket, I hope we could really get special attention by the Embassy.

Really want to appreciate Darren who is all the way helping me during the process and also willing to offer his place for me in these few days.

I truly hope after this, we will ENJOY our SEP over there at Osaka!!

Travel plan: 26 - 30 May @ Kyoto!
Remaining days to Osaka: 7 days

Franco

Remaining days to wait before do something...

I have counted the remaining days.
We have 13 days left to Osaka.
If we subtract the 2 days needed for the COE to arrive Singapore (EMS), we have 11 days left;
If we subtract the 3 days of visa application, we have 8 days left;
If we consider the 4 weekends (Sat and Sun), which are the non-working days for issuing of Visa and posting of COE, we have 4 more days left;

Provided that the COE really takes 2 days to arrive SG, if we allow 1 or 2 days offset for both COE and Visa. We have 1 or 2 days left to wait.

We can only wait at most until Next Monday（三月八日） for the CESR..
IF NOT..... SIAO LIAO LA!!!!!!!!
えらいごっちゃや～

The end.

Written with pissed condition,
Franco

New Blog by Darren Siow

I am so glad to announce the long-waited blog set up by Darren Siow (my exchange partner to Osaka University).

The link is:
http://sushilandexchange.blogspot.com

Hope our blogs could not only inspire you, enlighten you, but transform and change your life!

Well, I have returned to my hometown (Malaysia) as a result of unable to wait for the CoE (As mentioned in Darren's blog). Somehow, got very pissed anxious about the Visa. Well, in short, the thing I am doing now is WAIT.

以上です。
フランコ