I’m really sorry about the long blackout in posting. After I finished working, I’ve been more busy with things than I imagined. Mainly, I’ve been studying Japanese, but as you’ll see from this post there has been a couple other big things that I’ve done. Who knew that when your time gets freed up, you just become all the more busy with everything you’ve been wanting to do for a while? I’ll start from the beginning I suppose.
About a week and a half ago now I quit my job at the factory. I worked overtime that week to make some last-minute cash, but at the end of the day I gladly said “good riddance!”. That job had to be the most menial and most boring I’ve ever had. Can’t say I can complain too much, because I did make some decent money, but I certainly won’t recommend for anyone to work there.
So for the past few weeks, I’ve been just sticking to working at Burger King. Since I’ve been working part-time, it has practically been like being on vacation. It was fortunate, too, that I ended working at the factory when I did, because I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to meet with the Hirosaki students who come to UMaine every spring! I did this last year as well, and it was a big motivating factor for me to go apply for Hirosaki the following semester.
Zoe and I made the trip up to Orono on March 6th. The drive went well - we got there with time to spare. When the students showed up it was just like I remembered from last year. They came out into the student union by the information desk, where we were separated up to act as conversation groups. Like last year, I was very impressed with the students’ skills in English. All of them spoke with a good command of the language, but occasionally they had to bust out the denshi-jisho to make things easier. They drew out a map of Hirosaki University’s layout and we discussed the best places around the school to get food. We also got on the topic of music and I got some recommendations from them. Among their favorite artists were Polysics, Hi-STANDARD, Namie Amuro and the Radwimps. That’s quite a broad range of music, from electronic to pop to punk rock. I didn’t get as much time to get to know them all this time around as I did last year since we only met the one time, but it was time well spent. I really enjoyed talking to the Hirosaki students here at home, so I can only hope that means that I will enjoy it as much when I go over there in a couple weeks. :)
The following Monday, Zoe and I made another trip. This time, we went down to Boston for the day to apply for my visa, because that is where the closest Japanese consulate is. I recieved the final documents from Hirosaki the week before, detailing the housing situation and some forms I needed to fill out and fax back to them. Also included was my “Certificate of Eligibilty,” which is bascially a piece of paper from the Japanese government saying that they recommend me for a student visa. With this piece of paper and a filled-out form in tow, Zoe and I showed up to the Federal Reserve Bank building just outside of South Station, were we took the bus into Boston to. It was pretty amusing, too when we arrived. I wasn’t sure if we’d need to take the subway, so I asked one of the people at an information desk for help. When I showed her the Google map I printed out, she said, “it’s right upstairs.” Indeed, it was literally across the street from South Station. Shows how well I know Boston’s streets. :P
Once we got into the Federal Reserve, we took the elevator up, up, up until we got to the 14th floor (this was quite the tall building). Upon stepping off the elevator, the Japanese consulate was right there in our faces. I assume the consulate took up the entire floor because of that, but not much was accessible to the average visitor. There were signs everywhere saying that photography wasn’t allowed, which was too bad because I wanted to take some shots for the blog here. The decor of the place was very much similar to that of a travel agency, except that it was all Japanese-themed with many of the posters that adorned the wall were written in Japanese. The whole process of applying for my visa took literally a minute. Because I had printed and filled out the separate visa application required, I was all set to go. They said it would take three days to process, so I should be getting my visa any time now.
We spent the rest of the day just walking around the downtown and checking out some stores. We went by the Massachusetts State House, too. Outside, saw this great sign:
With all this stuff going on lately with state politicians and “call girls,” I think that picture is both funny and ironic. Not just some hookers, but all hookers admitted!
I’m sorry if I just glossed over things in this post, but I haven’t been good about keeping up with the updating and I don’t want to write a book. XD I hope that I can write more frequently, as always. As it stands, I’m not in Japan yet, so I don’t have anything terribly exciting to write about except the minuate of the preparation process. If that interests you, all the more power to you - I hope this site is a help to everyone who is considering studying abroad. But if you are here to read about traveling in Japan, just give it a few more weeks. Until next time!
