Internet

I”ve applied for internet, it should arrive in about 2-3 weeks, according to the pamphlet.. but the international center people say it might arrive earlier or later.. =.=|||

Credit Card

My payment method for internet right now is by SG bank account (mastercard), but I’ll be applying a local credit card at the school Co-op later today for 1,000yen. Their credit card system here is very different from sg and very confusing, but if possible, will change the internet fees to payment by that credit card subtract from the Japanese Post Office, Pa-lu-lu account.

Handphone

I’ve got my handphone!~ But I have to sign a 2 year plan because our status as kenkyuusei does not allow us to take a Student Plan. I can choose a better phone that allows me to watch tv (but I haven figure out how to connect it), and also do emailing etc with it. The phone itself is 1yen with the plan, but at the end of the 1 year stay, I have to pay 9975yen to cancel the contract, so if anyone wants to continue using the phone after me, please let me know. The monthly payment is about 2500-3500yen or above depending on how you use it. It is an AU phone which allows me to C-mail(sms) to other AU phones cheaply, and E-Mail to phones of other companies, such as Softbank and Docomo.

The handphone is very.. erm.. function-friendly with loads of function such as upcoming weather, newsflash, which is important due to my lack of internet and tv here (Freezing to death), but not very user-friendly as in I cant figure out how to use/activate the functions and which I have to pay and which I don’t. The manual (the salesman called it a textbook) is really a textbook that it damn thick and fully Japanese)

Email

My email is xxxxxxxxx@ezweb.ne.jp where x is same as my gmail. The payment is by packets. I have a plan which allows me to send up to a certain number of packets, so minna can email me, but keep them short.

Travels

I’m trying to do travel plans but they are a bit tough, because I don’t have internet and are not sure exactly where my mom and sis wants to go. My mom is coming to Japan via Tokyo 24^th-31^st December. She expressed interest in Hokkaido, Osaka and Kyoto so I don’t really know how to go about it.. I don’t think there is enough time to cover all places, and I don’t know which one she prefers.. It’s either we stay full time in Tokyo, or take a 5days 4 night trip down to Osaka/Kyoto and a 5days 4nights trip to Sapporo/Hakodate. Does anyone have good schedules for me? (lack of internet hard to research. Will be eternally thankful to anyone who can provide a very good schedule). The travel vehicle is also another problem, because while my mom and sis can qualify for JR pass, I can’t due to my status as student and not tourist. So I still have to check up prices if I’m to take Shinkansen and JR with them.. but of course since my mom is here.. she might offer to pay for them. (I think) ^^;

Busy

This few days are going to be busy.

Day before Yesterday was placement test.. The listening was damn funny, with the tape guys speaking at rocket speed, but very very simple sentences where we are supposed to fill in blanks with a particle, but honestly, u could guess the particle from the grammar. Kanji was easy for us Chinese and grammar was simple except for about 3-4 forms we have yet to learn.

Yesterday was opening ceremony which was freaky because the Americans/Europeans were all wearing real real suits, (including the girls) while we Asians were basically wearing pretty smart casual (some quite casual).. The Asian weather simply doesn’t  really encourage us to invest in a smart business suit.. But it’s over and we still don’t intend to invest in one for the closing ceremony anyway.

After the ceremony was a bus tour to the disaster prevention center which was like the one in Fukuoka. Had some fun, but repeated same things.

Then, back in school at 5pm, we met with Roslynn by chance and she brought us to her Research Room which was just full of computers and books (not very big) and a few other students. She let us used the computers/internet for a while, while we chatted about our dogs, where to get cosmetics, the life around Sapporo etc..

Today

Just attended first class which is Japanese Oral Class, most of our Nikken students (my course) got into Advanced level 2. There is actually 3 levels for Advanced, but they couldn’t put us in Advanced level 3 if any of us hit that level or else we have no classes to take next semester... but I can already see some level difference in this class. There are 4 other Japanese classes every week because our Japanese classes are split into

1)      Grammar

2)      Oral

3)      Vocab/Kanji

4)      Reading & Comprehension

5)      Article Hyogen (Don’t know exactly how to translate the hyogen or what the hell we supposed to do in it yet)

Later this afternoon is another tour to Traffic center, and then there is a bbq welcome party if the weather is good (I doubt). The weather report says that it is 10-14 degrees with chance of rain in the evening, and tml the temperature will drop to 5-10 degrees and possible snow over the weekend..(very very cold!!!)