Osaka: stopping by

Long time no write!

My first month in Japan has been quite busy due to various deadlines, studies, and simply getting used to the life here. But as it has now been a month since I arrived, I’m finally taking the time to write about the days I spent in Osaka at the beginning of my journey!

Leaving for Japan was surprisingly easy. I thought I’d have a small nervous breakdown at the airport but nope, did not. I also got really lucky with my seat. I had a regular economy class ticket but during baggage drop, it turned out that there was still one better seat available in the plane – and it was given to me! It was a hybrid class, I suppose, with business class seats but economy class service. It was a lot more comfortable than the regular economy seats. It was also great to get better headphones as they blocked noises more efficiently, which made watching movies a lot easier. Finally saw Inception!

From the Kansai International airport, me and Iitu (the other exchange student from my university) headed to the city. Having two suitcases didn’t make moving around any easier but since my hotel (Tennouji Miyako Hotel) was right next to Tennouji station, I didn’t have to cope with them too long. Staying at Tennouji worked out nicely as it’s easy to travel to other parts of the city by train or by subway. There’s also an Animate very close to the train station, and Animate happens to be one of my favourite stores! The hotel was nice, wouldn’t mind staying there again. If I had to complain about something, I’d point out that there is no WLAN. However, since I had my laptop with me, using a LAN cable wasn’t an issue.

View from the hotel window.

After I took my luggage to the hotel, I took a look at the nearby Animate as well as the surroundings in general. After checking in around 14 o’clock, I noticed a problem: my adapter and laptop cable weren’t compatible! I have a multicountry adapter so it’s basically supposed to be able to connect any cable to any socket, but my laptop cable turned out to be too fat for it. I’ve never had such a problem with the adapter before so I didn’t realise to check the cable back in Finland. Luckily, I had checked the location of some stores back in Finland already, and headed for the Yodobashi next to Osaka station. I had trouble finding the adapters to begin with, let alone a fitting adapter since most were not meant to be used in Japan, but after a couple of questions, the right one was found! By the time I got back to the hotel, it was already evening so I stayed there for the rest of the day, cursing jet lag for not letting me sleep early despite having been awake for quite long at that point.

Pokémon Center.

Saturday’s main activity was Kaiyukan, an aquarium in Osaka. The admission fee for an adult was ¥2300. Kaiyukan’s largest pool hosts the species I was most interested in: two whale sharks, one hammerhead shark, and a bunch of stingrays! Sharks and stingrays happen to be my favourite types of sea creatures, and I’ve never seen a whale shark or a hammerhead shark before. The stingrays were also impressive, some being pretty huge, but I have to admit I was hoping to see a manta ray as well. There was also a shallow pool filled with smaller stingrays and other fish, and these you could touch. I have now petted a stingray!

Kaiyukan.

Whale shark.

Hammerhead shark.

A ferris wheel next to Kaiyukan.

Sunday was the shopping day! I headed to Namba’s subway station and, after some wrong turns and accidentally coming across a shopping arcade, found my way to Otaroad. If you’re interested in anime/manga/game merchandise, this is your area. My main target was Kotobukiya’s Tales of Shop. Kotobukiya/Tales of Shop can be found in few cities and Kanazawa is not one of them, which is why I definitely wanted to seize the chance to visit the one in Osaka. I managed to get my hands on the Tales of Xillia 2 compact mirror, the Tales of Xillia 2 rubber strap collection (including the Kotobukiya-exclusive Gaius!), and a bunch of other items. Apart from Kotobukiya, I visited Otaroad’s Animate and various other stores. I also bought my first Ichiban Kuji tickets ever! I received an F and a G prize from the Tales kuji. I figured out what my favourite type of crane game is as well, managing to catch three prizes.

Tales kuji and crane game loot!

On another day, a crane game prize got stuck... But a staff member opened the machine for me.

Powered up my Suica!

Dinner at Hard Rock Café near Namba.

Monday was my last full day in Osaka. After not being able to enter the Animate Café thanks to not knowing that the last week of the Brothers Conflict café was special and required a ticket even on weekdays, I went to take a look at the Osaka castle. It was really hot so I didn’t wander around for long, and I didn’t go inside either. Maybe another time! I also went to search for Mandarake but because of the inaccurate map I had drawn, I couldn’t find it. I returned to the hotel a bit earlier than planned because I was really tired, and wanted to pack my suitcases since there wasn’t time for that on Tuesday morning. On Tuesday, I arrived at the Kansai International Airport before 10 AM and after the chartered university buses arrived, I was off to Kanazawa!

Osaka castle.

Animate Café.

One of the memorable events in Osaka for me was being able to watch the last episode of Attack on Titan on TV. Being able to watch an episode of a series I love as it was airing for the first time felt pretty cool! The episode aired at 2 AM which added an unfamiliar element to the situation as well. Good times! I couldn’t eat my snacks, though, because I realised that would’ve made hearing difficult and I sort of had to hear every single word if I wanted to catch anything that’s going on. :D

So that was Osaka for me this time around. In the next entry, I’ll finally be moving on to the main plot of this story, Kanazawa!

On the way to Kanazawa!

Beginning

はじめまして！

My name is Mira. I'm a political science student from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. I have just started my student exchange in Kanazawa University, Japan, and will write about my time here in this blog. I'll start by shortly introducing myself and by telling about the preparations of my student exchange.

This is my fourth year in the university. I became a Bachelor of Social Sciences last month, nicely in time to finish said degree before my exchange. I've wanted to go on a student exchange in Japan for several years, mostly out of interest towards Japanese popular culture (cosplay, games, manga, anime). However, I'm also interested in the Japanese culture in general, the society, the language... I've studied Japanese for two years in the university and have found it to be an especially interesting language. It's also relevant to my hobbies and possible future plans, so why not go on an exchange in Japan!

After being accepted by the University of Jyväskylä as an exchange student to Kanazawa, we had a couple of months to fill in the application form of Kanazawa University. It included a form filled by a doctor (including a statement of our lung X-rays) as well as a document that we can afford the exchange (either of our student allowance or someone's savings). However, the actual source of income needn't be the one in the form. For example, I am eligible for the JASSO scholarship and will primarily live on that but at the time of the application, I did not yet know whether I'll get the scholarship and couldn't obviously state it as my source of income.

It's quite unusual to not be accepted into a foreign university after being appointed by the University of Jyväskylä and indeed, both of us appointed students were accepted. During the summer, we had to fill in forms such as a dormitory application and also had to inform Kanazawa University of our flights. In September, we received our Certificates of Eligibility and were able to apply for a student visa. Foreigners can only stay in Japan for three months without a visa and as such, a visa is always necessary when staying for longer periods of time. It took about an hour to receive the visa after personally submitting the necessary documents at the Embassy of Japan in Helsinki.

Another necessary preparation was a vaccination check. I needed to renew my tetanus vaccination this year, and also did so for my polio vaccination in case that I visit China. These two vaccinations were free. The vaccinations I had to buy were my third hepatitis vaccination and two against the Japanese encephalitis. The latter were quite expensive, more than 250€ altogether. However, whereas the encephalitis is apparently quite rare, it's also very dangerous. I was told that a third of those infected are permanently damaged, and another third die. The phrase "Better safe than sorry!" comes to mind.

We weren't able to book our flights before July because only then did we receive the information of the exact date to arrive in Kanazawa, October 1st. We decided to spend four nights in Osaka before leaving for Kanazawa. I've been to Japan twice before, to Tokyo and Kyoto, but never to Osaka. Thus, I wanted to see the city, and also seize the chance to do some merchandise shopping!

I guess that would cover enough of the background! Next time, I'll write about my long weekend in Osaka.