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.