“The Road to Japan” blogs are going to be specific updates on my road to Japan. They’ll also contain a summary of the other blogs that are related to Japan leading up to that chapter of “The Road to Japan”. The idea is, in the end, all chapters of “The Road to Japan” should tell the whole story of my entire experience, from applying to become an exchange student to Japan, all the way to my experiences whilst in Japan. Can’t wait!

If you haven’t been to the About Jace page, go and check it out first so you kinda know who I am and what’s going on…

Yeah so as you may already know, if you read the about page, a friend of mine and I are both planning to do a student exchange to Japan for a semester. There’s heaps to be done… so better make up a checklist…

Checklist:

1. Apply at my University by 25th of September, 2008. Application process involves:
   • Selecting a University to apply to
   • Sort out transfer of Academic Credits whilst on exchange
   • Sort out all forms such as scholarship applications, student exchange forms, and get academic references
   • 1 x Passport Photo
   • Written proposal as to why I wish to study overseas (800-1000 words)
   • Print out academic history for submission
   • Interview to be held in January if my application is nominated for approval
2. apply for student visa/passport, book flights etc. (post approval stuff, think about that once i get accepted)
3. Save up money ($10,000 is the goal!)

Ugh… thats a pretty daunting check list, but i’ve got a while to do it all so it should all be good and worth it!

The good thing is that i’ve already spoken to my exchange officer and she pretty much guaranteed my friend and I that we will get accepted due to the low demand of students applying to go to Japan in the Fall/Autumn season. So that’s good news… all we have to do is keep our GPA above 4.5 (on the 7.0 GPA scale) for the rest of the year. I’m on a 5.5 now and it wasn’t too much trouble, so another one semester like the last would help.

As for which university to apply for, my friend and I have our hearts set on Kansai Gaidai near Osaka in Japan. That university looks great and seems like a very accommodating university for exchange students. The bad news about that is that our university only allows 2 people to exchange to Kansai Gaidai per semester! If more people apply, they then select students according to GPA! So we gotta get that GPA up so that if anyone else applies they’ll choose my friend and I over other applicants. But the exchange officer said its possible that we will be the only 2 applicants, so come September 26th, we’re gonna call up the university and ask how many people applied to Kansai Gaidai. If its just the 2 of us, then it’s all smooth sailing. If one of us don’t make it to Kansai Gaidai, we’ve agreed to both go to another university together.

Academic credits… Luckily I had recieved a Diploma in Game Development prior to starting at my university and for that I received a billion general credits! (slight exaggeration… but only slight ). Which, as it turns out, means i don’t have electives, which in turn means i cannot study anything that is not related to my course and recieve credit to my degree. Now Game Development would obviously fall under Information Technology, and Kansai Gaidai is a business school with no IT related subjects taught in English. But my course Co-ordinator lady is awesome and she messed around with my subjects and my credits and now i’m able to go to Japan and study whatever I want and get credits. (btw i have to recieve credits from my study in Japan otherwise I can’t go). This just means I can now go to Japan, but my degree will be extended by 6 months… NO WORRIES! Small price to pay for a life changing experience in my opinion.

Scholarships eh…. I need them! Unfortunately if I don’t receive a scholarship to go and study in Japan I can’t go. But! Remember how I mentioned that the Exchange officer said there was a low demand of students exchanging to Japan in Autumn/Fall? Well they’ve got 15 scholarships to hand out, and the exchange officer said there will NOT BE 15 people applying, which means I’ll get a scholarship. No worries there….

Apart from that i’m good to apply it seems. Everything else is just general admin stuff: filling out of forms, writing a proposal, getting passport photo’s etc. Once we get the OK that we have been approved to study overseas then i’ll look at passports and student visa’s etc. etc. I get notified of my acceptance in January next year. This leaves a good 8 months or so to get everything sorted.

As for money… hahaha Money always seems to find me one way or the other. Money is never something i’ve ever desired or wanted and so for some reason it always comes to me when i need it. Through extra work on the holidays, scholarships etc. If i fall a bit short by a couple thousand I am able to take out a special loan of up to $5000 that I pay back with my taxes, much like the scheme that pays for my education. So i’ll hit that up for the remainder of any funds needed. When I go to Japan, I don’t want to have any money troubles… So hopefully I can set myself up nicely by then.

Just a couple Miscellaneous points:

• No, I cannot speak Japanese… But I am learning, I even have a Japanese subject at university scheduled for me next year before I go to Japan. Obviously that won’t be enough, but I will also be studying Japanese whilst in Japan and my other classes will be in English. My friend I am going with is quite good at Japanese.
• My fellow band members have given me the OK to go to Japan for the 4- 5months.

Well yeah, that’s where I’m at for now. The Road to Japan is definitely a lengthy one, and I have to remember to keep my spirits up, and remember what my goal is and how much it means to me. I’ve had some bad experiences where I’ve thrown away excellent opportunities but it’s not gonna happen this time. I’m going to Japan next August, no matter how hard it is to save money, or how many bumps I hit on the road.

I’ll keep you guys up to date on my progress and the Road To Japan, but i’ll throw in some other cool stuff along the way. Then once I reach Japan, I’m gonna write about it as much as I can so I can keep the memories of all the awesome times I had there as fresh as I can.

Ciao for Now!!