School life: Busy, busy, busy!!

I'm so pooped, we've been to classes and registering for different courses! Sooo much to do,

I could write a bit about how this stuff works, I know some people are going to go to Waseda from next semester who probably would want some info, hehe.

1. Orientations, orientations, orientations..
    You will receive the when-and-wheres for the first orientations before you even leave for Japan, and it's really nice to know that they have stuff sorted out from the beginning. Pro-tip: When in the area/campus, ALWAYS have a map in your bag or pocket. You will get lost.  There is no system where the different buildings are, and why they are placed where they are. So yeah, just bring a map until you feel really familiar with the place:)
At the orientations you will get info about the dormitories, the academic programs and of course what to do if an earthquake occurs. Always with the earthquakes, the Japanese.. And with good reason! I've already had 2-3 minor (and I mean minor) earthquakes, so it's comforting knowing what to do if a bigger one hits.

2. Class Orientation Week
    This bit is pretty nice, actually. The first week of classes are pure orientations and placement tests, there to guide you to what kind of classes you feel you should be taking :) The ones I went to seemed 90% okay, that the teachers seem really nice and forgiving (lol).
The classes I'm taking are (among others)
- Keigo Communication
- Japanese sentence patterns in communication
- Learn Japanese through blogging (YES, BLOGGING.)

These three are what seem to be my favorite classes based on the teachers' level of awesomeness. I can't wait to start the blogging course, I will link the blog here later to show you how bad my Japanese is, LOL. I think the norm on that class is actually using Blogspot, but the teacher said I also could use Ameba :) Yay!

3. Regristration
    Now, this is the part where I kinda fucked up. lol. Later.
The program I'm on is called the Japanese Language Program, or JLP for short. I've found out later that it's easier to say I'm a BEKKA student, most people haven't heard of JLP, which makes no sense. Oh well. The Japanese Language Program contains several subjects for you to choose from, with one "main" course with 5 credits. Most other classes are 1 credit. The credit amount you have to have by the end of your stay is 26, according to Waseda University. But, according to UiB, I have to have 30 credit by the end of my stay. This means, I have to take classes outside the JLP program, so-called "open courses". This can be anything between heaven and hell offered by the university, and this is where you have to be careful.
How do you register?
Online, of course. The registration is in three parts, where you can add and drop any courses as you go to the different class orientations.
Thomas and I were registering for classes together one night, and for the one 2-credit open course we had to take we just picked random, because we could just drop it in the second or third registration.
Oh boy we were wrong.. It turns out, you can't drop courses that aren't offered by Waseda University itself, because the class thomas and I signed up for doesn't really belong to Waseda University. So now you are probably guessing what kind of class we signed up to, or?

Fucking English tutorials.
Yep, I now have to take English classes that are meant for Japanese students who want to learn English.
And no, I can't drop it. Thomas and I have tried, again and again, almost begging the school administration to let us drop the subject, but noooo. Can't be done, under ANY circumstance. Sometimes I reeeaally dislike the japanese and their love for following rules. Too damn strict.

Moral point of the story: If/when you register courses at Waseda, BE 100% SURE of what classes you're taking! :P

Other than that, I also managed to actually register to an English course I wanted to take! And it's not an english language tutorial class, lol. It's actually a class about Anime and Manga! I know I know, weeaboo etc. But even though I don't really watch that many animes or read a lot of manga, I still want to learn more about the culture, how it's popular and have a bit more discussion around the topic instead of just reading and watching. I think it'll be exciting. And next semester I'll be taking something called Earth & Space Science. We will there learn about the solar system, about galaxies, star clusters and even fucking PSEUDO SCIENCE, I'm dying of excitement!!

4. Schedules, periods, lunch hours
    The first period starts at 9.00 am and the last (5th) period is finished at 6.00 pm, so you could have pretty long days. i have two days where I'm at full throttle from 9 to 6, it's exhausting! But absolutely worth it, I really need to get more into the Japanese way of studying and working, and not the lazy Norwegian way.
    Each period lasts for 90 minutes, without any breaks. It's twice as long as I'm used to, so if I have a class in 5th period I usually am half asleep by the end of it all! After the 2nd period there's a lunch break for 50 minutes, which usually is enough to stop by the uni cafeteria to get a dirt cheap meal!
I'm serious. around 200 yen for a portion of japanese curry. LOVE IT. And it's a big enough portion for you to actually get full :) Good deal!

5. ......
    I don't think I have more to say regarding Waseda school life right now, my brain has turned into mush, becaaause...
The second (and last draft) for my bachelor thesis is due on Monday, so now I've finally opened the document and started writing again. Hurray! I hope I can write something real good and real fast until then, がんばります！High hopes and a bit more will power will do it! I'm only about halfway through already, so I'm not at the finish line just yet. But I'm guessing more of my fellow exchange student classmates are having the same problem.. Heh. Good luck to you! がんばってね！
That's all, folks! Have a great day :)

April 1st and so forth..

April 1st is kind of a big deal in Japan. Not because of April fools, but because the school year officially starts that day! Also, starting a new job, opening a new event etc is normal to set on the 1st of April. Why? I have no idea. If anyone knows the origin on it that'd be awesome.

Yes, school has officially started with opening ceremonies and shit, even though the actual classes don't start until Saturday 6th! Oh well, I can't complain :)
We went to campus to pick up our student ID cards, and were, mildly put, BLOWN.AWAY. What the hell was happening here?? There are people shouting, noise and music EVERYWHERE. It didn't take long until i figured it out; It was all the clubs, all the circles trying to recruit more members! Baseball teams, band clubs, soccer clubs, cheerleading clubs, art clubs... You name it! It was such a weird and fun experience, and people pushing flyers into your hands and ask if you like <insert club name> with a huge smile on their face, blissfully unknowing that my japanese isn't all that good yet.

Performance dance form called Yosakoi, which seemed reeeally fun! Such a positive and energetic way of dancing, and they were all smiles :) It'd be fun joining this club, but I don't know if they welcome gaijins.. Hm.

Red shirts underneath  

Video of them dancing: 

Doesn't it look like fun? :D 

One way of promoting your rock band club... 

Anyway here's a small vid of some of the stuff we saw!

I loved it. So energetic and positive, it was like this all over campus :) Luckily it won't stay like this throughout the year, that'd be a bit too much XD


The next couple of day were pretty chill, the weather was pretty bad (awful, actually), so we didn't do much :P On Thursday we (Thomas, Xenia, Sandra and I) went to Shinjuku to find a specific 300yen shop I wanted to go to, but we couldn't find it!! Aaaaah I need to go some time alone on a sunny day, and write down the bloody directions! Taken the shop still excists, of course. It's called YOUYOU, so if any of you knows if it still exists or not, please shout out! They don't have a web page, so it's kind of tricky to find.

At KFC Shinjuku eatin sum fried chicken! Damn good. Damn. 

Bought new glasses! Aren't they cute? They match my hair really nicely as well!

New boots! 

I actually had to buy these, because the only pair of shoes I brought had a hole in them! I had noo idea, so my feet went quickly from being perfectly dry and happy to splishy-splashy wet and... unpleasant. We had to stop buy a Forever 21, and I bought some boots. These were on sale, and really cute :) Brown isn't really my thing, but this color was so nice I thought I'd give them a go! 

Stylus pen I bought at a vending machine, so tiny! 

These are from yesterday (wednesday), we got our bank account all set up and went to eat. Seriously, I need to stop buying food out at restaurants.. it's very addicting!

Awesome building near campus. Art nouveau :) 

Flowers in bloom!  

Next post will be about the gangs trip to Ueno park! Stay tuned :) 

How I'm able to do go abroad.

When I read other peoples blogs on going to or living in Japan I often see this question: "How did you get to Japan?", so I figured I should tell you guys how I did it!

1. Reconsider it.
Hehe, this may be a bit off-putting, but I'm also a bit serious about this. 
Are you really prepared to leave friends and family, and your comfort zone, for a whole year (taken you don't go home for Christmas/winter break)? Are you ready to be thrown into a culture where everything's different, everybody speaks a language you don't speak (very well), and meet people you will have to leave after that one year?
If the answer to these are a big, fat YES!, then this is the thing for you! 
Luckily in these modern ages we have sooo many way to communicate, and I can't wait calling my mom and the rest of my family through Skype or something similar! And, to use eg. Facebook, Twitter og other social media to keep in touch with the friends you made overseas will become very handy, so I look forward to meeting lots of new people! 

2. Google.
Find out if your country has exchange programs you can sign up to, or if you can take a bachelors degree where you live. Now if you want to eg. teach English, the JET Programme is the one for you. Go to JETs homepage, and watch the video under "Aspiring JETs" to learn more. Google has a lot more answer than I do, but what I've heard about the JET programme is that it's a professional company that gets you overseas and back home safely :) 

Now for my part, I wanted to learn more about the language and culture before going there, I like to plan ahead. I signed up for a bachelors degree in Japanese at the university of Bergen, and I'm now going to Japan through their exchange program :) 
I'll be going to Waseda University in northern Shinjuku, Tokyo, where they have a program for me to follow, called the Intensive Japanese Language Program. I go to lecture for four or five days a week, and to get more credits (which I actually need to get my exchange program approved), I have to sign up for  3-4 more classes (these will be in English).

*******

I'm super excited, I've now also gotten my room details at campus! I'm living way too near a McDonalds, haha! (I hope they have a Krispie Kremes near campus as well lol) I'm really anxious to see what the actual campus rooms look like, because I can't seem to find any good photos? Maybe I should google a bit more. Yeah. 
I got a single room, equipped with (according to the document I recieved; 
Bed
Desk
Chair
Bookshelf (I'll probably be bottom shelves for my shoes, haha)
Lamp stand (Lightbulb included)
Refridgerator (AWW YISSS)
Curtains
Window Screen 
Hangers
Internet Modem (Which is weirdly not included in the rent...)
So it's pretty basic stuff. The say nothing about a closet, maybe the "Hangers" they mention is this kind of thing? because that' not nearly enough. No no no. Luckily I have a little "foldable" closet from Ikea that I'm bringing.. I need shelves, not hangers! Haha!  

I also have now applied for the student visa needed, I went to Oslo (from Bergen, 6-7h train ride) last Tuesday night, arrived Wednesday morning, applied, and went back home again the same night. Phew! I slept a lot when I got home again, hehe. It was easy applying for the visa, they were really helpful at the Japanese Embassy in Oslo :)

I don't know if this post was very helpful, I'm just very good at rambling.. Have a nice day!

Yum yum yum! @ Meiji jingu, Tokyo 2010

Days until departure: 22