Friday, September 28, 2012
First week of instruction
We just finished our first week of instruction. The classes are entirely in Japanese and no other languages are allowed to be spoken during class. The teachers use elementary vocabulary for the most part, so you should have little trouble with following along with instructions and whatnot. The work load is pretty small, but I was told that it will get pretty intense in the future. We only have class Monday-Thursday so every weekend is a 3 day weekend! I'm going to spend this 3 day weekend at the school studying and stuff to try to expand my vocabulary!
Friday, September 21, 2012
About bills and living space
I'm waiting for my camera charger to come in, so I'll add pictures later when it does.
Room:
-Single apartment. 1 room, 1 full bath
-Furnished (some apartments more so than others depending on what previous students left there)
-Washing machine/dryer hybrid in the room
-5 minute walk from the school
Bills:
-Rent: 12000 yen/month
-Gas: Did some number crunching. We get a flat charge for gas that's just about 2,000 yen. Each m^3 of gas is about 790 yen. A 10 minute shower cost about 160 yen in the sense of gas. Rough estimates but relatively close.
-Water: About 5,000 yen/2 months. You will always pay the same price unless you go over your water budget, which is pretty much impossible.
-Electric: About 1,500 yen/month
-Health insurance 2,000 yen/month. This is an estimate for now as we didn't sign up for it yet.
-Phone bill 1,200 yen/month. This is for the most basic plan. The phone was free.
-Internet : 840 yen/month for the best internet plan we could get.
There is no WIFI at the apartments, so 2 of us decided to get internet and split the bill 420 yen each. The school is signing us up with health insurance. Don says it's easier this way. We believe it's about $20/month but I'll update that for sure later. Electric and gas/water as you probably assumed depends from person to person. The gas company representative told us that in the winter time, students have had bills of about $300/month because they would constantly leave the room heater on. In the end it all depends on how careful you are. Also, BRING LOTS OF MONEY when you come here. It takes a while for the stipend to kick in so you'll be without money for a while. We are unsure of when we will get our first stipend. I brought about $1700 and after 3 days I'm down to about $1500 (I bought pots and pans and groceries and stuff), so I think I'm pretty set. One of the other students on the other hand came with only about $100 and now has no money until who knows when. Also, try and find a way to get in contact with the students who are currently here before you come up. They can tell you what exactly is in the apartment, what they are willing to donate/sell to you and what you may need to bring yourself so you can decide if you wanna bring stuff from home or try and buy it out here.
Also, US plugs will fit in the outlets here if they are 2 prong. 3 prongs wont fit and you will need to buy an adapter. Try to buy an adapter for your 3 prong plugs before you come here as I've found them a bit difficult to find up here.
Room:
-Single apartment. 1 room, 1 full bath
-Furnished (some apartments more so than others depending on what previous students left there)
-Washing machine/dryer hybrid in the room
-5 minute walk from the school
Bills:
-Rent: 12000 yen/month
-Gas: Did some number crunching. We get a flat charge for gas that's just about 2,000 yen. Each m^3 of gas is about 790 yen. A 10 minute shower cost about 160 yen in the sense of gas. Rough estimates but relatively close.
-Water: About 5,000 yen/2 months. You will always pay the same price unless you go over your water budget, which is pretty much impossible.
-Electric: About 1,500 yen/month
-Health insurance 2,000 yen/month. This is an estimate for now as we didn't sign up for it yet.
-Phone bill 1,200 yen/month. This is for the most basic plan. The phone was free.
-Internet : 840 yen/month for the best internet plan we could get.
There is no WIFI at the apartments, so 2 of us decided to get internet and split the bill 420 yen each. The school is signing us up with health insurance. Don says it's easier this way. We believe it's about $20/month but I'll update that for sure later. Electric and gas/water as you probably assumed depends from person to person. The gas company representative told us that in the winter time, students have had bills of about $300/month because they would constantly leave the room heater on. In the end it all depends on how careful you are. Also, BRING LOTS OF MONEY when you come here. It takes a while for the stipend to kick in so you'll be without money for a while. We are unsure of when we will get our first stipend. I brought about $1700 and after 3 days I'm down to about $1500 (I bought pots and pans and groceries and stuff), so I think I'm pretty set. One of the other students on the other hand came with only about $100 and now has no money until who knows when. Also, try and find a way to get in contact with the students who are currently here before you come up. They can tell you what exactly is in the apartment, what they are willing to donate/sell to you and what you may need to bring yourself so you can decide if you wanna bring stuff from home or try and buy it out here.
Also, US plugs will fit in the outlets here if they are 2 prong. 3 prongs wont fit and you will need to buy an adapter. Try to buy an adapter for your 3 prong plugs before you come here as I've found them a bit difficult to find up here.
School in Japan!
Hello readers! I arrived in Hakodate Japan just about 3 days ago. The host school has been extremely helpful so far! Don Millar, the professor in charge of English speaking foreign student was nice enough to meet me at the airport upon my arrival and bring me to my apartment, which was a really big help seeing as I brought over a ton of luggage! Yesterday, Don took us to get our bank accounts set up and to get us Japanese phones so we can get in touch with the school and new friends without paying roaming charges. I have to say, all of this would have been near impossible for me to do, seeing as how I am no where near fluent in Japanese. Don even bought us all (there are 2 other students from HPU here: Ali and Stephen) lunch on two separate occasions! And apparently Don and another teacher took Ali and Stephen to a pretty expensive dinner when they got here. I got here a day after the two of them did so I didn't get to be a part of that. Nonetheless, Don and the rest of the faculty has been a big help! If you're thinking about studying abroad in Hakodate, but are afraid to for whatever reason, do not worry. The staff at this school is really nice, especially Don and you always have them to help you out.
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