Sophia University, Tokyo Spring 2014
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Sophia University, Tokyo Spring 2014 Travel report April 1 – July 31 2014 k95057 1 1 Preparation for my exchange 1.1 Application process, vaccinations, student visa and JASSO scholarship When applying for Sophia University, you should brace yourself for preparing various documents from health certificates to recommendation letters from your professors. About 6 months before the beginning of the spring semester I received an e-mail with the information about the documents required. The deadline was in two weeks, which does not leave you too much time. The documents needed to be sent to Sophia University through our International Student Services office. See the list of the required documents for academic year 2013-2014 and remember that they might have been some changes: - Application form - 4 photos (4 cm x 3 cm) - 3 official transcripts + a certificate proving completion of Bachelor-level studies if Master student - List of current courses to which you are enrolled (International Student Services can provide this) - Recommendation Letter Form: 2 letters from the professors who taught the applicants are required - Academic purpose essay, 500 words - Certificate of Health - Housing Application Form - Certificate of English language skills (International Student Services can provide this) - Application for Certificate of Eligibility (online) There were some issues worth knowing when collecting the documents. The size of the photos was a little problematic as apparently 4 x 3 cm is not a standard passport picture size in Finland. I first made the mistake of accepting photos with official measures for Japanese visa application, but the measures were not the same as required for this. In the end I got my passport photos printed specifically in the size required – note that paper prints are not accepted. The recommendation letters from professors I decided to get from professors in my own major marketing just in case if recommendations from e.g. language professors would not be perceived as valuable for business studies. Because the deadline is tight, you should ask professors for the letters immediately as at least the professors I chose seemed busy and needed to be reminded a couple of times before actually writing the letters, although they happily agreed to do them. The certificate of health requires examination like X-ray of your lungs and electrocardiograph. Luckily it was possible to get everything at the Finnish Student Health Service (YTHS) so I didn’t have to pay for the health certificate and the required examination. Regarding vaccinations for Japan, I had taken the one against Japanese encephalitis already one year before when travelling to Taiwan, but naturally you should prepare a few months ahead if you plan to take vaccinations with reinforcements. Japanese encephalitis is extremely rare as it is spread by mosquitoes mainly only on the countryside or tropical area on Okinawa islands. Still there is no secure cure for the possibly lethal disease so you should compare the risks against the high expenses of the vaccination. Note that there are mosquitoes also in central Tokyo such as Yoyogi park during summer. Surprisingly soon after leaving Japan in August there were mosquitoes carrying dengue fever in Yoyogi park for the first time since the end of the World War II, but thanks to pesticides for which Yoyogi park was closed for two months and the weather turning colder, it should be eliminated. 2 The application for Certificate of Eligibility is a document that you need for your student visa application, so you should remember to fill it in properly. According to Sophia University it takes around 6-8 weeks to get the certificate of eligibility, which you should take into account if planning to travel in Japan before the beginning of your studies. However, when applying for a visa at the Japanese Embassy in Finland, it took me only a couple of hours to receive it. Nevertheless, you should always be prepared to wait up to three weeks as is notified on the web site of the Embassy. For me the deadline for application documents was the beginning of November and I received my Certificate of Eligibility in January, after which I felt secure enough to buy my flights. Around one month after sending all my application documents, I received an official notification of being accepted as an exchange student at Sophia University. A couple of weeks after that I got yet another e-mail telling that I could apply for JASSO scholarship which is offered for foreign students by the Japanese government. The requirements of JASSO are still somewhat a mystery to me – I was supposed to fill in a very thorough application with my parents’ profession and income, my expected expenses in Japan categorized in certain areas like school books, travelling etc. and a type of motivational letter justifying why I would need a scholarship. There are different levels of JASSO of which I was able to get the highest one with 80 000 yen per month (around 600 €) for those four months I studied at Sophia University. To receive the scholarship every month I was supposed to fill in the number of lectures I had missed each months at the Office of Global Education and Collaboration at Sophia University. Basically I was advised not to miss more than two lectures per month, but I never wanted to try the limits how many would have been allowed in reality. 1.2 Housing I applied for university accommodation, but in the end decided not to accept the offer. When making my decision I contacted one of the Aalto students who had stayed in the same dorm during his exchange at Sophia and hearing it might take more than an hour to commute during the morning rush hour (with several changes), I decided to look for accommodation closer to the university. You should note that in Japan it is not weird at all to have 1-1.5-hour travel to university or work place. The majority of exchange students stay in these dorms anyway or live in a host family, which is usually located around an hour away from university too. When opting out of the university accommodation I knew that I might not get to know the other exchange students that easily because of being away from the dorm life, but then again I had already done one exchange in Germany, so I decided it was time for something else this time. Hence I searched for a shared apartment through Sakura House, which offers apartments for foreign people. The downside is of course not being able to live with the locals, but then again at least in my dorm we had a nice community of people from various European countries. The name of my house was Sakura House Sendagaya 4-chome Annex 1 which was actually a semi-detached house for six people and one of the newest Sakura dorms. It had a very central location with three metro stations within 5-10 minute-walk or you could walk to Harajuku or Shinjuku in only 20 minutes. It took only 4 minutes by metro to Sophia University. My original plan was to ride a bike, but as there were no official bicycle parking at the campus and you should pay for parking elsewhere or take the risk of officers moving your bike, I took a student commuter pass. 3 The central location of my room had its cost at it was 84,000 yen per month (around 700 euros during the rate at the time) and the room itself was only 7.6 m2. Still I was happy with my choice, but I would suggest you to seriously weight different alternatives and think what you actually want to get out of your study exchange. Some exchange students had found nice cheaper dorms that they shared with some Japanese and some other international people around 30-40 minute commute away from the university. The extreme ones stayed in a very affordable dorm where you only had your own bed, sharing your room with a few Japanese. If you feel more comfortable with remaining in touch with other Finns, you can also choose to stay in Nekotalo which is a shared apartment for Finns maintained by a Japanese lady who has a keen interest in Finland with some Finnish skills. Google for more and keep in mind that you should ask well in advance if you’re planning to stay there for a longer period, as it seems quite popular. 2 Exchange studies 2.1 Arrival in Japan and orientation days Although Finnair offers direct flights to Japan, I decided to choose the cheapest option from Cathay Pacific with two transfers to Tokyo in order to travel with my friend. I arrived around two weeks before the orientation day in the beginning of April, but moved to my room in Tokyo only a couple of days before orientation as I wanted to do some travelling before. The actual semester started almost in mid-April, so after the orientation day I still had one full week of no obligatory school things and I could use my time to explore around Tokyo and enjoy the best cherry blossom time. I also took care of some obligatory things such as visiting the city hall to make a notification that I had moved to Tokyo. There would have also been an opportunity to get a Japanese health insurance, but I decided to settle for my travel insurance. The orientation day for all exchange students started also with paying a small fee for university’s obligatory health insurance which was only valid in school-related activities.