Vacuum-Packing Socks & Ordering Yen

I vacuum-packed some socks today.  Well at least it counts as packing!!

That's almost all I've done, however.  You can see on that photo that I've also stuck some underpants in my suitcase, and started to fold other things up on the floor.  Instead of gradually filling my bag up as I go along, I'm going to sort everything out on the floor first, then put it all together like a jigsaw puzzle to fit in when I'm happy!

And yes, I really did vacuum-pack my socks into a Sainsbury's freezer bag.  You can't really see it from the picture, but it's really tightly packed, like when you buy some liver or fish from the supermarket in one of those heat-sealed vacuum packs,  the ones that always make it look like it's just a fillet of mackerel on a sheet of gold paper.  It's really flat, and now takes up a lot less space in my suitcase than if I'd just bunged all of my socks in.  I didn't use any fancy methods though, I just put the socks in a bag and then almost sealed it, just leaving a tiny gap, before kneeling on it to push all of the air out and then quickly sealing it tight!  It's tempting to do that for more items of clothing, but I fear that's a little too Alan Partridge.

In other news, I ordered some Japanese Yen today!  The exchange rate is currently ¥126 to the Pound, but that figure is fluctuating all the time.  It's depressing to think that two and a bit years ago, you could get literally twice as much for your money; the exchange rate was around ¥250 to the Pound.  I found the best rate was through Travelex; I got it at ¥121 to the Pound, much better than the ¥115 or ¥116 I've heard that other people have been getting through the likes of the Post Office recently.  So everyone reading this blog from Leeds Uni who haven't yet got their Yen yet, get it through Travelex!  You'd have thought they'd give me ¥122 after that endorsement, but it wasn't to be! 

So I ordered ¥121,000 (well done to anyone clever enough to realise that's £1000's worth) to take with me to last the first few expensive days in Japan.  I'll have to pay ¥77,700 when I check into my accommodation (first month's rent, first month's utilities, bedding rental and deposit), as well as the deposit and initial credit on my Suica Card (Tokyo's equivalent of the London Oyster Card), some books for the university, and a bicycle.  Yes I know it's a bit hopeful to want to get all those things with that amount of money, but we'll see!  I'm going to the Travelex counter at Leeds/Bradford Airport on Tuesday to pick the money up.

Once I'm in Japan I'm going to open a bank account, and then transfer the current balance from my British HSBC account, as well as my savings.  I just upgraded my HSBC account to a student account (a year late, I know), so now I can take advantage of my overdraft!  Although I'm really going to try not to go into it, hence why I didn't upgrade during the first year of university.  I might have to though, if I don't get the Takase scholarship.  Oh, and by the way, I've now discovered that we will find out who has been awarded the scholarship at the end of August.  There is a lot of the competition for the 20 people who are awarded it each year, as I mentioned in a previous post, so hopefully my entry essay was good enough!  I suppose I'll find out in a week or so...

There are now just over 5 days left until I set off for Japan!  Still so much to do!

James

Financial Situation & Takase Scholarship

Today I write to you about the one thing which stops people from enjoying themselves in life, albeit in a rather paradoxical way; money.  The problem is that I don’t have very much of it, which is quite a concern when I’m living in Tokyo.  My money situation for my year abroad is as follows;

The (repayable!) student loan I’ll get is £4244, which at current exchange rates just covers the various things associated with my accommodation; the deposit, monthly rent, utilities, and bedding rental.  After paying for all that with my student loan, I’ll have £26 left over.  Not good when you consider that the transfer from the airport to the guesthouse on the first day costs £25.

Besides my student loan, I have about £2000 of my own, in savings and left over wages from Rhythm & Booze, and that’s it!  I’m there for 10 months, so I somehow doubt that £50/week will be enough to survive off. Other than the basic every day survival-type things, there are of course all the other things I need to shell out for when I first get there, such as the compulsory Japanese National Heath Insurance (国民健康保険, or kokumin kenkou hoken), Certificates of Registration, a bicycle, and all that sort of thing. 

Well, the solution is obvious, you may be thinking; get a job!  But it is not so simple!  To work in Japan on a student visa you need a work permit.  As it’s in conjunction with said student visa, you have to go through the university to apply for it.  But the catch is that my university won’t let you apply for one for a few months, to let you ‘settle in’ and to stop you from becoming too overwhelmed by the amount of things you take on. All I want is a few hours a week doing some English conversation!  Apparently you can earn about £20 an hour just chatting in English!  Obviously I’d put preparation in, but it does sound like a quite a good deal.  Oh, and apparently British English is the new cool thing to learn in Japan, not the American English that everyone was brought up with…I’m not going to complain about that!  I guess I'll just have to wait and see how the whole thing plays out.

But there is still one other avenue to explore!  I got an email a week or so ago telling me that ICU had nominated me for a scholarship from the Takase Scholarship Foundation.  They only award it to 20 people each year, but those who get it receive ¥100,000 (£770) every month from October until June!  Obviously this would be an unimaginable help, so I really, really hope I get it.  I’ve written the required 500-word essay for it, which I’ve sent to one of my Japanese tutors to translate, and now all I need to do is fill in the associated forms.  I’ll find out whether I’ve got the scholarship or not in late September or early October, and I’ll definitely dedicate a post to that result on here!

That’s all for now! Oh, and sorry for the lack of pictures in this blog, I hope you made it to the end without getting bored! 

James