London Crossover Adventure!

So a few weeks ago,* I was delighted to hear that one of my classmates from GenkiJACS would be visiting London! Regular readers may remember M-san of okonomiyaki fame, who is also Miho-san of internet fame. The word "charming" was practically invented for Miho-san, so of course I was happy to take a trip down to London and do some touristing with her and a couple of her friends.

* I started writing this post nearer the time, but it's actually four months ago now.

For any non-British Isles readers, London is nowhere near my hometown (which is near Liverpool) - it's about two hundred miles away. It's also horrifically expensive to go to London, because (inexplicably in my view) it's incredibly popular. To make the most of the time, I decided to go the previous evening so we could meet up in the morning, and also so I wouldn't be spending half a day travelling there and back.

After much frustrating searching, I happened upon the Swinton Hotel. It does exactly what it says on the tin: it's a cheap, no frills hotel that's near King's Cross. Providing what you need is a place to sleep and a bathroom, it's got you covered. No photos this time: honestly, it wouldn't be worth it. It looks like a very small room with a small bed in it, and the kind of carpet they put in very cheap hotels. It was fine.

Study at GenkiJACS free for a year!

Two big bits of news have just come out of GenkiJACS.

First, the Fukuoka school have managed to get accreditation from the government, which means they can offer student visas. This is potentially really useful. Firstly, it means you can stay for longer than three months without having to worry about getting your no-visa entry permit renewed. It isn't a huge concern, but the fact that it's possible for a hiccup to occur is always a worry. Secondly, it means you can stay for up to a year, so people looking for essentially a gap year experience can do that without having to burn up their once-in-a-lifetime Working Holiday Visa (and you can't even guarantee you'll get one).

Thirdly, it allows you to work! This wouldn't really have been a concern for me, I think, but for some people might be a big deal. Fourthly, you can get student discounts on all kinds of things. And fifthly, you can register as a Japanese resident, and therefore open bank accounts and so on. So this has the potential to be just really convenient for a lot of people.

The other, related big news is that to celebrate, they're offering a YEAR of free tuition at GenkiJACS. Yeah, I know, amazing. Sadly I'm not eligible because my level of Japanese is too high(!)* but it's a fantastic opportunity for someone. The downside? You have to produce a short video explaining why you want to study at GenkiJACS, which... well, I don't think that's something I'd have felt comfortable doing even if I were eligible. It's got that vaguely self-promoting, interview-style feel to it that I tend to associate with corporate America.

Hmm. It'd be vaguely interesting to know how varying cultural norms and preferences would affect potential applicants' willingness to go in for a competition like this.

*it really does feel weird to say that!

Futon Life, chapter 1

So the last, oh, two months of almost total silence aren't just me running out of things to say. I've actually been moving across country to start my new job in sunny glamorous really quite nice Sheffield.

I eventually managed to find a rather nice attic flat over some shops in a bustling part of town, with half an hour's walk of the town centre and my job. This relatively modern, well-maintained １ＬＤ・Ｋ* costs only slightly more than the single room I was renting in a cramped Victorian house in Oxford. There's that North-South divide for ya.

* Japanese real estate shorthand: 1 room, living-dining-room, and kitchen.

Ever since I started planning the move, I've been seriously considering getting a futon. A little clarification is needed here, because English has decided to be really annoying in that way it sometimes is with loanwords. See, a futon as we know it in the UK is almost (but not quite) entirely different from the Japanese futon that we stole the word from.