How this all started:
I just recently graduated high school, and I knew that I didn't want to go to college straight after studying for 4 consecutive years, thus I decided to take a GAP year.
At first, I wanted to work for a year to save up money for university, but then someone suggested that I go study abroad.
Soon I began to look up some things and found out about the "working holiday visa". I knew I wanted to stay in a country longer than the typical 3 months, so the only way to go was to get a visa.
I have a dual citizenship in Korea, and so I hoped that I could get into Japan by applying for a working holiday visa in Korea and then go to Japan. I kept that plan in mind for about 2-3 months, until I was about to go to Korea and apply but as I was going through the application process (while I was in the US) I had a few questions so I directly called the embassy. This is when they told me only those living in Korea can actually apply....total bummer...I was worked up for something I couldn't even apply for.
Then, I realized I could just study at a language school.
Now this is how I began to apply to the language school in Okinawa called JICE (the Japan Institute of Culture and Economics).
Of course, I was so late to apply for courses within this year(2014), but with the help of an aunt who lived in Okinawa, the school decided to accept me into their school and take the fall course.
The application process:
-- School application/certificate of eligibility
The school sent me an email with all the documents I needed to send to them, including the docs for a certificate of eligibility. There were A LOT of emails going back and forth because I had so many questions, but in the end, I successfully sent the school all my documents.
The process from them receiving the docs to processing it and applying for my cert. of eligibility and for me to receive it, took about a little more than a month? I sent them my papers in mid-August and received my docs near the end of September. In between this I also sent them the tuition fee ($4,600). Overall, it didn't take as long as I thought it would :)
--Applying for student visa
Okay, before I start, this was a pain in the a$$. The embassy was very picky. Though they were really informative and helpful, ugh....it was a very horrid experience.
The process time for this visa was a little over a week, once again, shorter than I thought it'd be.
I first filled out the visa application, sent them my passport, a passport picture, etc. (more info here)
Then I looked for where I had to send my application, which was San Francisco.
As soon as possible I sent them my stuff but here were a few problems to my application:
1. Signing my passport
- Sounds stupid, but I've never done this before so I didn't know I had to actually sign on my passport.
2. Leaving things blank on the application
- Write "None" instead of leaving it blank.
3. Current profession
- If you are like me, who just graduated from high school and is not attending university, just state "student" for your profession and write "n/a" for anything else regarding that such as name/address of employer.
I had my visa docs sent back to me to fix, and then I had to send it back to them again....total amount of money spent on postage - $85
--Getting ready to leave!
I'm finally at the part where I am currently at~!!
So after receiving my visa, I was ready to prepare for Okinawa.
I have a couple of friends who've been to Japan and most of them say that clothes was really expensive there, so while other people may pack a little so they can buy clothes, I opted for buying clothes here and bringing them with me.
Here is my list of clothes:
- 2 jeans
- 3 shorts
- 2 cardigans
- 4-5 t-shirts
- 2 long-sleeve shirts
- a blouse
- 2-3 sweaters/jackets
- 2 scarves
- 10 undies
- 4 bras
- 5 undershirts
- 2 pairs of working out clothes
- 3 pairs of footwear
I still haven't finished packing yet, though I planned out most of the stuff I'm going to bring.
Okay, that's about it for now.
I am leaving in about 3 days, and I am very busy with packing not to mention very EXCITED for this 6 months language learning trip!!! Woohoo!!
I shall update more when I actually arrive in Okinawa.
Until then, bye~
