Merita Wi-Kaitaia at ICU, Tokyo, 2007/2008

Kia Ora, my name is Merita Wi-Kaitaia and this is my report on my experiences in my university exchange to Japan. I am studying towards a BA majoring in Japanese at Waikato University. At time of writing (April 2008) I have been here for 6 months of my exchange year, during which I have made the most of and enjoyed every opportunity to experience Japan. I live in Tokyo and as it is well known, Tokyo is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and I am highly grateful that I am a recipient of the Sasakawa Fellowship Fund which has truly helped me with the high living costs of Tokyo!

Me, in Kimono for an open-air Tea Ceremony
during Spring Vacation.

Japanese University Life for ‘Ryugakusei’ (Exchange Students)

Japanese Language Learning.
The University I attend is International Christian University (or ICU as it is more commonly known), and this is one of the few universities that greatly supports bilingualism in English and Japanese. Not only can I take the Japanese language program here, but also classes taught in English in a very wide range of topics like Peace Studies or UN Studies, which help out a lot with my career interests. The down-side is a lot of the students here are bilingual so opportunities to speak Japanese are more limited than they might be elsewhere. To counter this it is important to spend time on a homestay and to make the most of the ‘activity clubs or circles’, a common feature in Japanese schooling.

Homestay:
I am currently on Spring Vacation, which is the longest holiday for universities in Japan, and have recently returned from a home stay experience in Kyushu. Universities generally offer opportunities for exchange students to do a homestay during the long holidays and these can range from one to two weeks. As I do not live with a host family in Tokyo, I took up the chance and stayed with a host family for two weeks. It costs around $200 to sign up, or more depending on the transportation option you choose to get to where your host family is. I took the night bus, the cheapest way to travel between cities in Japan, but depending on the bus, it may not be very comfortable. Host families generally do not speak much, if any, English at all so it may be difficult to communicate effectively, but it is a good opportunity to immerse yourself in the Japanese language and culture when you can’t do that where you live during term time.

Club Activities:
Clubs and circles vary from sports like rugby, baseball and tennis to performing arts like wadaiko and hip-hop dance, to even language exchange in Italian and Latin. Joining a club is an awesome opportunity to make friends from around the world, and is another way to learn Japanese and have fun. I highly recommend joining one even if it is for a short while. Some clubs are more intense than others and take what they do in their club as seriously as their study, but there will always be clubs that are casual and laid back, taking in anyone from any country or with any background. I am in the Wadaiko club at ICU, and although they are the more intense type of club, it is the most fun and interesting thing I have done since I did Kapahaka at kura kaupapa. Along with club activities are social activities after meetings or practice, like going to bars and restaurants which are everywhere and anywhere if you live in Tokyo.

The Wadaiko club I joined after one of our performances. I am in the
middle of the back row holding the stick with the pompom on the end.

Taking Japanese classes:
Usually there is a Japanese language learning programme offered at universities here. All exchange students are expected to take a placement test. Obviously this is intended to decide what Japanese level classes you will take. Because this is a test, there is a natural motivation to get the highest score you can, which is a bad idea. The best advice we received from our teachers was “Don’t guess! When you do not know the answer, don’t answer it.” The reason for this is you could end up learning in a class totally above your head and this gives extra stress as Japanese language classes are very intensive. I thankfully heeded the “don’t guess” advice, but in the first semester made the mistake of taking a lot of extra classes along with Japanese. Within Japanese classes homework is handed out every day, we are required to make speeches every week, and quizzes are given every second morning. My Japanese classes were great and exactly what I had come for, and if I had made more time for learning Japanese, which is my aim, instead of taking more classes, I would have learnt more. The classes that I am used to in New Zealand are no way near as intensive, and I am disappointed that I wasn’t advised on the heavy workload of the Japanese language programmes, but you live and learn and I planned my second semester and forthcoming third semester a lot better. My advice is check with your exchange advisor and students from your university who have been to the university you intend to visit about course workloads.

A photo of the main classroom building at ICU, no
other school in Tokyo has this much green space.

Living Costs
Living costs vary among cities, but since I am in the most expensive city in Japan it is a good example to use to get an idea of how much you may have to pay each month for rent, etc. The first thing to do will be opening a bank account to pay that rent every month. There are of course many bank companies here, but the two most commonly used are Mizuho and UFJ because they have ATMs available everywhere. When we signed up we needed it to be done without worrying about communication problems, so we went for a bank with an international section. You need to take your passport with you. Transferring money through international transfer can be done, but is unnecessarily expensive unless you are wiring a huge amount of money. It will usually cost around $20 from your NZ bank and then around $30 from your bank in Japan. The cheapest option is withdrawing from international ATMs either at the post office or at convenience stores that accept your card (Seven Eleven usually), and depositing the money into your Japanese bank.

Buying Food:
As I live in an on-campus dormitory with breakfast and dinner served, I don’t have to worry about buying food, but I still go around checking the prices of simple things like rice, bread, vegetables and fruit. Unfortunately fruit is the most expensive thing on that list. In some places four apples are $5, compared to a $5 bag of 20 in NZ. However, there are a variety of stores and inexpensive places to eat, usually in the area immediately around the universities. An average spent on food for a month I have heard from friends living in apartments or dormitories without the dinner option is $300 a month.

The green building is the off-campus dormitory I live in.

Transportation:
Transportation in Tokyo consists of trains and buses. Using the trains is the most effective and cheapest way to get anywhere in Tokyo, whereas the buses are more expensive and can get stuck in traffic. The best thing is to find a timetable of the train system and buses around where you live and your school, because you may have to depend on these to get to class every day. Depending on how far you live from your university it can cost around $160 a month. Another cheaper and better option if you do not live too far from your university is using a bicycle. Immediately after we moved into our dormitory, we realized it is far cheaper to buy a bicycle that only took 20 minutes to ride to school, compared to the train and bus that took 45 minutes and were usually crowded. Using a bicycle in Japan is far more common than in New Zealand, so don’t be surprised if you see businessmen and women riding their almost run-down bikes to work. The cheapest bicycles are ones sold by graduating students. If you don’t manage to befriend one, there are stores that sell bicycles for as low as $50 (at either used bicycle stores or a store named Don Quixote).

Tips for future exchange students
The Denshi-jisho or Electronic Dictionary: Without a doubt my most valuable purchase has been an electronic dictionary for my Japanese classes. Because of the pace of the Japanese classes I take, my electronic dictionary became my best friend, especially when having to suddenly answer questions with vocabulary I’ve never seen before. Prices range depending on the model and features of the dictionary, and the cheapest can be bought over the internet. I bought mine for $300 in Akihabara, the electronic mecca of Tokyo where most electronics can be found at low prices. The upside to buying the dictionary was the pad and pen used for writing down kanji I do not know the readings of, but the downside is it has features like calculating whether you can take care of your household, which is obviously not much use to me.

With my friends from all over the world, China, USA,
Trinidad having fun at a Christmas party in Kichijoji.

The Bare Necessities
One of the very first things to do is apply for a Foreign Residence Registration Card and Health Insurance. You need to carry around your passport for the first month during this process. The universities should help out with the procedures to obtain both. Basically, you should find out where the nearest Ward Office or City Office is, because that is where you register for the card and insurance.

Bring A LOT of deodorant because you will not find the kind we are used to. Ideally, bring enough to last the whole year. The ones available in Japan do not do anything and even cause your clothes to discolour. Also shampoo and conditioners are made differently here than in New Zealand, they are more oily and thick, so if this may bother you bringing shampoo and conditioner is a good idea. Shampoo and conditioners are roughly the same price and you can buy refills for a lot less.

Expect to buy pots, utensils and even appliances like rice cookers. If you look around you can get these things cheap, a good place is the 100 yen store. The least you may spend on these is $100.

Summary
Basically have fun, take seriously that you are studying but also remember you are here to experience the culture so don’t be afraid to take up every opportunity to learn the culture and language even outside the classroom. The best advice I can give is it takes experience, so even after you have read all the information you could before leaving for Japan be open to new and unexpected experiences that will arise, expect the unexpected and maintain a sense of humour and your time through Japan will run smoothly.

My time spent here would not have been as fulfilling without the people who have helped me get here, thank you to my sensei Ken McNeil and Nishimura-sensei, and to Jo Ashdown for helping me with my application process, and the Sasakawa Fellowship Fund for Japanese Language Education for accepting me for this opportunity.

Merita Wi-Kaitaia