This week has been all kinds of busy. I went back to Edinburgh on Monday to collect my visa, got lost for a bit trying to find an ATM since they only accept cash, but apart from that it didn't take too long. I got off at haymarket this time, saved me a lot of walking. The lady told me not to remove the certificate of eligibility from my passport/visa, so I folded it inside. The last thing I want is for it to be ripped off, hahaha. The visa is pretty neat, has the whole cherry blossom thing going on. Makes me wonder what other visas look like! I paid £23 since I'm getting a single entry visa, not planning to travel anywhere else (although Korea sounds cool, maybe another time!)
While I was there I stopped by to see one of my lecturers and was told to prepare for the Kyoto humidity and heat. Sounds awful, I don't deal very well with warm weather. Winter definitely sounds like the best season for me. Gonna have to deal with it though! She told me that bug repellent should be cheaper in Japan than over here since it's used frequently over there, so I decided to leave that sort of thing until I'm there.
Since our department also gives us a DSi for doing coursework abroad, I had stopped by to pick up 正しい漢字かきとりくん, a game on writing and reading kanji, and 逆転裁判：蘇る逆転, which is known as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney over here (Awesome game, one of the main reasons I bought a DS!) I feel like I'm cheating since I've already played the english version of this game a lot and know the plot, but I imagine it'll still be useful to play it in Japanese. Excited at the thought of buying one of the new Pokemon games too! Have to be careful how much money I spend on videogames in Japan, I fear for my bank balance. I went to the library for a bit to photocopy my passport just in case I lost it or I needed a copy. I still have to get extra passport photos/etc just in case I need them for any cards while I am abroad, should get around to that soon.
I got a new laptop to take with me since my old one has a faulty battery and can't operate without the charger, so I've been transferring my files over to it and configuring it the way I like. It's a Lenovo Z580 with a 3rd gen. i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, so it's quite speedy. Much better than my old Lenovo (U350), but I used it mainly for taking notes in lectures and wasting time online in between classes so I wasn't really looking for anything as powerful as the Z580. Seems like a good machine so far, just slightly worried about its wireless capabilities. I've read a few reviews online where it has trouble maintaining a connection, and it does seem at times like its signal strength is weaker than my U350's. Changing the balanced power mode option to maximise the performance of the network card has strengthened it a bit though, just hoping it stays that way.
Also ordered in travel adapters, travel towels, guides, etc. Lonely Planet's guide to Kyoto (yes I know, what a tourist) seems quite useful, though it doesn't cover much on Kita-ku/the general area Ritsumeikan is in. I am still planning to see the rest of the city though, so it gives me a good starting point. Kyoto has a lot more shopping centres than I expected, and a lot of restaurants and interesting places to see. I think I'll be quite preoccupied!
Only four days until my flight, so the next update will probably come from Japan! Hopefully everything goes well and I can give a good detail of my flight and getting to my accommodation. じゃ、またね！
Thursday, 6 September 2012
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