Not too long ago, when someone was going to some place he hadn't been before, you would have a map, and on that map there'd be a big blank spot where you were going and possible the text "here be dragons". Okay, maybe that's a little longer ago.
Nowadays things are slightly easier. Not only did I get a map of Tokyo from the people at the Embassy last Tuesday, which conveniently doesn't actually contain my new home (Tokyo is just too damn big), we also have the power of the Internet.
So I went and created a nice little map that holds some of the important places for me (the pushpins are probably not all at exactly the right place, but they should be close at least. Number 1 is the international house where I'll live, number 2 is the research lab at the University of Tokyo where I'll work. Number 3 is the University's main campus. I'm not sure I'll be there very often; likely I'll have to go there for some administrative stuff (like registration) but after that I'm not sure. It's possible the Japanese courses I will get will be there, but I don't know. Number 4 is the Japan-Netherlands Institute; there's a possibility I'll get a job as a Dutch teacher there. Number 5 is the world headquarters of Aikido, arguably the most important Aikido dojo there is. If my schedule (and my injuries) allows it, I hope to train there. And number 6 is the airport where I'll arrive, which is quite a ways outside Tokyo as you can see. Fortunately I'll get a free taxi from the airport to my dormitory.
On a related note, some of you may be thinking "why isn't he using Google Maps? That's blasphemy!"
It's true that Google Maps has much better satellite/aerial images for many places (for instance Narita airport. But for most of Tokyo, Live Local is on par, and I do like the features of Live Local better. For instance it's not possible to just create a collection of pushpins and share them like I just did with Google Maps.
Also, see if you can spot the baseball fields around the international house. There's quite a few of them!
Today I went to the Japanese Embassy in The Hague again, for the third time. The first time was to enquire for information about the MEXT scholarship, the second time was to apply for it, and now the circle is complete: this time I was a MEXT scholarship grantee.
The one notable difference this time around was the weather: it was terrible. Where the last time I didn't mind having to wait outside for the Embassy to open, I was glad that I didn't have to do that this time. I arrived shortly after eleven and applied for my student visa.
After this I walked to the nearby restaurant Shirasagi (which was terrible since it was pooring and my umbrella was destroyed by the wind). Shirasagi turned out to be a quite fancy restaurant and also a real Japanese restaurant (by that I mean it was run by real Japanese, instead of most Japanese restaurants in the Netherlands which are usually owned by Chinese people).
At 12:30 I was joined by a fellow scholarship grantee and two people from the cultural section of the embassy, whom I already knew from the previous visit (and quite a few telephone conversations over the past few months). We had lunch at the restaurant, while we discussed our upcoming trip to Japan. It was quite informal really, and very informative. I got a whole stack of booklets and maps and other information too. After lunch (which was very good) we went back to the Embassy where I picked up my visa.
So what's April 4th? That's the day when I will go to Japan, which I found out only today (this is since the Embassy was responsible for booking the flight and MEXT will pay for it; I had no say in it, I only knew it would be the first week of April). On the morning of April 4th I will take a flight from Schiphol with Lufthansa, first to Frankfurt and from there to Narita International Airport at Tokyo, where I will be met by someone from JASSO. Then I will go by taxi to my new home for the next two years.
So there you have it. In a mere two weeks, my life will change completely. Am I nervous? Definitely. Would I want to trade this for anything? Definitely not!
As some of you may know last July I have requested the Monbukagakusho (MEXT) scholarship to go to Japan for two years, to do research at Kitsuregawa Lab at Tokyo University. As I wrote earlier, I had already passed the preliminary selection in August last year, and had been accepted into Tokyo University shortly after. The only thing I was still waiting for was the final approval from the Japanese government that I would get the scholarship.
That approval has not yet officially arrived, however a recent e-mail from Tokyo University implied that they believed I had been accepted, which prompted me to call the Japanese Embassy, who called MEXT in Japan, and told me that it was true: I've got the scholarship!
The paperwork isn't done yet, which is why neither me nor the Embassy had been informed yet, but it is official. Next April I will fly to Tokyo, Japan, where I will stay for two years. I can hardly believe that it is really happening, but it is!
You will believe I'm more than a little elated about this! Finally I have certainty after months of waiting!
Because the paperwork isn't finished, I don't have all the details yet. For instance, although I know I'll be leaving in the first week of April, I don't yet know the date or other flight details. I also don't know precisely where in Tokyo I will live, although it's likely I will end up in an international house (special housing for international students), one of which is on the same campus as Kitsuregawa Lab, so that would be very convenient.
Of course, this blog is the place where I will keep all those who are interested up to date on all this. In fact, the possibility that I would be going to Japan was one of the main reasons why I started a blog in the first place.
Now however comes the really hard part. I have to focus on my work for the remainder on the day while what I really want to do is stand on the roof and shout it: I'm going to Japan!
Earlier, I wrote about how I'm trying to get the Monbukagasho (MEXT) Scholarship to go to Japan for two years.
As I briefly mentioned in that post, the next step in the process was to get admission to the University of Tokyo. After all, what's the point in getting a research scholarship if I don't have a university to go to?
Yesterday, I received an e-mail from the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Office of International Relations, saying that my application has been processed and I have been accepted! All that's left now, if my understanding is correct, is to get final approval for the scholarship from Monbukagakusho itself in Japan, meaning that I'm actually starting to believe I could really get it.
So, as the title of this post says (for those who can't read Japanese), "boku ha toudai-sei desu", I'm a Tokyo U student!
Last Thursday I had to go to the Japanese Embassy. Why would I go there, you ask? Because I'm trying to get a scholarship. The Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarship for research students to be exact. Monbukagakusho is the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, commonly abbreviated as MEXT. This scholarship is for going to Japan for two years as a research student, and is for pretty much any field, not just computer science. At most three scholarships are awarded each year in the Netherlands.
So last Thursday I had to go to the Japanese Embassy for the preliminary selection process. I had to be there at 9:00, so I had to get up at 6:30 - which is really early, for me anyway. I got up, had a quick breakfast, put on my best (and only) suit, and set off for The Hague using public transportation, furiously hoping there wouldn't be any delays, and that it wouldn't rain (since that'd be hell on my suit).
Fortunately, all went exactly as planned, and at 8:45 I arrived at the Embassy, where they told me to wait outside because they weren't open yet. Too bad arriving exactly on time is nearly impossible when using public transportation. I was also first, but soon a few others showed up. In total, there were six applicants, which since there are at most three scholarships meant I had to killoutperform three of them.
At 9:15 sharp we started. First up were exams. Our knowledge of both English and Japanese would be tested in a total of four exams: one English, three Japanese with increasing difficulty. The English exam was easy. The only difficult thing about it was that some of it was really weird English (the most difficult questions were of the type "which of the following four sentences is wrong?" They were all wrong!) but it was still not much of a challenge.
Then came Japanese. Note that it's not actually required to speak Japanese to get this scholarship, so the exams were just to check my current proficiency. The three exams were labelled simply Japanese A, B and C but as far as I gathered they were equivalent of sankyuu, nikyuu and ikkyuu (third, second and first level Japanese, with first being the highest), which are standard Japanese Language Proficiency Tests. The first one went pretty well. The first part was downright easy, although the last text was slightly more difficult. But, I could understand nearly all of it, and didn't have to guess any of the questions.
The second one was a lot more difficult. The number of words and kanji that I didn't know increased drastically, which made answering some of the questions really hard. I think the ratio of knowing to guessing was about 40 to 60. Which may seem bad, but it was along my expectations. After a brief lunch came the third exam, which was extremely difficult. If it really was ikkyuu that's not surprising though. Overall I feel I could have answered this one just as good if they hadn't given me the questions, just the answer sheet. So I guessed pretty much all of it. Again, bad, but as expected. Being thoroughly exhausted by now didn't help either.
Then, the six of us were brought down to the Embassy's library and told to wait until 15:00, and then we'd be called up one by one for an interview which would last 15-20 minutes.
Exactly how they determined the order of interviewing us I didn't know. It wasn't by first name, by last name, by birthdate or any other discernable pattern, so I guess it was random. In any case, I was third to go. I can't recall ever being more nervous in my entire life. The nerves combined with the mental exhaustion from four hours of exams meant that I suddely felt I would have less difficulty competing in the winter olympics than doing this interview. Unfortunately, there weren't any skating rings available, but there was a really big table with a lot of chairs around it, and four people on one side - two from the Embassy, one professor from Leiden (not from the CompSci department of course) who was on the committee, and one from Nuffic (the foundation that coordinates these scholarships in the Netherlands), and me on the other side.
After brief introductions, they started asking questions. You could say the questions fell into two categories: the first bit was about my research proposal, the second about my motivation and my other plans (in Japan and for the future in general). The part about my proposal went really well. They seemed to think my proposal was pretty good (the professor from Leiden called it "enthousiastic") and I could answer their questions without much problems. I do, after all, know what I'm talking about (although the American style of job interviews where you have to have an air of "I'm the best person for this job that exists" doesn't work in Japan, a degree of modesty is better, or so I'm told). The other part went, well, less good. I had anticipated the sort of questions they would ask, and had prepared answers. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember any of them. So I winged it, best as I could. I can't remember half of what I said, it must have made some sense though (see below).
After what felt like 30 seconds but what was more like 20 minutes I went back to the library. I could leave at this point if I wanted, but we had decided we would wait for each other. Finally, around 17:00, all of us had been interviewed, after which we left.
All in all, I was reasonably satisfied. Sure, there's a ton of things I could've said but didn't, but no point in worrying about that now. Whether it would be good enough, I had no idea whatsoever. I didn't know how the rest had done on the interviews, and I didn't know what their criteria would be. In any case, I was exhausted, and spent the evening doing exactly nothing and slept better than I have in a long time.
Although final approval for the scholarship depends on a number of things (such as admission to the University in Japan, in my case Tokyo University) and wouldn't be known until around January, we would be told if we had been tentatively selected the next week. Tentative selection means we passed the interview and exam portion, and would be able to apply for admission and the rest.
Naturally, next week last Thursday is this week, and I just received a call. I made it through! So now comes the real work, getting admission etc. (not to mention, graduating :P ). It's not final (I'm not even sure if we're already narrowed down to three candidates or if that comes later, since we said we'd keep in touch I suppose I'll find out), but it's a big step in the right direction.
So yeah, I'm pretty pleased right now. :)
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