How I went to Japan for a month!

So, it all started when I came to know about one of my seniors from grad school. He had gone to Europe for 2 weeks(I think), on his way to India after graduation. He had a job offer in the US and would be coming back to work here. This was totally new information for me then. I have heard of Indian students going to India after graduation, usually only if they already had a job offer back in the US. But haven't heard of anyone going to a foreign country.(A little background for any non-Indian readers out there. Usually students who were in the US for their Master's would go to India after graduation, only if they had a job offer so that they can come back and work here.This is if you want to come back to the US of course. Otherwise, without a job offer in hand and after graduation, you would be out of status and hence can't come to the US to work here.) 

Until then I wasn't even sure if I gonna go home to India after graduation. I had no job and I really wanted to work here in the US for a while before I went back to India for good. So I never even thought of going to some other country after graduation . So going to Japan was just only a dream. You see, all the fascination with Japan and Japanese only started in my first year of Undergrad when I started to watch anime. I always thought I would go there sometime, but was never sure when. But with the new info, it actually became a possibility.I could go to Japan soon if I managed to get a job before graduation. I think I was in the fourth semester of my Master's or was just finished with it then. I had one more semester before I graduated. I was motivated more than ever to find a job before I graduated. 

If I did in fact managed to get a job and go to Japan, I wanted to spend at least a month there. I knew I was not going to get spend so much time in any foreign country once I start working. Any vacation I would get would be spent on going to India and visiting family. So kinda this was my only chance. But if I had to spend a month there and were to just travel all the time, I wasn't sure I could do it. I've never traveled alone anywhere and traveling for a month by myself in a country where I can't even speak the language did not seem fun. I've always wanted to learn foreign languages and wanted to learn Japanese ever since I started watching anime. So I decided to find a language school in Japan and learn Japanese for a month there. This way I did not have to worry about what to do for a month there and also, even if for a very short period, I would get the taste of actually living in Japan. So with that decided, I looked for Japanese language schools and found this one school called Yamasa, in Okazaki, pop up more than any other school in my searches. I went on their site and read more about the various programs they offered and the fees for each of those. This was all before I even got any job interview. 

In my last semester, thanks to one of my seniors who gave me a referral, I managed to get an interview from Microsoft at the career fair at my university. Luckily I got selected for the full interview at Microsoft campus in the last week of Oct 2010 and later even got a job offer from them. I got a job! Now it was time to plan and act to make visiting Japan a reality. I had to find a program & get admitted into Yamasa, book tickets to India and decide the dates for Japan, get visa for Japan, find a way to fund all this. I also had to make sure that I did not fail in the research project I had for the semester. It was going to be a busy time until I graduated.

I think the first thing I did was to try and decide which program to go for at Yamasa. They had all kinds of programs, some with few hours of classes per week while others were really intense with around 25 hrs per week. I wanted to learn as much Japanese as I could when I was there, so I looked for the intensive options. I started emailing the school with various questions I had about each of the programs I was interested in. After a string of around 20 emails, I decided on a program with 23 hrs of classes per week. I would have classes from 9am to 3pm Mon-Thurs and 9am to noon on Fridays. I had weekends to travel. The next thing was to figure out the dates. Also, I had to first convince my parents to let me do this. I had not been home in 2 years and I was wondering how my parents would react when I tell them I wanted to spend a month in Japan. I forgot to mention that I had talked to the recruiter at Microsoft and had asked for a joining date in the first week of March. I would be done around mid-December with my research project and that left me with 2 and half months before I had to come back to the US. I looked up the visa procedure and decided that it was best for me to apply for one in India. I needed the letter of acceptance from the school and also had to prepare other documents for the Japanese visa and first needed to somehow get the  money for all this. I needed time and also I could not wait go home after haven't been there for 2 years. So applying for a visa in India seemed best to me. 

When I was about to talk to my parents about the trip, I was sure that I would need to do a lot of convincing. I called them up and told them about the plan - one month in Japan and the rest in India. I was very pleasantly surprised how easily they agreed to it. In fact, dad said he saw that coming with all my previous talks about how interested I was in Japanese. My mom had one objection though, she was afraid that Japan was not very safe with all the earthquakes they have. I laughed it off and said I did not care and was for sure going to Japan now(The 2011 tsunami happened 20 days after I came back from Japan btw). I asked dad if he could fund my trip but later quickly said that I would fund it somehow by myself. I had taken an extra semester to graduate from my Master's(5 instead of 4), which meant that most of my friends had already graduated and were working. I asked four of my friends for money to do this. I think I in fact coaxed/forced 2 of my friends to lend me some money. One of these friends, when drunk had told me to ask him for any help when needed and few weeks later I rang him up asking for money. As nice as he was, he lent me some good amount for the trip(you know who you are :P). So with the money problem sorted out I really had to get to the actual dates.

I was going to be done with my project around mid-December but the convocation was a week and a half later. I was so split between staying for my convocation and going back to India right after my project was done. You see, I missed my UG convocation and really wanted to attend it this time at least. But in the end, I decided to go home as soon as possible and spend the extra week there. The school had already shipped the acceptance letter to my US address and I had to call them up and get another copy shipped to India. My plan was to surprise my parents by going home 2 weeks earlier than the date I told them I would be home. I also wanted to apply for the visa asap, so thought I would book a flight to Chennai, apply for the visa there and then go home. But once I was in Chennai and talked to a travel agent there I quickly realized I was missing some docs and so I decided to head back the same night to Nandyal, where my parents lived. 

Traveling from Chennai to Nandyal in an overnight bus with 2 heavy suitcases and a carry on and a laptop bag was no fun. Especially when I had to make 3 trips on the stairs to second floor(or the 3rd floor if you are from the US) without making any noise so as to not ruin the surprise. I succeeded and my parents were definitely very surprised and happy to see me and I was so happy to be home after 2 years as well. I gave the docs I had with me to the agent and sent the rest once I was home in Nandyal, so that he could apply for a visa on my behalf. Later that week, I got a call from him saying that the consulate had declined to take my application. They told him that I was supposed to apply for one from the US. I really did not understand why and had called the consulate. Looking at the offer letter copy I included in the application, they thought that I already was working in the US. I had to explain to them that I had just graduated and was in India now and would only start working in March. After clearing this up, they were ready to take my application. To make things interesting again, something happened again. This time they wanted my original acceptance letter from Yamasa instead of a copy. It was quicker for me to just travel in person to Chennai than sending it through any courier service and so I did just that. With all of this done, my application was completely done and I headed back home and got the visa after a week or so.

While all of this was going on I was searching for a cheap ticket from India to Japan. The cheapest ticket I found was from Thai Airways, from Hyd to Nagoya with almost a one day layover in Bangkok. I had the luxury of time then and so booked that flight and also was happy that I would get to see a new country. Oh, I also forgot to mention about the accommodation arrangement. The school provides a home-stay option where you can stay with a Japanese family. I was very tempted to do this, but this required me to pay the fee few weeks in advance and I did not have the money in hand to do that then. Also, with not eating beef and not eating any meat in 2 days of the week and kinda unknown travel schedule for the weekends, I decided it was best for me to stay in the apartments that the school offered and booked one. I also found from the school, how to get to  Okazaki from Nagoya.

 So the day of departure finally came and I boarded the flight from Hyd to Bangkok. Once in Bangkok, I booked a room in a hotel kinda close to the airport. I later booked a guided tour for a day with a travel agency and explored Bangkok. That was a little adventure in it's own right(will write about it sometime). But in the night again, I was back at the airport to catch my flight to Nagoya. I clearly remember the wait near the gate to board the flight. I was finally going to Japan. It never felt so real than it had then. I was super nervous and excited at the same time. I could not contain myself and even without knowing, I had a stupid smile,from ear to ear, plastered on my face when I finally boarded the flight!  


P.S: I had so much fun there in Japan.I was like a kid in Disneyland for a month. I met so many cool people and made some awesome friends and it was this trip that kinda ignited the passion for travel. Here are a few more pics for those who have patiently read through this, or just scrolled down to see if I posted anymore pics. :) 

My loot from Japan