Opening the in-box of my Gmail account, I saw the bold letters of a new e-mail and my heart stopped for a moment as I read the subject line, "What's your recipe for the peanut sauce you made?" Breathing a sigh of disappointment and continued stress, I opened it just like the last few hundred.
. . .
While I've been somewhat interested in Japanese as a language and a little as a culture for a few years, picking up some basics like the kana orthography in that time, I only started studying it in June 2006. At the time I was just studying to pass some of my spare time with something I was interested in and enjoyed, not really considering going to Japan. During this time, my interested in it increased considerably, and I figured that it would probably be best to learn in Japan, but that would be unrealistic for me.
One day in February, or perhaps it was in early March, I was meeting with a friend and one of his business acquaintances to see if I could offer him a variety of technical services as I was tiring of my rather bureaucratic, red-tape laden job. At some point he asked what I would be doing if I could do anything and didn't have to worry about money. I quickly replied, "Studying Japanese in Japan", to which he retorted just as quickly with something along the lines of, "Well then what the hell are you doing here?" My response amounted to, "Umm, . . ." at best.
While I haven't ended up doing business with him, I appreciate our meeting since I realized that it was foolish to want something and not pursue it. It was another one of those beliefs you say that you hold, but don't act on ― I'll write on different types of knowledge and belief at a later date.
Immediately thereafter, I started looking for ways that I could study Japanese in Japan. I checked everything from university exchange programmes to the much maligned teaching English. Well, it's tainted in my mind anyway since I know too many people who taught English overseas and never learned the local language and I have read too many stories of English teachers who generally acted without any consideration for the culture they were living in.
As I filtered though my options, the only one that had been captured and remained was a language school in Okazaki, Aichi called The Yamasa Institute (YAMASA言語文化研究所). It appeared focused on provide a good Japanese language education to a culturally and linguistically diverse student population while targeting those with an academic bent. It's not-for-profit status and my experience with a science camp at a Canadian university, again recommended it. While I have no issues with for-profit educational institutions, I believe they are best reserved for those who know them personally.
I collected as much information on the school as I could find and decided that I wanted to study there and chose to pursue it. For long term (visa) students, entry is only possible in October and April, and the application period for April had already closed and I didn't have enough money to stay for a year, so I decided to apply to start in the October term. That would give me a chance to save some money as well.
Since applying, I've been hoping for an acceptance e-mail and admittedly worrying about receiving one that says, "sorry, the Japanese government has rejected your visa application", or something like that. The October term starts on 3 October, so as August was drawing to an end, I was getting a wee bit stressed.
. . .
After dragging myself out of bed for work this morning (Friday, 31 August 2007), and checking my e-mail, it finally came! Both the school and the government said yes. Okay, okay, so the school said yes back at the end of June, but I was still waiting to hear from the government.
Now I'll have to start concretely planning once I stop bouncing off the walls. I'll be off to Japan within the month!