The month of March was by far the fastest month I had ever experienced...its the last weekend now.
Earlier in the month, I received an email from the Intl. Student Center of University of Tsukuba giving me instructions on how to reach Tsukuba from Narita Airport.This caught me a little offguard as I was expecting someone from the University to meet me in Narita. (This was the normal pratice for previous MEXT scholarship students). However, browsing through Narita Intl. Airport's website, I saw that it had quite comphrensive information: its possible to find out, in advance, the terminal one will be arriving at, flight information on the site is updated every 10 mins and detailed floor layouts of the two Terminals are also provided. I also came across other great sites that gave useful tips, such as this one.
I am to catch the 6.50pm Express Bus from Bus Stop No. 10 of Terminal 2 (Air Pacific flights use this terminal) after buying the ticket from the 1st floor (arrival lobby). So, going to Tsukuba from Narita by oneself is not too great a deal. The only tricky part is that my flight will land at 5pm and I have a little less than 2 hours to clear through immigration and customs (which involves fingerprinting, photographing followed by an interview), buy the express bus ticket, make a call to the Intl. Student Center to inform them I'm on my way and then board the 6.50pm bus bound for Tsukuba.....so I hope I have enough time.If not, I'll have to spend the night in some hotel around Narita and then proceed to Tsukuba the next day as no one will receive me in Tsukuba Station if I board a bus after the 6.50pm one.
As I still had some space left after packing my luggage, I thought of taking some fijian souvenirs with me to Japan. They might come handy if I visited Japanese homes. I took a friend along to Jack's Handicraft and got a couple of handycraft items.I also emailed Prof. Yuta to let him know about my arrival and he told me that I would allocated a desk in the Roboken Lab although I have been initially be enrolled into the intensive Japanese language program.
On Monday 17th March, we were invited to a dinner hosted by the Japanese Embassy at the Golden Palace Restaurant in Victoria Parade, Suva. Here, I got to meet some current MEXT scholarship students who were in Fiji for a break: Ronit Prakash (who coincidentally is an undergrad student at the University of Tsukuba), his girlfriend Monica (a Polish student studying in Japan) and Dipal. As Ronit is also a gakusei at the same university and Faculty as I'll be going to, he told me that he'd help me out once I reached Tsukuba.
From the 18th to the 20th, and on the 25th, Dilpreet Kaur (the other recipient of the MEXT scholarship) and I had gone through an elementary Japanese language training classes in the afternoons at the Japanese Embassy. Conducted by Leone (a former MEXT student), I found these classes very informative as Leone shared with us his experiences of his stay in Japan.
I also took time out to visit Prof. Godfrey Onwubolu, who was my MSc supervisor, at U.S.P. He had worked with Prof. Yuta in his robotics lab in 2003 so I thought of talking to him to get a few hints about studying in Japan. I also contacted Sunil Lal, a former lecturer of mine, who is currently studying for his PhD at the University of the Ryukyus to get a rough idea of what it would be like studying for a PhD in Japan.
Finally, on Friday 28th March, we were invited to morning tea with the Japanese Ambassador, His Excellency Ambassador Namekawa where he formally presented us with our tickets and visas to Japan in front of the media and some selected guests. Later in the evening, we were invited to dinner at the Ambassador's residence in Princess Road, Tamavua. As this was the 25th Anniversary of Fiji Monbusho Alumni (the Japanese Govt has been sending students to Japan for 25 years now), many former students were at the dinner. Amongst others whose names I didn't get (sorry!) , I met Subash Appana, a management lecturer AT U.S.P who twice went to study in Japan and Savita Singh, a lecturer at the Fiji School of Medicine (FSM), who I learnt was in Japan for 7 years. I also had my first Japanese meal here. Let me see if i remember the dishes that were served....chicken, egg cakes, Japanese noodles, prawns, squid, eels, tuna and various other seafood. I wasn't feeling too adventourous so I decided to spare the eels. As for the squid, I tasted it but decided that wasn't for me either. At dinner, I found myself at a table with Mrs Namekawa, the most friendlist of ladies and Ambassdor Namekawa himself came to Dilpreet and I several times to see that we were okay. Here is a picture of Dilpreet and I that Kanata-san (Embassy staff) took of us.
Meanwhile there are 4 more days left to go to before I leave Fiji...
Earlier in the month, I received an email from the Intl. Student Center of University of Tsukuba giving me instructions on how to reach Tsukuba from Narita Airport.This caught me a little offguard as I was expecting someone from the University to meet me in Narita. (This was the normal pratice for previous MEXT scholarship students). However, browsing through Narita Intl. Airport's website, I saw that it had quite comphrensive information: its possible to find out, in advance, the terminal one will be arriving at, flight information on the site is updated every 10 mins and detailed floor layouts of the two Terminals are also provided. I also came across other great sites that gave useful tips, such as this one.
I am to catch the 6.50pm Express Bus from Bus Stop No. 10 of Terminal 2 (Air Pacific flights use this terminal) after buying the ticket from the 1st floor (arrival lobby). So, going to Tsukuba from Narita by oneself is not too great a deal. The only tricky part is that my flight will land at 5pm and I have a little less than 2 hours to clear through immigration and customs (which involves fingerprinting, photographing followed by an interview), buy the express bus ticket, make a call to the Intl. Student Center to inform them I'm on my way and then board the 6.50pm bus bound for Tsukuba.....so I hope I have enough time.If not, I'll have to spend the night in some hotel around Narita and then proceed to Tsukuba the next day as no one will receive me in Tsukuba Station if I board a bus after the 6.50pm one.
As I still had some space left after packing my luggage, I thought of taking some fijian souvenirs with me to Japan. They might come handy if I visited Japanese homes. I took a friend along to Jack's Handicraft and got a couple of handycraft items.I also emailed Prof. Yuta to let him know about my arrival and he told me that I would allocated a desk in the Roboken Lab although I have been initially be enrolled into the intensive Japanese language program.
On Monday 17th March, we were invited to a dinner hosted by the Japanese Embassy at the Golden Palace Restaurant in Victoria Parade, Suva. Here, I got to meet some current MEXT scholarship students who were in Fiji for a break: Ronit Prakash (who coincidentally is an undergrad student at the University of Tsukuba), his girlfriend Monica (a Polish student studying in Japan) and Dipal. As Ronit is also a gakusei at the same university and Faculty as I'll be going to, he told me that he'd help me out once I reached Tsukuba.
From the 18th to the 20th, and on the 25th, Dilpreet Kaur (the other recipient of the MEXT scholarship) and I had gone through an elementary Japanese language training classes in the afternoons at the Japanese Embassy. Conducted by Leone (a former MEXT student), I found these classes very informative as Leone shared with us his experiences of his stay in Japan.
I also took time out to visit Prof. Godfrey Onwubolu, who was my MSc supervisor, at U.S.P. He had worked with Prof. Yuta in his robotics lab in 2003 so I thought of talking to him to get a few hints about studying in Japan. I also contacted Sunil Lal, a former lecturer of mine, who is currently studying for his PhD at the University of the Ryukyus to get a rough idea of what it would be like studying for a PhD in Japan.
Finally, on Friday 28th March, we were invited to morning tea with the Japanese Ambassador, His Excellency Ambassador Namekawa where he formally presented us with our tickets and visas to Japan in front of the media and some selected guests. Later in the evening, we were invited to dinner at the Ambassador's residence in Princess Road, Tamavua. As this was the 25th Anniversary of Fiji Monbusho Alumni (the Japanese Govt has been sending students to Japan for 25 years now), many former students were at the dinner. Amongst others whose names I didn't get (sorry!) , I met Subash Appana, a management lecturer AT U.S.P who twice went to study in Japan and Savita Singh, a lecturer at the Fiji School of Medicine (FSM), who I learnt was in Japan for 7 years. I also had my first Japanese meal here. Let me see if i remember the dishes that were served....chicken, egg cakes, Japanese noodles, prawns, squid, eels, tuna and various other seafood. I wasn't feeling too adventourous so I decided to spare the eels. As for the squid, I tasted it but decided that wasn't for me either. At dinner, I found myself at a table with Mrs Namekawa, the most friendlist of ladies and Ambassdor Namekawa himself came to Dilpreet and I several times to see that we were okay. Here is a picture of Dilpreet and I that Kanata-san (Embassy staff) took of us.
Meanwhile there are 4 more days left to go to before I leave Fiji...
