Lukas and Martina in Japan//japan.lukas-prokop.at/blog/2017-04-17T15:12:00+09:00My summer term schedule2017-04-17T15:12:00+09:002017-04-17T15:12:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2017-04-17:blog/my-summer-semester-schedule.html<div id="preamble">
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This table discusses my schedule in summer term 2017/2018. My courses do not differ between the quarters.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Compared to <a href="my-winter-semester-schedule.html">last semester</a>, this semester’s schedule is quite easy. I got accepted for the Intensive Japanese course, which allows me to do a lot of Japanese, a tiny bit Mathematics and lots of Aikidō. Or at least that is the plan. The intensive course is worth pointing out, because it <a href="http://japan.lukas-prokop.at/blog/first-intensive.html">did not work out last semester</a> and therefore I had to find alternatives. Only 10 people are accepted per intensive course per level. But now, the pre-recognition at University of Graz is in progress and I am looking forward to a semester, where I want to:</p></div>
<div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
<li>
<p>
improve my Japanese skills a lot
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
take an Aikidō exam
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
finish my bachelor thesis in Mathematics
</p>
</li>
</ol></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>However, I have to make a sacrifice. It worked out nicely last semester spending one day of the week on sightseeing. However, this semester, I am too busy to continue this effort and I generally terminate this concept. I will focus on spending some time in the park, follow events of my Aikidō club and study hard. As such I will only occassionally go for sightseeing and will postpone most of the actions to next summer.</p></div>
<table class="tableblock frame-topbot grid-all" style="
width:100%;
">
<caption class="title">Table 1. My schedule in summer 2017/2018 as Kobe University exchange student</caption>
<col style="width:6%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"> </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Monday, 月曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Tuesday, 火曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Wednesday, 水曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Thursday, 木曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Friday, 金曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Saturday, 土曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Sunday, 日曜日 </th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>07:20-07:30</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up, stretch</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up, stretch</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up, stretch</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up, stretch</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up, stretch</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Sleeping</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Sleeping</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>07:30-07:40</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Breakfast</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Breakfast</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Breakfast</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Breakfast</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Breakfast</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Sleeping</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Sleeping</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>07:50-08:45</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>08:50-10:20</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Intensive Upper Elementary Japanese</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Intensive Upper Elementary Japanese</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Upper Elementary Japanese Listening</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Intensive Upper Elementary Japanese</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Intensive Upper Elementary Japanese</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>10:40-12:10</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Intensive Upper Elementary Japanese</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Intensive Upper Elementary Japanese</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Upper Elementary Japanese Speaking</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Intensive Upper Elementary Japanese</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Intensive Upper Elementary Japanese</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>12:10-13:20</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Lunch time</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Lunch time</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Lunch time</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Lunch time</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Lunch time</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>13:20-14:50</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Upper Elementary Japanese Writing</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Bachelor thesis seminar</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Upper Elementary Japanese Reading</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Japanese Kanji and Vocabulary B</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>15:10-15:30</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>15:30-16:40</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>17:00-17:40</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>17:40-19:00</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>19:00-19:45</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikidō</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>19:45-20:30</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>20:30-23:59</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Free</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</col></col></col></col></col></col></col></col></table>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I like numbers. So let’s talk about statistics:</p></div>
<div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
<li>
<p>
In the 1st semester, I spent 12 periods in class after dropping 2 periods. This semester, I spend 14 periods in class. One period is exactly 1.5 hours.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
In the 1st semester, I spent 7 periods in classes I consider as language acquisition (58%). I spent 2 periods on Japanese culture (17%). 2 periods on extracurricular topics (17%). 1 period on Mathematics (8%). This semester, I spend 13 periods on language acquisition (93%) and 1 period on Mathematics (7%).
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
So I spent 18 hours a week in class. In average, I was in the Aikidō Dōjō on 3 days a week for about 2.5 hours. That’s 7.5 hours in class. And in average I spent about 4-5 hours per week on sightseeing. That makes 60% university, 25% Aikidō and 15% sightseeing. Now, I spend 21 hours in classes. I am going to spend 4 days a week in the Aikidō Dōjō for about 3 hours each (12 hours per week in total). And there are no plans to do sightseeing regularly. So 64% language acquisition and 36% Aikidō.
</p>
</li>
</ol></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>がんばって!(engl. Let’s go for it! Let’s do this!)</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>※ "At university" means I study at university. I study Kanji, write my bachelor thesis or revise <a href="http://wanikani.com/">WaniKani</a>.<br>
※ "Free" means I study, eat, shower, tidy up my room or organize my life. Sometimes I have <a href="https://appear.in/">video conferences</a>.<br>
※ "Going home" takes me ~40 minutes and most of the time, I visit the supermarket before going home. This takes me further 15 minutes.<br>
※ Lunch time means eating at university (LANSBOX Vege Dining cafeteria), chatting with Martina and going back to studying until the next class begins.<br>
※ My "Intensive Upper Elementary Japanese" class covers grammar, vocabulary and interactive exercises of <a href="https://www.amazon.de/Minna-Nihongo-Kanji-Kana-Hauptlehrbuch-Kanji-kana/dp/4883196461/">みんなの 日本語 book 2</a> and maybe a little bit more, but this is not scheduled yet.<br/></br></br></br></br></p></div>
</div>
</div>
My winter term schedule2016-12-10T19:00:00+09:002016-12-10T19:00:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-12-10:blog/my-winter-semester-schedule.html<div id="preamble">
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This table discusses my schedule in winter term 2016/2017. My courses do not differ between the quarters.</p></div>
<table class="tableblock frame-topbot grid-all" style="
width:100%;
">
<caption class="title">Table 1. My schedule in winter 2016/2017 as Kobe University exchange student</caption>
<col style="width:6%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<col style="width:13%;">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"> </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Monday, 月曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Tuesday, 火曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Wednesday, 水曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Thursday, 木曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Friday, 金曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Saturday, 土曜日 </th>
<th class="tableblock halign-center valign-top">Sunday, 日曜日 </th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>07:20-07:30</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up, stretch</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up, stretch</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up, stretch</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up, stretch</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up, stretch</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Sleeping</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Sleeping</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>07:30-07:50</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Breakfast</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Breakfast</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Breakfast</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Breakfast</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Breakfast</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Sleeping</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Sleeping</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>07:50-08:45</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Get up</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Event day</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>08:50-10:20</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Elementary Japanese Integrated</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Elementary Japanese Integrated</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Jap. Listening & Speaking</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Elementary Japanese Integrated</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Elementary Japanese Integrated</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Event day</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>10:40-12:10</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Speech communication</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Jap. Reading & Writing</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">English Composition ※²</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Studying, commuting</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Event day</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>12:10-13:20</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Lunch time</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Lunch time</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Lunch time</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Lunch time</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Lunch time</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikido</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Event day</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>13:20-14:50</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Japanese Culture</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">A comparative study in Japanese Cultural Industry</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Japanese Kanji and Vocabulary A</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikido</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Event day</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>15:10-16:40</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Bachelor thesis seminar</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikido</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Event day</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>17:00-17:40</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">EU-Japan comparative seminar</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At university</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikido</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Academic Writing ※¹</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikido, Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Event day</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>17:40-18:30</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">EU-Japan comparative seminar</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Kyokushin Karate</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikido</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Academic Writing ※¹</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Event day</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>18:30-19:15</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Aikido</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Event day</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>19:15-21:00</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">optionally Aikido</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tableblock halign-right valign-top"><p class="tableblock"><em>21:00-23:59</em></p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">Going home, at home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
<td class="tableblock halign-center valign-top"><p class="tableblock monospaced">At home</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</col></col></col></col></col></col></col></col></table>
<div class="paragraph"><p>※ "At university" means I study at university. I study Kanji, write my bachelor thesis or revise <a href="http://wanikani.com/">WaniKani</a>. Sometimes I upload photos or blog articles after writing them.<br>
※ "At home" means I study, eat, shower, tidy up my room or organize my life. Sometimes I have <a href="https://appear.in/">video conferences</a>.<br>
※ "Going home" takes me ~40 minutes and most of the time, I visit the supermarket before going home. This takes me further 15 minutes.<br>
※ Aikido lasts 2 or 4 hours on Thursday. Aikido lasts 3 hours on Saturday (beginning at 12:00, 13:00 or 17:00). Kyokushin Karate only lasts 1 hour.<br>
※ Lunch time means eating at university (LANSBOX Vege Dining cafeteria), chatting with Martina and going back to studying until the next class begins.<br>
※ My event days are documented in the <a href="category/event-day.html">event-day category</a>.
※¹ My "Elementary Japanese Integrated" class including grammar, vocabulary and interactive exercises based on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Minna-No-Nihongo-Beginner-2nd/dp/4883196038">みんなの 日本語 </a>.<br>
※¹ As of <a href="this-mid-nov-week.html">19th of November 2016</a>, I do not attend "Academic Writing" anymore. I got informed from the beginning of the semester, that I cannot get a grade. I go home earlier.<br>
※² As of <a href="this-mid-nov-week.html">19th of November 2016</a>, I do not attend "English Composition" anymore as I got informed, that I cannot get a grade.</br></br></br></br></br></br></br></p></div>
</div>
</div>
This mid-November week2016-11-19T21:23:00+09:002016-11-19T21:23:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-11-19:blog/this-mid-nov-week.html<div id="preamble">
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This article discusses the week 14th to 20th of November 2016.</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
I received my Austrian Wahlkarte (absentee ballot) to elect the next Austrian president. I sent it back to Austria 2 days later. To the best of my knowledge, it took a good week to be sent from Austria.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
We went to the municipal office to declare our status as students to the Japan Pension System. We don’t want to pay 16000 Yen per month.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
We bought <a href="buying-a-mobile-phone.html">Japanese mobile phones</a>.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
I trained so much on knees at Aikido, that the top layer of my skin of my knees got ripped off. I burns like hell. I wanted to attend Saturday Aikido practice, but had to skip it.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
On Wednesday, we have been at the International Friendship Day. This is an event organized by Kobe University members. Basically it was a nice party to connect foreign and local people. I chatted with 3 local people and learned about Kyudo, Japanese Archery. Here is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egiXLXwhvzs">one Kyudo example video</a>.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
I got informed that I won’t get a grade for my second English course.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
So I decided not to visit my English classes any more. For the first course, I never got a grade. For the second, I got informed this week. So far I attended all classes. I will not attend them anymore.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Because of Martina’s Volleyball training on Saturday, we shift event day from Saturday to Sunday. Then I can also attend Aikido training sessions on Saturday.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Kanji class gets more and more difficult. 15 Kanji (stroke order, shape, 4 vocabulary, 2-5 readings each) is fine per week. A difficult challenge, but manageable. For next week we have to study 23 Kanji and will have a test for all the previous lessons we did in the past 2 months. So I will be tested on 109 Kanji. I am demotivated and need more time.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
On Friday night, we went Bowling with other exchange students. It was fun. Many Japanese people enjoy Bowling after a day of work.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
We spontaneously tried to visit a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_caf%C3%A9">cat cafe</a> before Bowling. Even though the opening doors said different, it was already closed at 20:30.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
We bought a pan and a cutting board at IKEA on Saturday.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
A small earthquake of magnitude 5.4 struck Wakayama on Saturday. We recognized that the earth shook a little bit. I guess it had magnitude 2 to 3 at our Residence.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
We have been on <a href="https://www.rokkosan.com/art2016/">Rokko meets Art 2016</a> for event day.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
</div>
</div>
Course registration2016-10-29T22:50:00+09:002016-10-29T22:50:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-10-29:blog/course-registration.html<div id="preamble">
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This article discusses the 17th of October 2016 and before. I am a mathematics student (Faculty of Science) at Kobe University.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>A university teaches students by holding courses. Because a university focuses on specialization, students have different <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_(academic)">majors</a> and choose their field of interest. For the university, it is important how many students attend a certain course, so they can allocate resources accordingly. This is the abstract view on course registration. And these processes differ between University (of Technology) Graz and Kobe University.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_university_of_technology_graz">University (of Technology), Graz</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>At University of Technology, the same procedures apply as for "University of Graz". They share the same information system software.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>You get registered as a student at the respective university and followingly get a PIN to register in TUGrazOnline or UniGrazOnline. This information system allows you to check your curriculum/syllabus, search for courses and register for exams. As such the important tasks related to the course is represented in a digital form. At the beginning of the semester, you look the curriculum/syllabus of your studies. Specially you look at your respective semester to determine which courses you are suggested to take. You can check all dates for the course and if you think it fits your schedule, you register. To register for a course, you click on "Course registration", select your studies and confirm it. Then you are done. Be aware that most courses have a specific time frame within course registration is possible. If there are 3 assignments in some practicals, you cannot join right before the third assignment is due. Hence, you should check which courses you want to register and apply for them.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_kobe_university">Kobe University</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>At Kobe University, you are registered at a specific faculty and therefore the faculty is responsible for registering you.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>At the beginning of the semester, you have roughly 2 weeks at university to try out courses; at least on my faculty it was 2 weeks. One week is suggested as soft deadline on the Faculty of Intercultural Studies with a hard deadline after 2 weeks. The 2 weeks help you a lot if you just arrived as exchange student and had only little opportunity to attend classes in the first week. You might be busy with setting up Health insurance, residence registration or alike. Also professor’s might be still absent for a conference and classes might be cancelled for one time. All of this was true for me.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>To the best of my knowledge, <a href="https://beef.center.kobe-u.ac.jp/login/index.php">BEEF</a> is used as an e-learning system to share teacher’s documents with students. <a href="http://www.office.kobe-u.ac.jp/stdnt-kymsys/student/student.html">URIBO-NET</a>, on the other hand, is actually used for course registration. You can register for a selection of courses. At this point in time, I cannot state how many courses you can actually register. First, because the majority of the content is available only in Japanese, I can only read parts of it. You can also see on the website how much content is embedded in images, making it impossible to copy and paste it into a dictionary. Secondly, the search interface (to actually find the courses) is incredible inconvenient. You can compare this with <a href="https://kym-syllabus.ofc.kobe-u.ac.jp/campussy">Syllabus</a>, where searching is very difficult.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Let us make a small test: Assume we want to find the course "Elementary Japanese Listening and Speaking", I am attending this semester.</p></div>
<div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
<li>
<p>
Click "display English" in the <a href="https://kym-syllabus.ofc.kobe-u.ac.jp/campussy">Syllabus</a>.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Click "Search (Keyword etc.)"
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Enter "Elementary Japanese Listening and Speaking" as "Course title"
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
I won’t tell you the Department, instructor or timetable code as you won’t know them by the first time you hear of this course. Leave them blank.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
At the beginning, I was not sure, but now I can confirm that leaving all possible semesters, days and periods is fine. First, I thought I didn’t get any results, because I didn’t tick those 20 checkboxes. Leave them unticked.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Click "Search".
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
"No data found of your condition class. Please change search condition" will appear in red font.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Remove "and", hence enter "Elementary Japanese Listening Speaking" as course title.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
A set of courses such as "Elementary Japanese Listening and Speaking B" will be found.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Recognize that "Elementary Japanese Listening and Speaking" is as close as "Elementary Japanese Listening Speaking" to "Elementary Japanese Listening and Speaking B".
</p>
</li>
</ol></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In the end, I filled out a sheet of paper with all my courses listed per period. I submitted the form on the day of the deadline (Monday, 17th of October 2016) and the office lady was busy the following days to register me for my courses. I need to point out I was already registered for my bachelor thesis course.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
A day of disappointments2016-10-09T12:00:00+09:002016-10-09T12:00:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-10-09:blog/a-day-of-disappointments.html<div id="preamble">
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This article discusses the 7th of October 2016.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>With little sleep, I got up in the morning and we headed to Rokkodai 2nd Campus. I asked at the International Students Center whether I can be accepted for the intensive course in any way and she rejected and pointed to the other available Japanese courses. I accepted this decision and felt misunderstood. I concluded with two points:</p></div>
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
My advisor does not really care about reading what I write in my forms.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
I should have responded with "No, I won’t take the J-CAT test" via email 24 hours ago immediately. This way my advisor might have forwarded the form right away in time to the intensive course administration. I hesitated, because Japanese people don’t like confrontative behaviors (to the best of my knowledge).
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In the morning I attended the regular Japanese class. I was bored because we covered content I learned in February 2016. By the way, Martina got accepted for her intensive course.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>After her intensive course was finished, I remembered that we will meet at 12:30 to meet her tutor and head to Sannomiya. Today is the deadline to register for the National Health insurance system and we need to provide the documents to our Faculty. Our destination was the Chuo ward office. Kobe (because of its size) is distributed into 5 wards. We need to register for Health Insurance in our ward. I showed up at 12:20 where Japanese classes take place and waited for her. I couldn’t find her. Because the location for the meeting was not fixed, I thought we might meet at 12:30 at Rokkodai. Waiting for her, it was already 12:27. So I ran down the hill and arrived at approximately 12:32. At Rokko Station I again could neither find her or her tutor. However, a train just left. I wanted to look for her past the ticket machine, so I bought one and entered the train gates. Again, I couldn’t find her. Trying to act rationally, I thought it would be the best to head to the ward office as fast as possible. Possibly I can catch up.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>At Sannomiya, I left the train. I looked up the Chuo Ward office the day before, but I don’t have mobile data available now. So I knew the approximate location. However, without a floor number or anything, I won’t be able to find it. First I tried to get some temporary connection at Starbucks. I failed (you need to sign in with a password in some way). So I went to the street and asked a person in uniform where to find it. He seemed to recognize "ward office", but didn’t know the location. He guided me to an information center. With my best English and Japanese skills I tried to speak to the ladies at the counter. They didn’t recognize what a "ward" is. So I pointed out that it is a administrative unit and it is specific for Chuo (probably I said "Chou"). After two ladies could not help me out, a third lady immediately recognized what a "ward" is and gave me a map showing "Chuo ward office" on it. The other ladies recognized that I meant "ward" (I really think the two ladies just did not pronounce <em>ward</em> in their life and therefore did not understand it). I headed to the building with the information that it covers several floors.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>First I ended up in the Kobe Library, but soon made my way to the ward office. At my destination, I looked for the floors. Floor 2 said "Foreigner’s information". So I took the elevator, but recognized that on Floor 2, I have been before. Actually it was the place we visited on Monday. An official person was distributing people into lanes, but I could not find "Foreigner’s information". But the map next to the elevator showed the floor descriptions also in English. Floor 7 is dedicated to the National Health insurance system. Do you remember that on Monday we visited floor 2 and 7 as well? I went up there and there were two sets of people: Waiting people or people at the counter. I didn’t want to bother them and if I really need to register now, I won’t be able to discuss terms and conditions in Japanese. I decided that "we might have done it on Monday already" and headed back to Sannomiya. I wanted to describe my problem to the Faculty and with the possible option to extend my deadline. It was roughly 13:45 and I expected the Faculty office to close at 17:00 (hopefully also at this Friday).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I arrived at the office and opened my laptop. Where is Martina? Let’s write her an email and call for help. I received an email half an hour ago from her. Apparently, we registered for the National Health insurance system on Monday. Our tutor did not mention that. We will receive our National Health insurance document(s) by mail. Our tutor did not tell us that. Martina met with him at 12:30 at Rokko Station. I was wrong that classes end at 12:20, they end at 12:10. So she met her tutor and they went to the ward office. They have been there for 50 minutes to eventually find out documents will be sent by mail. Then Martina went home to the Residence to take the documents from the mailbox. Then she got back to university on her own. Luckily, she knows my mail box secret and therefore picked up my documents as well. I closed my laptop, submitted some other documents to the Faculty office and went to the cafeteria. If she arrives that the campus, I will see her.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Indeed, she just arrived as she wanted to attend Japanese class at 15:10. She had all documents with her. We shared our thoughts on that incident and submitted the Health Insurance document at the Faculty. I joined her Japanese Kanji class, which started with a Kanji test (Yay! I knew 0.5 out of ~16 Kanji).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>After class, we wanted to attend "Academic Writing". The course has an English description and takes place at 17:00. Perfect, because it indicates classroom language English and it won’t collide with other courses. Remember that I am writing my bachelor thesis and I hoped for some English practice. Furtherore I needed more hours per week, because without the intensive course I probably have too little hours per week for the Visa. Searching for the lecture hall, we had no experience with Rokkodai 1st Campus (on Thursday I took some photos, but of course wasn’t interested in the structure of the Faculties/Graduate Schools). We looked up the course description, the faculty and you cannot find out where the lecture halls at the faculty are located. So we headed to the building. However, we got lost and found out that at 17:00, club activities often start. We saw people practicing instruments for orchestra and saw Baseball players. We also discovered buildings like the Faculty of Business Administration.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>With approximately 20 minutes delay, we arrived at the right building. We asked some Japanese people where the lecture halls are located and they wanted to know for which course. "Academic Writing" did not tell them anything and a nice man lead us to the Faculty’s office. They are not aware of any courses like "Academic Writing" (only at different sessions; not now). Apparently they got somehow confused that graduates (I said we are "graduates") were looking for an undergraduate course. I was not specifically aware that this course is for undergraduates. Apparently it takes place for 1st year students in "Intercultural studies". When we said we come from the Faculty/Graduate School of Science, it felt like we are aliens. He lead us to the lecture hall and after a small introduction we sat down. It is held by an English professor who pointed out that this course will be too easy for us. He described to the Japanese students what a paragraph consists of. It needs a main topic, an introductory sentence, several arguments and a conclusion.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The class was kind of nice. Japanese people are really struggling with speaking English. They know the vocabulary and grammar, but are just not used to speaking it. The English professor is funny and fluent in Japanese and English. His English accent is wonderful which was my main motivation to stay. Indeed, the speed of the class was very slow. He explained sentence structures and exercises several times with different words, so all Japanese students can follow. I focused on learning his accent. He also made some references to typically Japanese issues and compared it with Europe. In these situations he asked Martina and me for our experiences in Austria. Overall the class was really pleasant and we decided to attend also upcoming lectures.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>However, at the Faculty’s office it was pointed out we won’t get a grade (I don’t know under which assumptions). Is it worth going for an easy class on a Friday evening without getting a grade?</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>When we got home, one Japanese student followed us. He also needed to go to Sannomiya. He was comfortable with speaking English as he spent 2 weeks at Oxford university. He was a gentle, clam, male student and we shared some thoughts on Japan and the university. We also stopped briefly at the International Students Center to take a photo of this wonderful night view at Rokkodai. At Sannomiya, Martina and I dropped by at a coffee shop - before going home - and we got some delicious toast bread.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The evening was okay, but in general: A day of disappointments.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
Registering at university2016-10-05T19:21:00+09:002016-10-05T19:21:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-10-05:blog/registering-at-university.html<div id="preamble">
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This article discusses the 3rd of October 2016.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>On Monday, the first official day at university started. It was a day full of tasks to finish.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>So far, we already know how to go from the Residence to Sannomiya, but now we need to go to the west. Rokko Station is extended by a bus line to Rokkoudai 2nd campus. At <a href="http://www.kobe-u.ac.jp/documents/en/campuslife/campus/Rokkoudai2.pdf">Rokkoudai 2nd campus</a> "our" faculties are located. At Sannomiya we searched for a ticket machine and entered the Hankyu Line again. At Rokko station we left the train and already saw a few international students. We decided to follow them. "50m to the north, the bus stop can be found" was said on the Math department’s homepage. So we followed but at the next intersection we recognized they we going by foot, not by bus. So we continued to follow them until the top and now we understood why Taichi (a Kobe student, we came to know in Austria) says going up the hill is exhaustive. Indeed, the street’s incline is very recognizable and not sweating in the summer will be difficult. However, I considered as a nice fitness walk every morning.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>After about 10 minutes we reached the 2nd campus of Rokkoudai. Martina planned to meet her tutor and her academic advisor Prof. Fukuyama at 10:00 which was when we arrived at the Faculty/Graduate School of Science. We were unsure about whether I was about to enroll as well, but followed her, because in the opposite case I will enroll at 14:00, when I will meet my tutor. Office ladies lead us to Prof. Fukuyama’s room, where we received a folder of documents to go through. It contained our student ID card, a paper to register for courses and a few forms to fill out. We were asked not to fill it out by now and told corresponding deadlines. Martina afterwards also told me she received a key to a room, she can use for academic work. In the following, also her tutor joined. Lukas was eager to answer as many questions as possible.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>We were sent to the International Student Center, because we discussed issues related to scholarships. So we met Mrs. Narui, which we already shared many email conversations with when planning our trip to Japan. Somehow it was pointed out that "you are our first exchange students". First I thought about "the first one to register", but it was actually related to the Faculty somehow. So we don’t know whether this means "we are the first exchange students of the Math department of Faculty/Graduate School of Science" or just only this year, but I am sure that very few people register as exchange student at this department. At the residence we recognized that most exchange students study Law, Economics or Business Management. The amount of Japanese students is also recognizably small (I think they prefer other universities).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I need to point out explicitly, that in Japan we are not registered "at the university", but our designated Faculty (bachelor’s degree) or Graduate School (master’s degree).</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>With initial paper work done, we asked Martina’s tutor to take us to the municipal office. The municipal office will certify that we "moved in" and add the address to the residence card. Our tutor read through all the signs and eventually lead us to floor 7. Remember that floor 7 is the 6th floor in Europe. As in Austria, we take a ticket with a number and for your number to be called out. So we waited a few minutes to find out that we need to go to the 2nd floor. At the second floor, we filled out a form with our data and waited for confirmation. In the following, we were sent to the 7th floor and our data was checked again. Then it took some time, but eventually we got our residence card back together with the address printed on the back. Mine was printed with a machine whereas Martina’s residence card was extended with handwritten characters.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>I scheduled to do this at a different day during the week, but getting rid of this was great. However, we are now late in a sense that it was 13:15 and I will meet my tutor at 14:00. I would have preferred some proper Japanese lunch, but we just went to LAWSON conbini (convenience store) to grab some snacks. But this ensured we were ready when my tutor arrived by train. Basically he joined to finish our next mission this day: Register for a bank account.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Very close to Rokko Station, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is located with an office as part of their "Rokko branch". It is recommended by university, because other banks require further proofs of identity foreigners can often not provide. We went to the office and filled out paper work again. Our tutors worked as a translator, though I need to admit many questions were left unanswered after opening the account. However, we got an accounting book and a cash card. With the numbers incompatible to Europe’s IBAN system, I got curious whether money transfer will work out.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Together we got back to Rokkoudai, our university. This time we got a taxi, because sharing a taxi for 4 people makes 10 Yen less per person than going by train. At this point in time, it was raining heavily.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>At university, our teams split up and my tutor showed me his working place. He has a place at the laboratory for his academic work. For the first time, I met my academic advisor I wrote emails with. In April 2016 I asked him whether I can do a bachelor thesis with him using a software project his department maintains. He gave me two topics to chose from (Machine Learning and algebraic properties of Ideals) where I chose the first one in May. In September we agreed, I will give a presentation tomorrow on the introductory chapter of Bishop’s book on Machine Learning (especially the Curve Fitting Problem). So at this point in time, he checked whether everything is fine for the presentation tomorrow and my tutor continued to show me around. He showed me the library, the department’s office and finally I asked for the cafeteria. I learned that unlike the US, people don’t study at the library, but get designated work places at the department. My tutor asked my advisor (he is also working with) where my place will be. I share my workplace with other bachelor-level students in a study room. In the meanwhile, Martina waited for her advisor, but was eventually introduced to her work colleagues.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Finally, we were done for now at Rokkoudai and went down the hill again to Rokko Station. We took the train back to our residence and grabbed some sweets at the conbini.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>At night, I tried out an electric Japanese toilet for the first time. Granted, it is comfortable. Because of its many differences to European toilets, I will discuss them thoroughly in a separate weblog.
I prepared for my presentation tomorrow and recognized that we forgot to look up the temporary WiFi password at university. Because there was much work left for the presentation and I was required to decide upon my courses for this semester, I did not sleep this night at all.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
Visiting Minatojima2016-10-02T16:00:00+09:002016-10-02T16:00:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-10-02:blog/visiting-minatojima.html<div id="preamble">
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This article discusses the 30th of September 2016.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Minatojima is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Island">Port Island</a>, we live at. It seems like a mixture of a residential and industrial area. Many large buildings with either a company name on it (industry) or individual units on each floor (residential). The train helps people to get to the mainland and there is the problem we experience now: there are no restaurants and lively areas on the island.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Without a breakfast at 14:00, we were hungry and Lukas had no bedding equipment at all (no sheets, no blanket, only a small pillow). Time to go shopping! Talking to a Finnish resident (who confirmed that staying 1 year abroad is much better than 6 months), we asked for restaurant recommendations. He hesitated to mention anything specific and recommended restaurants at the mainland. But we just arrived from the mainland and wanted to discover Minatojima. Martina and I started going along in a random direction.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Seven Eleven is one popular convenience store for foreigners, because the ATM machines work with foreign ATM cards. We looked at it, but wanted to find a restaurant. We gave up after some more 10 minutes. We recognized that we won’t find a restaurant at this island. Going back a similar way, we came across Seven Eleven again and grabbed some snacks (2 rise balls and a bread with corn) with water. Whereas I consumed my items immediately, Martina was required to warm up her rice ball first. We also reached IKEA. Yes, the swedish furniture company is also popular in Japan. We saw the IKEA store already from the train. We wanted to get some bedding equipment and decided to do it immediately. As it turns out we did not know the measurements of our bed and Lukas hesitated to estimate them (which was the right decision by the way). But we got a general idea what IKEA offers. I jokingly said "Well, IKEA offers something to eat in Austria" and, yes, in Japan too. We considered it for dinner. We headed back to the Residence and put our remaining items into the fridge.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>At 16:00 one of three orientations per day for arriving students take place. We joined at 16:00; together with 2 girls and the German we met at the train station. We got information on how to write our address, open the post box, do the laundry and how to handle garbage. We also got an idea of the important rooms in the building. Yes, the water is clean and drinkable, though I need to point out that you can smell and taste chlorine, which I am not used to as Austrian. No, visitors are not allowed though if we ask beforehand he might make an exception.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>It was the first time, I said Hi online, because accidently my eduroam configuration from Austria works in Japan as well. We will receive our own WiFi password on Monday.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
From Graz to Istanbul2016-09-30T02:30:00+09:002016-09-30T02:30:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-09-30:blog/graz-to-istanbul.html<div id="preamble">
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This article discusses the 29th of September 2016.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>To save a good price, we booked the flight in mid June 2016. To reduce issues, if some flights delay, it is recommendable to stick to one airline (thanks to Ali for this hint!). We discussed a choice between China Air and Turkish Airlines as airline. China Air provides flights from Vienna to Osaka (I don’t remember intermediate stops) whereas Turkish Airlines provides Graz to Osaka flights (with intermediate stop Istanbul). We chose in favor of the latter, because adding the costs of going to Vienna would reduce the price difference of those two Airlines. With the hint that the 30th of September 2016 would be most likely the first day to move into our dorm, we booked a flight from 28th of September (11:30, Austrian timezone) to 29th of September (18:40, Japanese timezone). In August Kobe University confirmed that we will get a room at the Kobe University International Residence beginning with 30th of September. So for one night, it was necessary to rest in a hostel.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>To avoid overlapping the events of moving out of our flats and travelling to Japan, we decided to move to our parents during summer. We spent the last week before our flight together packing and planning final steps.
In the final night, Martina was busy with some oganizing and packing while I tried to install <a href="http://opengapps.org/">GApps</a> with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyanogenMod">CyanogenMod</a> on my Samsung Galaxy S2. Unforunately, this did not work out. I wanted this to work, so I can next install <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_(application)">LINE</a> which is a popular messenger app in Japan. As you can guess, we did not get much sleep that night.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In the morning, we met my parents and Martina’s parents as well as Martina’s sister at the airport. After drinking some beverages, we waved goodbye to all of them and left through the security check. After some short wainting, we entered <a href="https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=Airbus+a320-200+turkish+airlines&source=lnms&tbm=isch">an A320-200 by Turkish Airlines</a> where we got some lunch during our flight. Unexpectedly, only one third of the seats were taken.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Leaving the plane at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_Atat%C3%BCrk_Airport">Istanbul Atatürk Airport</a>, we joined a large multicultural crowd of people gathering at the gates of the ground floor. It was great to see so many people from all continents <span class="footnote"><br>[Okay, I am not sure about Antarctica]<br/></br></span>. When we walked around, Martina remembered some places at the airport, she has been at in the past. We noticed that on the ground floor were only metal seats, but power supply was available for free. On the other hand, the 1st floor provided more comfortable seats, but power supplies were only provided commercially. It was also interesting to see how popular power supplies for mobile devices are these days. The ground floor was crowded and lively, while some people used the seats on the quiet waiting areas on the first floor to rest.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>We waited 11 hours at the airport for our next flight. I took two naps, Martina was working on her laptop or reading. I think this was the most boring part of our journey. Lacking desks, it was not really possible to work productively. So we slept, we discussed, we observed, we walked and kept ourselves busy. We were bound to the area after security checks, so I also could not check out whether any damages from the suicide bombings of 28th of June 2016 are left. Martina and I checked out duty-free shops. I took some photos of nice little bowls and Martina bought some sweets. We were also able to try some Turkish sweets for free. Eventually, we continued our stroll because, for my part, I did not want to increase my luggage weight.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In the evening few people were left at the gates, but people gathered again close to midnight. That’s when my second nap got interrupted due to the noise. At about the same time, Gate 306 was announced for our flight to Osaka. Finally, we joined a community of Japanese-speaking people, many of them using <a href="https://www.tofugu.com/japan/surgical-masks-in-japan/">surgical masks</a>, in the plane.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>All in all, our choice of Turkish Airlines resulted in a very nice travel experience.</p></div>
</div>
</div>