Japanese at Sheffield

I was at the open day yesterday too and really enjoyed it (minus burning my mouth on the tea). The Q&A with the students was awesome too, so thanks Jason and the others (I picked apart your last.fm too, kudos for Explosions in the Sky, but listen to more MONO ..)

What was the show you said you were going to in Manchester? I only know of two things happening, Melt Banana and De De Mouse, both are really good and MB are one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Alright there folks,

Jason here. Turns out my username on this is Jaybones not momquab haha. I'm a bit scared by people finding me on Last.fm now though and wanting to pick through my music collection!

How'd you all find the Open day anyway? Hope it was helpful! Free cookies = win.

I want to get an Osaka dialect

Just thought I'd register and say 'hi'.

I was at the open day yesterday too and really enjoyed it (minus burning my mouth on the tea). The Q&A with the students was awesome too, so thanks Jason and the others (I picked apart your last.fm too, kudos for Explosions in the Sky, but listen to more MONO ..)

What was the show you said you were going to in Manchester? I only know of two things happening, Melt Banana and De De Mouse, both are really good and MB are one of the best shows I've ever seen.

To be fair though Jason, you can end up going to somewhere a bit more provincial and end up speaking no Japanese and have everything done for you. So far, my university in Japan next year has a whopping 8 international students is stuck in a giant posh residential area (not exactly the type of place gaijin would hang out.) Seems so far that my current process has been doing everything in Japanese (only application in the entire year that is entirely in Japanese. Its very much being thrown in the deep end.

You have every right to be worried about it - moving to a different country for a year is no small thing! However I'm glad we managed to help you with some of your worries!

As for Tokyo/Non-tokyo, the differences are very similar to London/Outside of london for England. If you're going to be living in or around Tokyo then the price of things will natually be a little higher than it would be in other parts of Japan. Not only that, as it is a collection of huge cities you are generally forced to take the train everywhere you go and that can be very time consuming and again costs money. At the end of the day every situtation is different as some people lived on campus but their university is in tokyo so they didn't have to travel at all or some people lived half an hour/an hour outside of it and took a bit of time getting there and back each day.

Pros;

- Huge city, always stuff to do, never get bored
- More opportunities for different types of work, considerably higher pay
- Easier to find random stuff from home (imported goods etc.)
- Easier to find fellow gaijin (sounds stupid, but sometimes you do need to find fellow british people as well.)
- Suica and o-saifu keitai in virtually any store, supermarket, konbini or station. Far more convenience...
- Easier to find english speaking staff when you have to start signing up the horrendous paper work or look for a good internet provider.
- easier to find completely random things for all tastes.
- mostly get to live in an apartment, throws you into tokyo lifestyle a bit more.
- If you ever wanna work there (and most likely you will) you will be better prepared than most people.
- no horrendous provincial dialects (although the taxi drivers do speak crazy.)
- easy to travel to and from other areas of japan and the rest of asia.

Cons;

- Busy, crowded
- Expensive. (stay clear of the bars unless you want to drink £7 pints.)
- Huge commutes (especially for unis located in central Tokyo.)
- Lot more gaijin (lot more gaijin who speak no Japanese anyway. Especially the ones you have to help out on a regular f---ng basis.)
- aspects of living in an apartment on your own. (although there are other students nearby as well.)

Meh...

I think I might have to go to that too. I just looked throught your last.fm and I'm pretty envious the you're going to the My Bloody Valentine ATP as well as about a million others (drops a hint, if you're looking for another person in the chalet).

I'm looking through your past events and it's cool how many we've both been to, as well as others I am kicking myself for missing (Fantomas, Sonic Youth). I'll add you up.

Were you victim to any of those nasty 'mongen' (curfew) in Kanazawa? Some unis, such as ICU have horror stories (10pm curfew, shared rooms, intensive advanced Japanese. )

On that note, does Tokyo have a good music scene, anyone whose been there? The only thing I've heard about it is that it is super expensive, and possibly not gaijin-friendly, although I may be thinking about strip bars.

information overload guys! hahah
that's been really helpful though

it's interesting that you decided to go out on your own, i think i'm slightly leaning towards going with another person, alone seems daunting! I guess it all depends on whether or not I meet someone i really get on with - if you get the choice of who you go with that is? I can kinda see how going alone would improve your Japanese though

out of question how many people are left in your year?
the average intake of year 1 is 60 or something isnt it..?

ATP is always awesome, already filled my mighty mighty 2 man chalet but definately coax/bribe/trick someone into going. I didn't even know that The Necks and Soil & Pimp Sessions were touring (am now looking to hoard money for these), and I'm hella jealous of your past event of Bjork and Aphex Twin in 2003, that would have been sick!