Visa's and stuff

So I'm still waiting on my information packet from Oita University. Contained within that packet is something called my "Certificate of Eligibility". This piece of paper is essentially my permission from the Japanese government to enter the country and study for a year. I have been planning to enter Japan two weeks or so early in order to visit some people before the term starts. But until I get that certificate I won't know when I'm allowed to enter. I just got off the phone with the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco, and the woman I talked to said that I should expect it this month. So until I get that, I can't really progress with my travel plans unfortunately. I've got the visa paperwork all ready to go, I just need that info packet...

On the road again..... Sort of.

So in October of last year I applied to SFSU's Study Abroad program. Just a couple weeks ago I got confirmation from Oita University in Japan that I have been accepted to study there for a year.

So I'm going back to Japan.

Seeing as I'll once again be in the land of the rising sun, I'll be posting here once again and documenting my trip. Granted it probably won't be quite as interesting because I'll be in school. But still, I know people will want to know what I'm up to while I'm gone, and I'm happy to provide. It also provides me with an invaluable record of the memories I make on the trip.

The Japanese semester starts in April, but I'll be heading out in mid march assuming my Visa will allow it.

More details when I get them. I look forward to making these posts once again.

~Daniel

At long last.

Finally got all of my Japan photos uploaded to facebook (I still have more that I got from the other WWOOFers that I haven't sorted through yet). I had to spread it out across 5 new albums (facebook has a 200 photo limit per album) so here are the links. Sorry it took so long, please enjoy. And please feel free to comment here or on the album itself.

Album 1
Album 2
Album 3
Album 4
Album 5

They were uploaded in alphabetical order by picture name because it was easier then trying to sort them all out chronologically. So sorry about that, you'll just have to deal with a little bit of time leaping.

~Daniel

Some delays

Ok, So I'm back on US time and in work mode for the summer, which means getting up early and working Monday-Thursday (Hurray for paychecks!). I spent many hours this weekend going through all of my photos from the trip and selecting the ones to show to people. I trimmed it down to about 10% of all my photos. That being said, it is still 1,006 pictures. (It took a long time, and I didn't even look in the folders that I got from other people. They are all from my camera alone.) So this morning I started the long process of uploading them to photobucket because I didn't feel like creating 8 new facebook albums. (Facebook albums have a 200 photo maximum). Upon my return this evening I find that I have reached my storage limit on photobucket and that only about half of the photos actually got uploaded. You can view what actually made it here on my photobucket album I'll figure out what to do with the rest of them..... some time soon. But probably not during the work week. Until then, enjoy your summer days.

~Daniel

Transfer

I have just started transferring 109GB worth of my japan pictures from my laptop to my external hard drive. That is a lot of pictures. I'll be going through them slowly and posting them up either here or somewhere else that I will link to. And now that I'm home, hopefully I'll be able to post up some of the videos I made. It's going to take a while though, so don't expect anything immediately. I am also still rather jet lagged. My body is still waking up at 7:00am Japan time. which is like 3pm here. Hopefully I'll be able to fix it within a day or two..... Hopefully.

~Daniel

Home!

Due to the lack of free internet at the Tokyo airport, I was unable to do a large post like I had planned. However, I am now safely home and that large post is going to be put off until more pressing concerns are taken care of. Like unpacking and laundry and filling out paperwork that needs to be filed before I start work.

~Daniel

Up since 3:30, but totaly worth it.

I just wanted to share a couple photo's that I took at the Fish market this morning (you have to get there really early if you want to see the cool stuff).

So here we have an enormous tuna.

(Click to embiggen)

And here I'm having fun with my sushi. My delicious, super fresh, and rather inexpensive sushi.

(Click to embiggen)

Behold my Sushi Mustache!

Heading home in the morning. First hurdle is making it to the airport with all my gear.

~Daniel