Where to Eat in Tokyo: Genki Sushi

Genki Sushi is a famous chain of cheap sushi restaurants in Tokyo. You can get a plate of sushi for just Y108 yen! However, unlike traditional sushi restaurants, you won't be able to see the chef prepare the sushi right in front of you. But, it's still fun because the "spirit" of eating in a kainten sushi still remains. You will still receive your order through a mechanical conveyor belt.

 

Step 1. Choose your order from the menu in front of you. Don't worry, there is an English option in the menu so you don't have to worry about making the wrong choice or ordering an expensive plate. There are also pictures right next to the name of the sushi so you won't get surprised at how interesting your order might look like.

 

Step 2. Wait for your oder. It will arrive right in front of you through the conveyor belt. As soon as your order arrives, a small button in front of you will blink. Take out the plate from the conveyor belt, then press the blinking button so the tray would go back to the kitchen. Please don't forget to press the button because you don't want to keep the tray right in front of you while there are several other customers waiting for their orders.

 

Step 3. Though the sushi plates are not self-service because they will be delivered right in front of you, preparing the tea is. You can just grab a glass (on top of the shelf). There is also powdered green tea on the table. You can put as much in your glass as you want to. And yes, there's also a faucet right in front of you where you can get hot water for your tea. Yes, you read it right, a steel faucet right in front of you. Isn't that cool?

 

Step 4. Press the checkout button if you`re done with your orders and pay at the counter. Unlike in other Japanese restaurants where you need to clean your plates or tables, in a sushi place, you can just leave them on top of your table.

How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): Securing a Certificate of Admission

After the interview, it might take a month-long waiting time before the embassy notifies you that you qualify for the next stage. If the panel interview is the scary part of the process, the next stage is the tedious part.

You have to pick up a set of your applications documents in the embassy which they marked with their seal together with a letter endorsing you as a possible candidate for the Japanese Government Scholarship. Take note that everything from this point on is tentative. Even if you keep on progressing to the next stage, if the embassy has not informed you of the final results, it means it is NOT GUARANTEED. Again, there are a lot of surprises so you’ll never know what you’ll get next – some universities might not accept, you might be placed in another university, additional documents might be requests, and so on.

After you get the copies of your documents, you have to reproduce them and send them to your desired universities in Japan. You are allowed to submit to the embassy a list of three universities according to your preference. You also need to note the name of the professor you are targeting and the department where he belongs to. Also understand that the certificate of admission that you are requesting from the universities only offers tentative admission. MEXT will decide in which university you will be placed, although I have to say that MEXT is quite generous and they will really try to place you in the university which you indicated as your first choice. I was placed in Waseda University, my first choice.

Each university has a strict rule when it comes to MEXT applicants so you should directly get in touch with the university and check their requirements. This process takes a long time so I advice you that you send your documents to the universities as early as you can to give them ample time to process your papers. Remember that Japan is such a bureaucratic country so expect your papers to pass several levels of screening and approval.

If a university accepts you, they will send you in hard copy the actual certificate of admission, which you will have to submit to your local Japanese embassy. At this stage, your role in the application process officially ends. After submitting the three copies of the certificate of admission, the rest is up to MEXT and your local Japanese embassy to arrange. All your application documents, including the certificates of admission will be sent to Japan for further screening by MEXT. This is why, there is still no guarantee of receiving the scholarship at this point.

Tentative results will come out around late December or early January. Receiving the good news is a great Christmas gift or a New Year’s present. Final results will likely come out sometime around February (or maybe early March if it gets a little delayed).  For this fifth and sixth stage, you can do nothing else but to sit back, relax and wait, wait, wait. At this point, indeed, patience is a helpful virtue.

Now that you’re done reading about all the stages of the application process, maybe, it’s about time to start preparing your own application packet. This journey to Japan will not be an easy one, but I can say that it will be a worthwhile one. Don’t be afraid to try and fail, fail and try again. If you believe in your heart that you will fulfill your dream to go to Japan, then make the first step and prepare your documents. May God bless your application and I hope to see you in Japan sometime soon!

がんばってください！

How to get the Japanese Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): Panel Interview

The third stage of the Research Student Scholarship application process is the panel interview. It is held a week or two after the written exam. My panel was composed of six people. They sat around a small table right across me. Half of them were Filipino and half were Japanese. They were all very friendly throughout the interview. No one lashed at me, growled at me or grilled me with intriguing questions. I was surprised at how small the interview room was, how close the panel was to me and how nice and all-smiles they were. This setting made me a little more nervous.

I love interviews. I enjoy talking to people about random things. I never get nervous during interviews. Well, I do, before the interviews. I would hear my heart doki doki inside me. But as soon as I am settled on my seat and the interviewer starts asking questions I usually become more at ease. Well, not on this interview, at least.

You know that feeling when you really, really want something that you can’t explain why, you just feel it. That’s what this scholarship is for me. This is what Japan is for me. There are no exact words why I want to go there, it’s just that I know I have to be there!

Unlike my other previous posts, I won't be giving some definite pointers on this post because honestly, nothing can prepare you for your interview. It would help you if you know a little about how the process goes so you would have a picture of what to expect when your turn comes. I would just like to share my experiences during the panel interview and how things transpired. 

I guess, it would be helpful if you review your proposal beforehand because it is a surefire that the panel will ask about it. Show them that you know what you are talking about and you have a clear picture of what you want to do in Japan. If it pleases you or if it eases your nervousness a few days before the interview, you can anticipate some possible questions and practice answering them. I did this because I don’t want to feel too lax about the interview. But honestly, it didn’t help much. When you’re there in the middle of the interview, you wouldn’t even remember a thing you practiced! But it pays to have these answers stocked at the back of your mind just in case they come in handy. As I said in another post, there are a lot of surprises in the application period, especially in the panel interview. Some questions that you don’t expect to come out, come out, and some questions you feel would likely come out, don't come out.

One of the moments wherein I was caught off handed during the interview was when one panel member asked me: Why do you want to study in Japan? This is a question I keep on hearing, I keep on practicing to answer, but I keep on failing. One of the panel members told me that if I have a stable career in my country, why would I want to go to Japan where I don’t speak the language. No one will listen to me, he said. I know he’s right. This is where my Ms. Universe answer comes out, “Everyone is entitled to a new beginning. And I am ready to face whatever it takes,” I said. It’s not a practical answer, too cheesy, too rhetorical, but I guess it worked because here I am in Japan now.

But seriously, I was in the verge of tears at that time. I felt pressured to answer correctly. I don’t want to make mistakes. I felt pressured to express myself correctly. I don’t want to give a wrong impression. The moment I came out of the interview room, I felt like I failed in both of them. But thank God, I was wrong. 

The next stage of the process is securing a certificate of admission from your desired university which can be read here How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): Securing a Certificate of Admission

How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho):Written Examination

Taking the written examination is the second stage in the Research Student Scholarship application process. You will only reach this stage if you qualify in the document screening so make sure that you prepare your applications documents with care. For this category, applicants are only asked to take the English and the Japanese examination. For other categories like the undergraduate and the professional training school, additional subjects are required like math and science.

Applicants in my country are only required to take the English exam, which I have to say is very basic. You can answer the English exam even if you are half-awake. Yes, it’s that easy – just basic subject-verb agreement, a few items on reading comprehension and some fill-in-the-blanks. If you are proficient in English, I bet, you will finish the exam under the allotted time.

The other exam is Japanese. I am glad, this is not required. If you intend not to answer it, you can just write your name on the test paper, leave it on top of your desk then go. Yes, it’s that easy! But if you have some background on Japanese, you might want to challenge yourself and answer it. Since this exam is only optional, the results of this exam will not affect your chances of moving to the next stage. Even if you answer it or not, you still have a fair chance of passing this stage. So maybe, now you’re wondering, what is this exam for? The embassy said it will be used to evaluate your Japanese language ability so they can place you in the proper Japanese class when you arrive in Japan. I have a very basic knowledge of Japanese at the time of my application but I didn’t bother to take the exam because I might just mess up if I try to answer it

. What was even crazier was that I had a flight to Puerto Princesa, Palawan right on the same day! I carried my luggage to the exam room, ran as fast as I can after the exam to hail a cab and went straight to the airport right after my exam. What an easy exam but what a stressful day. 

Since this stage is very easy, there is no preparation required, except of course if you need to brush on your English grammar rules on the subject-verb agreement or if you plan to take the optional Japanese exam.

However, the next stage of the application process takes its toll. For me, is the scariest of all – the panel interview. See this link for details How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): Panel Interview

How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho):Document Screening

The application process to the Research Student Scholarship under the Japanese Government has (roughly) six stages: Document screening, written exam, panel interview, securing a certificate of admission to the desired university, waiting for the tentative announcement of results, and the last stage - an even more stressful waiting time for the final results.

The Japanese Embassy provides a comprehensive list of all the documents required in the application process. Also downloadable from the website are all the forms that the applicants need to fill out. Please visit the website of your local Japanese Embassy for the complete details.

Here’s an overview of the documents that you need to submit to the embassy:

1.      Application form (Prescribed Form)

2.      Application Form (Attachment to the Prescribed Form)

3.      Research Program (Attachment)

4.      Passport Sized Photograph (4.5x3.5cm) taken within the last six months

5.      Academic Transcript

6.      Graduation Certificate or a certification that the applicant will graduate from the university

7.      Recommendation from a professor

8.      Recommendation from the present employer (if applicant is currently working)

9.      Medical Certificate

10.  Abstracts of Theses (or papers)

Important Points to Take Note of:

The documents to be submitted to the embassy should be written in either English or Japanese. If you filled out the forms using your native language, prepare a Japanese or English translation of these documents.

The photographs should be in the proper size required by the embassy. I think it is preferable if you use a white background instead of other colors like blue. Make sure that your face is clearly seen and your hair does not cover any part of your face like the forehead and the ears. If you have bangs, place it a little on the side.

If the embassy requires original copies, then you should submit, original copies, do not hassle yourself by duplicating it through scanning or whatever easier, faster alternative ways you can think of. I suggest, you request some extra copies of your original documents from your university because you might be needing them in the latter stage, wherein you need to apply directly to the universities in Japan. But if the embassy says, a photocopy or a certified copy is acceptable, then feel free to do so. If in doubt, better to call the embassy to double check.

Good luck!

The research program is one of the most important parts of your application packet because it will be studied and reviewed by many people in several stages of the application. It should be clear and concise. You don’t have to indulge in a lengthy explanation of your research topic and elaborate on your RRL, but at least, provide the panel the understanding that you know what you are talking about and you have a clear idea of what you want to pursue in Japan and how you intend to pursue it. A piece of advice, take this part seriously.

One important instruction that most of the applicants forget is the numbering. The embassy in my country requires the applicants to number their documents in order from 1 to 9 at the upper right corner of the paper according to the list they have provided in their checklist.

The way your documents are prepared reveals so much about your personality. If your application packet or your answers in the form look lousy, then these say something about you. Most of the people take this stage for granted because they are confident enough on their own credentials. Even if your credentials are impressive but if your documents are not complete or you missed to answer a question in the form, then you might have missed a chance of a lifetime. So before submitting your documents, review it over and over again and make sure that everything is clear, complete, intact and ready to fly to Japan! (Yes, these documents will actually be sent to Japan because it will be reviewed by MEXT!)

If you pass the document screening, the embassy will inform you by phone or email about the schedule of the written examination. Please see the complete post here How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho):Written Examination

Please see the other related posts:

How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): An Overview

How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): The Research Category

How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): TheResearch Category

The Research Student Scholarship under the Japanese Government offers applicants the opportunity to spend 18 or 24 months conducting independent research under a Japanese professor. After this period, the research students can continue their studies as a regular Master’s or Doctorate students provided that they are accepted to their desired university’s regular program and that the extension of their scholarship is approved by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Technology and Sports (MEXT).

Any field of study is eligible for the scholarship, but applicants should find a Japanese professor in a Japanese university who is willing to supervise their research. However, it is important to note that finding a professor does not guarantee that the applicant will be placed with that professor because in the process each applicant will be asked to provide names of three professors and their respective universities. It is up to MEXT to decide on which university the applicant will be placed.

There are (roughly) six stages in application process: Document screening, written exam, panel interview, securing a certificate of admission to the desired university, waiting for the tentative announcement of results, and the last stage, an even more stressful waiting time for the final results.

Below is a very rough estimate of the timeline of each application stage. This is based from my experiences in the Philippines so the application period in the other countries might slightly differ.

Late March to early April: Application opens

May: Application closes

Second or third Week of June: Written examination

A week or two after the written examination: Panel Interview

Last week of July: Notification of pre-qualifying results

August: Time of application to the desired universities

Late December to Early January: Notification of tentative Results

February: Notification of Final Results

Late March: Departure Orientation

April: Departure of successful applications who will enter the Spring semester

Late August: Departure Orientation

September or October: Departure of successful applications who will enter the Fall semester

In the application, applicants are asked which on which semester they desire to enter the university in Japan. I chose Fall semester so I arrived in Japan on the first week of September.

The first few stages of application from document screening to the panel interview are pretty quick and intense. Just  a few weeks after submitting the documents, applicants who qualified for the written examination will be notified immediately by phone or by email. And just a week after, qualified applicants will be notified again and scheduled for a panel interview. The period of notification between these two stages is pretty short so expect for a call from an embassy within a week's time or maybe shorter. If you took the examination and failed to receive a message from the embassy after a while, I suggest you call the embassy to inquire about the status of your application for your own peace of mind. It might be a little embarrassing to do so, but I believe there's no harm in trying. It's either you get the truth straight or you get a little glimmer of hope if they tell you that the results have still not been finalized. However, take note that you should be professional enough and regulate your calls. Please don't call the embassy staff everyday!

Please see the links below for a more detailed discussion of each stage:
How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): Document Screening
How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): Written Examination
How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): Panel Interview
How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): Securing a Certificate of Admission

For an overview of the Japanese Government Scholarship, please see my earlier post How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): An Overview

How to Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): AnOverview

If there’s one important thing you need to do to jumpstart your application for the Japanese Government Scholarship, I think, that is: To get enough information about it. Having an idea on what you’re about to go through will somehow help you prepare for the whole process. Although, I have to warn you that there are always surprises in life. My experiences will definitely be different from yours or from others who had already been through it. How you handle these surprises is totally up to you and this is what will make your journey to achieving the scholarship a worthwhile one.

Getting “enough” information about the scholarship is more advisable, though, than getting “as much information as you can.” Holding too much information in your head usually makes you even more nervous of the process and makes you over think about stuff. When I was applying, I searched too much about the process and read too much about personal accounts and testimonies shared on various forums and websites. I read a lot of stories of victory but I also read a lot of cries of disappoint. So to save yourself from all the psychological battle that I had been through, only get the information you think you need. And as I said, there will definitely be surprises along the way so you can only be prepared and not too prepared, thus, it is fair to just know enough and not more than enough.

I know how tedious it is to apply for this scholarship, not only physically and mentally but also emotionally especially when you really, really, almost desperately, want it. I am writing this post because I want to help other students like me who had dreamed, tried and failed, failed, tried again and are continuously trying to get the Japanese Government Scholarship.

I have to warn you though that most of the pointers that I am going to offer in these series of posts were extracted from my experiences as an applicant of the research category. If you are applying to a different category, the process of your category might might be a little different from mine but I hope you will still find some useful insights from this post.

What is the Japanese Government Scholarship?

The Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho) is an annual full scholarship granted by the Japanese government to students of countries that have diplomatic relations with Japan. Full scholarship covers he student's full tuition expenses, roundtrip airfare from the home country to Japan and a monthly stipend to cover the living costs. Sounds too good to be true?

The scholarship has five categories: teacher training, Japanese studies, undergraduate, research and special training school. The information below was sourced from the website of the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines. Please feel free to check the website of the Japanese Embassy in your country for further details and clarifications.

Teacher Training Student Scholarship. This offers the opportunity to spend one and a half year conducting research on school education at one of several Japanese universities.

Qualifications:

-         Applicants must be graduate of universities or teacher training schools.

-        Applicants must be between 22 and 34 years old.

-      Applicants must have worked as teachers at elementary or secondary educational institutions or
teacher training schools in their home countries for in principle five years in total. In-service university faculty members are not eligible.

Japanese Studies Scholarship. This scholarship offers the opportunity to spend a year continuing their study of Japanese language or culture at one of several universities in Japan. 

Qualifications:

- Applicants must be from 18 to 29 years of age as of April 1 of the year of departure.
- Applicants must be enrolled as undergraduate students in a Philippine university.
- Applicants must be studying Japanese language and/or culture as their major or minor, and must have a high level of Japanese language proficiency.

Undergraduate Student Scholarship. This scholarship offers the opportunity to spend up to 5 years at a Japanese college or university as an undergraduate degree student in one of 2 fields of study: Natural Science and Social Science.

Qualifications:

- Applicants must be from 17 to 21 years of age as of April 1 of the year of departure.
- Applicants must have graduated from high school by March of the year of departure.
- Applicants must learn and receive instruction in the Japanese language.

Research Student Scholarship. This scholarship offers the opportunity to spend 18 or 24 months conducting independent research under a Japanese professor. Any field of study is eligible for the scholarship, but applicants must find a Japanese professor willing to supervise their research. However, this does not guarantee that the applicant will be placed with that professor.

Qualifications:

-Applicants must be under 35 years of age as of April 1 of the year of departure.

- Applicants must be university or college graduates.
- Applicants must intend to continue a course of study previously begun, i.e. shall not begin study in a field new to the applicant.
- Applicants must gain a pledge from a Japanese professor that he or she is willing to supervise the study of the applicant.

- Applicants must learn and receive instruction in the Japanese language.

Specialized Training Scholarship. This scholarship offers applicants the opportunity to spend up to 3 years at a Japanese professional training schools.

Qualifications:

- Applicants must be from 17 to 21 years of age as of April 1 of the year of departure.
- Applicants must have graduated from high school by March of the year of departure.
- Applicants must learn and receive instruction in the Japanese language.

Important Pointers to Take Note of:

First and foremost, check the qualifications of the category you are applying for especially the age limit and the years of education required. The Japanese embassy is pretty strict when it comes to these qualifications. For example, in the Philippines, we only have 14 years of education from elementary school to university (we only spend 4 years in high school). This means that we lack two years of education because the Japanese embassy requires 16 years of education for the research category. What I did was, I tried to fill these two years by taking a Master’s Degree in my home country and then I applied for another Master’s Degree under the research category.

Also please take note that the age of the applicant asked by the Japanese embassy is the age as of April 1 of the year of departure and not on the time of application.

The Japanese embassy also offers a free consultation regarding the scholarship. Please contact your local embassy for the specific schedule. This is an opportunity for you to be able to gain a clearer understanding of the whole process so I strongly suggest that you grab it. If you have questions, feel free to post on the comments section of this post. But if you have immediate, technical and complicated questions, your local embassy might be the best venue to have them answered.

To read more about the application process of the research category, please see this link How to  Get the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho): The Research Category

For Filipinos, I have an article titled Ako at ang Monbukagakusho: Isang Bagong Simula sa Tokyo published in the Pinoy Gazette, the pioneering Filipino newspaper in Japan last August 2013. Please click the link above to read its online version.

The Tale of Genji Bookmarks

 

     I got these really amazing bookmarks as a souvenir of my trip to Kamakura. From the Kamakura Station, we asked the volunteer tour guides for directions to the Kamakura Daibutsu and they instructed to take this long street lined with interesting shops and restaurants that are hard to resist! As a self-confessed geek, I am collecting bookmarks from my trips. More so, being a Japanese history geek and a literature junkie, this set of bookmarks literally made me swoon! 

     The Tale of Genji or Genji no Monogatari is considered as the oldest novel in the world. It was written by Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century and it survived the centuries from then. The story revolves around the life of the protagonist Hikaru Genji, son of the Emperor and his favorite concubine, Lady Kiritsubo. The novel tells about the intriguing political life in the Japanese court and the complex nature of love and relationships in the Heian Period.

Cosmo Clock 21

 

     The Cosmo Clock 21 or more popularly known in Japan as Minato Mirai 21 is found in Yokohama, Japan and is known as the world's biggest clock. It stands about 112.5 meters high (369 feet). When it was first constructed in 1989, it only stood 107.5 meters (363 feet) high but it was set in a higher base in 1999. 

     The Cosmo Clock is part of the small yet strategically situated Cosmo World Amusement Park. If you ride the ferris wheel, you have a 360degree view of Yokohama. You can caught a glimpse of the Yokohama Bay Bridge and the Osanbashi Pier in the distance and the famous Hyatt Hotel right across it. To get there, take a train to Minato Mirai station. It will only take about an hour from the center of Tokyo.

      This is also an ever present background in the scenes of the drama Tatta Hitotsu no Koi starring Kamenashi Kazuya and Haruka Ayase. 

     

The Kamakura Daibutsu

 

     The Kamakura Daibutsu is found at the Kotoku-in Temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. This bronze statue of Amida was built in 1252 during the Kamakura Period and stands about 13.5 meters (43.8 feet). What is more interesting is that visitors can actually go inside this large statue for only Y20 and view its intricate interiors. According to the information guide inside the statue, because of its immense size, the statue had to be molded in thirty different stages. It says that the lattice patterns inside the statue indicate that a large number of molds were placed on top of each in several layers. To put the different casts together, a method known as irakuri was conducted.

    To get there, take a train to Kamakura Station. It only takes about an hour from Tokyo Station (costs about Y890) to reach this. Outside the station, there are English speaking volunteers whom you can ask for directions. They will give you a map too. They advised us which streets to take to get to the Kotoku-in Temple, which took us about an hour and a half walk, not because it is that far, but because it is lined with really interesting shops and restaurants that showcase the rich history and culture of Kamakura. It is just too hard to resist not getting into those shops! Here's the interesting souvenir I got. To enter the Kotoku-in Temple, it only costs Y200.