It may not be the most exciting part of any trip, but its important to do, especially when you're packing for a whole year abroad. Documents NeededFirst and foremost the main thing that you would need to make sure you have ready before you study abroad are the required documents, such as a passport, student visa, and health insurance. Getting my passport was my first step in being able to travel abroad. I had applied for it October the previous year, and it took around 3 months to finally arrive. I believe this was the average case for non-expedited applications, however it can, in the worse case, take up to around 6 months, so be sure to plan and apply for one in a timely manner. For my visa, I had to wait until I had received my acceptance letter at YNU, which arrived around June, and bring those documents to the nearest Japanese consulate office (in L.A.) and apply for my student visa. That was a very straightforward process and I received my visa in the same day. The longest part of it was mainly the drive up to L.A. As for my health insurance, since I was informed that I would be getting health insurance in Japan, all I needed was to finalize payments on something like secondary insurance that was required by my university for to have while studying abroad. This was available to me to pay for a few months before my departure to Japan. And with that, I had all of my documents and official paperwork ready for me to study abroad. Proper ClothesOther crucial things to pack are clothes. Aside from the obvious, its good to consider what kind of weather you will be experiencing while abroad, and try to prepare for it by packing proper clothes. For instance, in my case, living in San Diego my whole life, I’ve never really had the need for heavy jackets or generally any clothes for cold weather as it never really gets that cold in San Diego. However, as I checked the typical yearly weather of Yokohama, I found out that Yokohama experiences all of the seasons, including winter in which it actually snows sometimes. With that in mind, I knew I had to prepare for it by buying proper winter clothes. The main thing from this would be to check and have some idea of what weather you might be experiencing abroad and plan accordingly. On a brief note, clothes should be proper not only in terms of the weather, but also be culturally sensitive to the area that you would be studying in. Basic NecessitiesAs for most basic products such as toothpaste, soap, shampoo, etc., they should be relatively easy to purchase abroad, as it was for me. I had still packed travel sizes of these items as I was unsure of when I would be able to find them in Japan, so I still recommend packing them as you never do know when you’ll get settled and have time to shop for these items. One item that I had could not really find an equivalent of in Japan was deodorant, like Old Spice for example. All I could find while abroad was something like a small perfume roll and wouldn't help with anti-perspiration. So if there is any specific product that you need or don’t want to switch from, be sure to pack it in bulk for the duration of your program. In particular, one of the key “basic” items that had plenty of use throughout my trip was a luggage weight. Of course this helps with preparing to depart for your study abroad, but it can also come in handy when travelling, while you study abroad, and for when you return from your study abroad. Another really important necessity to take care of when packing is to exchange some currency to that of the country’s, in my case it was yen. This is so that you don’t have to worry about finding an ATM or currency exchange service abroad once you immediately get there and that can help take a little bit of pressure off. This was also more important for me because Japan is predominantly a cash based society and has only recently been starting to become comfortable using cards for purchases, big or small. General Tips
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AuthorI am Kyle Sablan and I studied abroad at Yokohama National University (YNU) during the 2016-2017 academic year. This blog was created as one of the requirements for receiving the Gilman Scholarship. The purpose of this blog is to share my personal experience with everybody and encourage interest in studying abroad. Archives
April 2018
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