0005 ~ Fur Free Walk

Hello everyone~

This time I'm going to tell you about the Fur Free Walk in Tokyo!

Although I haven't been vegetarian for all my life, I always hated people wearing real fur!
When I was a kid no one liked it.
We had that one shop in our town that sold heavy fur-coats and it's displays were covered with red colour more than once.

However..
Over the last two years there was this development, speaking for Germany, that fur seemed to become socially accepted again.
Last winter so many stores sold jackets with fur trim, boots with fur trim and hats with fur trim.

Whenever I saw one of these people wearing fur, an inner anger rose inside me.
I even printed flyers and handed them out to young teenage girls or left them behind in trains, showing them what the animal had to go through before ending up on their clothes.

I also changed seats or volunteerly stood up in a train, when a person wearing fur would sit down next to me.
"I rather not sit down, than sitting next to one wearing real fur!"
Whenever I said this out loudly, the person wearing fur looked either ashamed or angry, but everyone else around nodded and I got a lot of positive feedback.
I'm not the type of person throwing colour bombs or spitting at people. I think with those little, peaceful actions it's a lot easier to achieve something.


Well,
in Japan real fur is something that doesn't bother nearly as many people as in Germany...

BUT

I was surprised myself when I found out about the fur free walk a few month back!

This video is from the walk 2008, but it happens yearly!

This year's walk in Tokyo is on October 27 and they also invite foreigners to take part!

They organize walks in other major cities as well, so please check their site! : )

Here is the link to their English page for the walk 2013

http://www.no-fur.com/en/demo/#.Uidwdza-30s

If you are in Tokyo at this time and are planning to go, let me know!!

0004 ~ Preparations - Mobile Phones and Internet ~

Hello everyone! : D

Today's topic: Mobile Phones!


The first time I went to Japan was in 2007. Smartphones were still more like a story from a Science Fiction movie and my cellphone had about the size of a callbox!

Of course it didn't work in Japan - in no way.

Luckily I knew that before and the easiest thing to do back then was to just rent a Japanese cellphone at the airport.
Although it wasn't possible to use the internet I fell in love with this device!
It had a light on top that blinked when I got an incoming call or mail! How cool was that?!

Well~
One year later and thanks to that Japanese cellphone I had bought myself a Motorola RZR V9.
And this phone did work in Japan - unfortunately it worked too well.
I accidentially opened the webbrowser (Yes, my razr had a real browser!) once and two days later my parents called my provider and asked to stop the automatic recharge service.
5 Minutes internet cost me about 200€.
The rest of my trip I decided to only use my phone for emergency calls.

Then in 2010 I finally managed to get a Japanese prepaid phone!
And that's actually the first option you have!

Prepaid Phones

I can only give you information about the phone I got, but I think that didn't change much!

Signing a normal contract is of course possible as well, but like in most contries, those contracts will last for 2 years. If you plan on staying in Japan for less than 2 years you might cancel the contract earlier, but you will have to pay a huge amount for that! It really depends on what you want to use your phone for and if you already own one.

At Softbank they offer prepaid phones that come for about 10.000yen + 3000yen worth of credits.
In order to get one of those you need a Japanese adress and an employee that is willing to sell it to you.
I say this because depending on the person you're talking to you might or might not get a prepaid phone if you are only in possesion of a tourist visa .
I was lucky enough to end up with a guy that was willing to sell it to me and despite my lack of Japanese skills I managed to fill out eveything.
It might help to just play your "gaijin card" and enter the adress of your hostel, pretending that this would be your actual adress.

Once you got the phone you'll be able to call and get the "Mail-Flat" - about 333yen for unlimited mail per month.

Back then I realized how much you could do with only mails.
I got a twitter summary once each day and replies and messages seperatly sent per mail.
I could update my photobucket via mail and of course I could stay in contact with everyone via mail.
It was so much more convinient than sending SMS or MMS!
However, in with the cheap standard phones you won't be able to use the internet in any other way than... sending and receiving email.

So this might be an option for the ones amongst you that really do use their cellphones for phonecalls!

It will probably look like this:

Here you'll find detailed information about their prepaid plan and phones:

http://mb.softbank.jp/en/prepaid_service/prepaid_plan.html

Prepaid-SIM

The only provider of SIM-cards that last at least 30days is
E-Connect!

They offer 1GB internet sim-card (and micro-sims) for 4100yen

According to their website "it expires permanently after 10 days from the day you have used up 1GB or after 40 days from the day you first used it."

You can buy them online and they will be shipped to any adress in Japan and even airport pickup seems to be available!

-> http://www.econnectjapan.com/products/sim

If you are planning to go on holiday only (up to 14 days) B-Mobile might also be an option for you:
-> http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/product.html

WiFi-To-Go

I first heard of WiFi to go when friends of mine recently visited Japan.
It's a small device that works as a wifi-hotspot as soon as you turn it on!
The positive point of this is, that more than just one person can connect to it.
The downside is definately its price!

At least for econnect a pocket-wifi will come at the price of about 8.000yen  for one month.

However, if you are in Japan for holiday and traveling with a friend, this might be the right thing for you!


-> http://www.econnectjapan.com/products/wifi



If you have any other tips on this topic, feel free to share!
We all want cheap internet and continue using our smartphones, don't we? : D

Hope that this entry will help you a little bit!


Baibai~
Rina

0003 ~ Preparations - Long-Term-Stay ~

Hello everyone~!

This time I'm going to share my experiences with searching for a long-term stay while not being in Japan yet.


First I thought about staying at very cheap hostel again for the first month and start searching from there, but somehow.. I wanted to find a place I might like from the beginning. 

While searching online I figured there were several options for long-term stays.

1) Hostel
2) Compartement
3) Guesthouse

4) Apartments
( Since they are pricy I unfortunately don't have information about those to share with you, but Oakhouse and Sakura house offer apartments and also Fontana would be worth a look!)

Option 1:

Several friends of mine stayed at a hostel for a really long time. The rent was increadibly cheap, but as I already mentioned in my last entry that's basically it for the positive aspects.

Staying together with up to 11 other people in one room might work for a short time, but it's something I definately would not want to do long-term.

People tend to come back home from early morning till late evening, there's noise all day long and kitchens and bathrooms are dirty in most cases.

This is a picture from the Tenten Hostel website and yes, your bed will be the only space you'll have.

(http://www.tokyo-guesthouse.com)

So this option is only for the adventurous beings amongst you!



Option 2 - Compartment

I actually didn't even know what Compartments were until I searched for a place to stay in Tokyo.
However, browsing through Oakhouse's offers I came across those forms of staying.
It's basically a room cut in half... in the middle of the room.. height-wise!

It will look like this:


Sometimes you'll even have a table or a fridge in there. Those are a bit more expensive than the hostels but cheaper than guesthouses or apartments.
For "rooms" of about 5-6m² you'll pay around 45.000yen-50.000 / month utilities included.

Oakhouse does offer a few houses with compartments, so if you don't need a lot of space (to stand up), but are still the kind of person that need privacy, this might be an option for you!

You can visit their website here: http://www.oakhouse.jp/eng/


Option 3 - Guesthouses

There are some guesthouses that I'd more consider as a Hostel. I don't know why, but in my perception, guesthouses are places that mainly offer single-rooms or rooms that aren't shared with 11 other travellors you know nothing about.
You share the kitchen and other facilities like bathroom and toilet.
There are SO MANY sites offering guesthouses if you browse the internet that it's hard to decide. The ones I came across the most were Sakura House, Oakhouse (the site I mentioned above) and Borderless House.

Since I know a bit about marketing and I've travelled a lot already I know that you can make rooms look like 3 times their actual size if you choose the right angle to take the picture, so I was searching the internet for reviews on each guesthouse I was interested in.

Sakura House

Since Sakura House often has its guesthouses, apartments and hostels in the same buildings I heard a lot of people saying that this was more the party-like place to stay. They have English-speaking staff and their houses are often located near stations.
However, they might come in a bit pricy. For some properties I saw them asking around 70.000yen for a room of 5m². I'm used to live in small places but 5m² seems a bit too small.
I think it really depends on the house and maybe you will be able to grab one of their offers for first-time-customers : )

Rooms usually are equipped with bed, desk and chair. Sometimes you'll also find a closet or a closet that is built in the wall.

That's a typical room

This one is from their Sendagaya guesthouse and currently listed with 78.000yen / month

That's their website: http://www.sakura-house.com/en/room-type/share-house.html

Summary:
+ location
+ english speaking staff
+ fun place
+ offer apartments, dorms and shared houses

- you have to pay for using washing machines
- noisy from time to time
- Level of cleanliness depends on the place
- size of the rooms compared to price
- Dorms, Apartments ans Sharedhouse often in one house

Oakhouse:

With Oakhouse it's basically different from case to case. They seem more like a company that's collecting offeres from various landlords.
Facilities and prices als vary a lot.
Prices in the Shibuya area vary from around 70.000yen - 90.000yen for a single room

It's possible to reserve rooms that become vacant up to 10 days before your arrival.
Additional to your monthly rent you have to pay 20.000yen one time as a management fee.
There might be other expenses, but that's all I know about so far.

Example room for 80.000yen / month including utilities:


Link to their website can be found here (again): http://www.oakhouse.jp/eng/

+ A lot of houses
+ Big rooms
+ Good price for big rooms

- High management fee
- Often long way to stations
- Limited houses for good locations

Borderless House

Let me tell you straight away - This is the company I chose!
They are not the cheapest place to stay, but I haven't foudn a single bad review about any of their houses.
Their website is super easy to navigate and what I found most stunning was that they have a video for almost every guesthouse in their catalogue!
They are showing you around the station and the area of the house, then showing you all the facilities in the house and in case a room wasn't occupied at the time they shot the video, they are also showing you the room.
Another good point is, that they listed who is living at the house right now. Well at least their age and nationality.
They try to have 50% Japanese and 50% foreigners in their houses, which I think is a great idea : )
Also Borderless House seemed the most 'normal' guesthouse to me. They do have parties from time to time but it seemed as most tendants there preferred a calm and nice place over a party-noisy place to stay.
Most of their houses are also located in quiet neighbourhoods.
They offer single rooms and shared rooms. In 90% of houses I looked at the maximum number of people for one room was 2, although there have been rooms for up to 5 people.
They don't have women-only houses, but they won't put boys and girls in one room : )

They have a lot of houses in super convinient locations and the price ranges from around 60.000yen for a shared room up to around 80.000 yen for a single room.

It's possible to reserve a room that's becoming vacant up to 15 days before your date of arrival.
You can bring your own bedding or rent it for 7500yen (one time for the whole stay)
Management fee is 15.000yen, however when I reserved my room they had a campaign where you didn't have to pay this management fee! : )

The deposit is 10.000yen and that's returned to you after your moving out.
They will also give you another 10.000yen if you tell them at least 61days in advance that you'll be moving out.

Moving within the same house to another room is possible for ( i guess) 5000yen
If you want to move to another Borderless House you'll have to pay 15.000yen, but the deposit will just remain and you won't have to pay this again.
You'll also get the additional 10.000yen if you tell them that you want to move at leat 61days in advance!

I personally chose a shared room for the beginning and am planning to switch to a single room once I found a job : )

Reserving a room with borderless house was really easy! The communication was great and they even sent me more pictures of the room when I asked for it!
Once you arrive they'll pick you up at the nearest big station and take you to the house where the final contract will be signed.

Here is a video for one of their houses:




+ Awesome website
+ Videos for almost every house
+ Quiet place to stay
+ English speaking staff
+ Cash back when you give notice about your departure early enough
+ Washing machine is free to use
+ Clean most of the time
+ 50% foreigner / 50% Japanese

- Medium price range
- Some houses are a bit far from the stations
- Good houses are gone fast!
- No couples allowed

Website of Borderless House: http://www.borderless-house.com/


I'm already really curious about my room mate and other housemates!
The house I'm staying at is a 10 minutes walk from the nearest station but seems to be such a cool area! And once at the station you'll be at any cool place in no time!
I'll definately write a review about my place as soon as I'm there and have enough information to share with you!


Have you stayed at one of those places or have other reccomendations?
Please share!!

0002 ~Preparations - Accomodation for Holidays~

Okay.

So I got my flightticket, insurance, visa and money to survive the first 1-2 months.

What's missing?

Right!

A place to rest from all the fun that's about to come! : D


As I already mentioned I've been to Japan three times already.
So here is the history of my different styles of accomodation:

Host Family

The first time I stayed at a guest family and that's something I don't want to do anymore, although it was a great experience! I payed about 1000€ for one month, but all meals were included and they even took me to Disneyland and other places, although I was only staying for one month : )
However, being 24.1 and soon turning 24.2 I think living with a family is something that would limit my possibilities in enjoying my time over there.



Guest Hosue / Shared Room:
Second time I went to Japan I stayed with a friend at a hostel in Asakusa. We shared a room and it was about.. 700€ for 3 weeks + 1week in a single room (since my friend only stayed 3 weeks).
We stayed at Khaosan which is located in Asakusa and although the hostel was really clean and the staff was super nice, Asakusa is pretty much far away from every place you want to spend a lot of time at.
The subway that went straight from Asakusa to Shibuya took about 45 minutes and on a daily basis this amount of travel time seemed not very convinient.

Since 2008 they opened a lot of new hostels and guesthouses, all located in the Asakusa area.
If you are more the type of person that want to experience the 'old Japan' with temples and castles and stuff like that, this might be a perfect option for a small budget!

Website of Khaosan: http://www.khaosan-tokyo.com/en/index.html

Hostel / Dorm
The last time I stayed at a hostel that was only about 300€ for one month.
And that's all I have to say about its positive aspects.
It was called "Shinjuku Guesthouse", but actually it was located in Nishi-Waseda. Although this is a part of Shinjuku, it's actually closer to Takadanobaba.
It was a 10 minutes walk from the subway station (Waseda) and a 15-20 minutes walk to Takadanobaba JR station.
Once you reached the eather station travel time was short!
There was also a just on the other side of the street that stopped in front of Alta in Shinjuku which took about 20 minutes and was only 120yen for one way.
However...
I had to stay in a dorm with 11 other people and my space was limited to one tatami mat. I took the lower bed and since there was no space for luggage my bag stayed on top of my bed for the whole time I was staying there.
There was a kitchen, but I really did not want to use it, since it was ... filthy..
There were also some strange Japanese guys staying and probably living there.. Literally living.. like full time.. not just holiday.
As this option was okayish for just one month where I just needed a place to sleep, I definately would not want to live at a place like this for longer than this.

Website of Tenten/Shinjuku Guesthouse: http://www.tokyo-guesthouse.com/


Where have you stayed?
Maybe you also stayed at a place I stayed at lately?
Did it change?

In my next entry I will tell you about where I looked for an accomodation for my 1-year stay!

0001 ~Preparations - Visa~

Hello everyone!

This time I'm going to talk a bit about my preparations : )
I don't know about that rules and procedures in other countries, but I can tell you how it works if you are a German citizen.

Here is the list of things you need if you want to apply for a Working Holiday Visa for Japan:

- Your international passport (valid for the whole stay, so check the expiry date!)
- proof that you have 2000€ on your bank account
- 2-way flight ticket (Or 1-way and another ~1000€)
- Insurance for your 1-year oversea stay
- Picture for your passport
- Curriculum Vitae
- Plan of activities
- A4 Letter of Motivation


That's it!

Once you got everything you have to travel to your closest Japanese Embassy or "Generalkonsulat" and hand everything in!
Most likely they will check everything and you have to fill out some more documents ("Have you ever been arrested? Have you ever been accused or arrested for the possesion of drugs?" etc... )

In my case I got a paper stating that I'd come back and pick it up in 2 weeks.

I did so and got it without any problems!  : )


Now some tips!

Insurance



For insurance I can reccomend Hanse Merkurer. They won first place in a test and got a score of 1,0!
They offer insurances for 1year stays at a very cheap price and you can cancel your insurance in Germany for this time.
Don't be afraid of not having an insurance when you come back - your current insurance has to take you back once you're back in good old Germany : )

Website: http://www.hmrv.de/reiseversicherungen/auslands-krankenversicherungen/reiseversicherung-schueler-studenten#leistungen

Although it says it's only for students, it's also for Working Holiday makers. Please see the information sheet here:
http://www.hmrv.de/reiseversicherungen/auslands-krankenversicherungen/reiseversicherung-schueler-studenten#leistungen

For the premium package I pay about 39€/month

Flight

Another thing that might confuse a lot of people is the fact that you can't book your flight back later than 1year after the current date.

Say you want to book your flight on August 20. You want to fly on October 15, 2013. The latest bookable flight will be on August 19, 2014.
Well..
The easiest option will probably be to book your flight back on August 19 and change the date during your stay.
With Lufthansa that will cost about 120€, but it's definately cheaper than booking 2-single-way tickets!
Also keep in mind, that flight are usually more expensive, when you book them from Japan!


Documents

For everything except for your letter of motivation the Japanese embassy offers a dummy that can be found here:
http://www.dus.emb-japan.go.jp/profile/deutsch/konsularisches/working_holiday.htm

For your letter of motivation..
To be honest I haven't ever heard of anyone who got rejected.
Just use your common sense and don't write something like..
"I wanna find a rich husband and marry so I can stay there forever" or "I want to get pregnant from a Japanese musician"
Just think a bit about what you love about Japan and why this trip is so important to you that you saved up more than 2000€!

By the way - you don't have to write anything in Japanese! If you can't write Japanese or feel that your level is too low, you are allowed to write everything in English : )


If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask!

I'll soon write another entry about my experiences with finding a place to stay online!


Oh and here's a picture of the Visa!

000 ~Introduction~

Hello everyone and welcome to my travel blog!

I decided to start a seperate blog for my Working Holiday, as this is a very special episode of my life!
(At least I hope it'll be)

I went to Japan a couple of times before. In 2007 I stayed for one month at a guest family in Soka, Saitama and had Japanese lessons every weekday. Although I only learned the basics, it was enough to survive the two other times I stayed over there.

However, being there for just one month and having a planner that's only filled with shopping, concerts and fun is something different, than trying to live and work there.

And guess what?
I probably thought that finding a job and live there with only limited Japanese abilities wasn't challenging enough!
No - since more than 2 years I am a strict vegetarian on a way to a vegan diet.

Luckily I'm not the type that bursts out in tears if she finds out that the soupstock wasn't as veggy as it was supposed to be.
I prepared myself already that I'll probably have more fish and meat in my stomache than I'd wish for.
So feel free to join me on this personal adventure on finding as much vegetarian (and vegan) dishes, snacks and cruelty free make up as possible during my 1 year stay!