Purikura

One of my favorite things to do in Japan is to go into the city or anywhere really with my friends and take purikura pictures. Now if you don't know, purikura are basically pictures taken at a special Japanese photo booth. What is so fun or special about that? Well it isn't about the fact that you are taking crazy pictures with your friends. It is about what you can do to these purikura pictures that makes them so fun and entertaining.

When entering a booth, you will first need to insert the amount of money listed above the slot in the machine which is about 400 or 500 yen (about 6USD). Now these machines can hold about 4 or 5 people (more if you really squeeze in) so if you split the cost, you are most likely to only be paying about a dollar or so each. The screen will turn on and usually ask you what skin tone of pictures you would like to choose. You can darken, lighten, or keep your skin tone normal. Sometimes you will get an option for the size of your eyes as well. You can make them super alien-ish big (which I would recommend) or you can keep them normal etc. One thing you cannot change about the machine is the make-up which it will automatically put on your face. You sometimes can choose a more natural make-up look opposed to a very bright make-up look, or sometimes you cannot even choose at all. WARNING though, if you are a male taking purikura you WILL no matter what end up looking girly due to the larger eyes, extra lipstick, blush, mascara the machine adds to your face in the picture.

SECOND WARNING: Purikura machines don't give you a lot of time to chose things, so pick quick or it will pick for you.

So ok after choosing which background you want and you take your pictures, exit the machine in the direction it points to. There you will find an area under a curtain where you can decorate all your pictures. You can add glitter, cat whiskers, dates, words, or basically anything you want! If you want to be Japanese-like though don't add a lot. As a foreigner I always tended to add way more than the picture needed, which may be the reason why I ended up with some pretty horrible pictures. Just Decorate!
Afterwords, you can choose which layout you want the pictures to print in and/or how many people its for (sometimes if you have two or three people they will come pre-cut so you only have to rip them apart). Wait for them to print, and if you have internet access on your cell phone, type in your email address and download them as well. After its all done, cut them apart, divide them between your friends and enjoy!

Here are what some should look like:

Takarazuka Review

One of the delightful things I got to experience in Japan, was going to see The Takarazuka Review. At first in school, I had no idea what this exactly was. I would see signs on the train showing a bunch on women in costumes and I thought "Oh, it just must be some sort of performance," but I was deeply wrong and I would have never known I was wrong if I hadn't by chance heard about the free trip my school was having to go see it.

So... What exactly is the Takarazuka Review?? Well first off, Takarazuka is a city located in Hyogo-ken, close to where my school was located (actually I had friends who dormed in Takarazuka so I was there a lot). To get to the city you can either take a JR Line or take the Hankyu line from Osaka or Kobe, go to Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi station and then transfer to Takarazuka. I would take the Hankyu line since the Takarazuka Review is actually apart of the Railway company. The review, though, is an all girl theatrical group that puts on multiple different performances throughout the year (ranging from things like Romeo and Juliet to things like Footloose). I saw Ocean's 11 when I went and it was amazing. Basically, it is an all female broadway melodramatic performance that used to be based on kabuki but has been transformed. The Review has their own theater, the Grand Theater, that usually sells out every time.  Tickets, depending on the seat, are about 60 USD and up. Most of the fans of the Review are in fact women themselves, but it is definitely worth seeing even if you are male (my male friends were sure impressed.) The actors usually have their own fan groups and sell out pictures and books of themselves every show. What is special about these women who play male and woman parts? Well if you look at their pictures maybe you will figure it out....

 

As you can see these women have incredible make-up jobs, and although they still look like women.. well they could also look like very attractive men.. Besides this though, the male part actors have trained their voices to be deep and loud so even if you look at them up close they still sound like men. If you have a cheap seat far away like I did, you may not even realize they are women.

Anyways, my review for the Review is an A+++. It is a very famous and unique thing of Japan, that needs to be seen if you happen to be in the area! So go and enjoy it! And while you are there, enjoy the city of Takarazuka by taking a walk through the botanical gardens or stroll along the river. ~

Here are some more pictures of the area:

Preparing for Your Trip

As I packed for my trip to Japan and I have come upon some useful hints and trips for anyone who may be having preparation troubles.

Voltage Converters
When traveling abroad you need to really pay attention to the electrical devices you are taking. Not all countries run on the same voltages as the US. Many in fact run on 220 Volts, where the U.S. is 110 Volts. When first looking at this information, you might think that you would need a voltage converter which would safely change the higher voltage into your desired amount. BE CAREFUL THOUGH! If you don't pay attention you may buy a converter you don't need. Computers for instance don't always need a converter. Many laptops now can handle a wide range of different voltages and they will work slower or even malfunction if a converter is used. All you need for most computers is a plug converter so that your computer plug can fit into the wall. My advice is to also try to charge as many devices as possible on your computer so you don't need more plugs or a computer.
            Another common electrical device is a hair dryer. If you don't have a dual voltage hair dryer you WILL need a converter, BUT I recommend that instead of buying a converter (which can be heavy and can weigh down your suitcase) just buy a dual voltage hair dryer. A new hair dryer will be cheaper, lighter, and you can use it when you get back home. Once again, with a dual voltage hair dryer, all you will need is a plug adapter. In the end, unless you are carrying more equipment, you should NOT need a voltage converter and should only have to buy one plug adapter. (You can surely unplug your computer to plug in your hair dryer.)

Calling Abroad
 Calling Internationally can be really expensive, so here are some ways to make it cheaper. USE SKYPE or some other similar type of calling service. If you buy a subscription, you can get a free voicemail and a discount on an online number. My advice is to get a subscription to call landlines and mobile in the U.S. ONLY, with voicemail, and an online number, which together should be about 30 dollars for three months. This way you can call home cheaply, they can call you with no additional charge to them if your online number is in their area code, and they can leave a voicemail when your not there. What I would not recommend is paying extra for text messages to your friends in the US. It can get really expensive and you will be too busy abroad to really text them a lot. Instead, your friends should sign up for skype too and you can message and call each other for free. If you must have a cell phone in your pocket, though, I would try to find a place where you can rent a phone in your study abroad country. These fares are cheap and they often give student discounts. Most of these rental phones are prepay phones and they are nice to use to contact your new study abroad friends, but I wouldn't recommend them for calling home. These phones should just be used to make calls in the country you are staying in.As a side note, phones in Japan usually send emails instead of text messages for free, so you can easily email your friends or families computer or even their cell phone with no extra cost to you!

Packing Tip of The Day:
If you are worried that you will buy too much abroad and will have no way of bringing it back home, consider this: Try getting two suitcases of similar size (one slightly smaller) and put the smaller suitcase in the larger one. Then just pack up the small one on your way there, zipping it inside the bigger one, and on your way home pull the two apart so that you have two suitcases to take your things in.

To Help You Prepare:
Look to see if there is anything to do to set up your wireless internet before you get abroad. Many times you will have to install a new program, and it is better to get this done in the U.S. when you aren't frantic to get online. When you arrive at your destination and have instant internet access, you will thank me.

Scholarships

The minute you decide you want to study abroad you should begin looking for scholarships. Deadlines for many of these scholarships end early and you want to apply for as many as you can because studying abroad is never cheap. For my trip in the fall of 2011, I started looking and applying for scholarships in the fall the year before, and even with all of my applying I only got one. It is tough competition,so here is my advice:

1. Ask your adviser for any scholarship information they have. Many times you need an academic and financial adviser to approve of your application when you send it, so you want to keep them updated and informed on what you are doing. Personally, I was in my advisers office almost daily to ask questions and get tips.

2. Make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to write your scholarship essays. Unless you are the perfect writer you will definitely want someone to edit your paper. I cannot stress this enough because the more grammatical errors you have, the worse your chance to be chosen is. Another hint in this area is to try and make your paper unique. Don't be afraid to be yourself in your paper and to tell your readers exactly why you want to study abroad. Put passion into it. When I was writing my essay for the Freeman Asia Scholarship, I put my childhood story in it about how I got into Japanese Culture and how it has affected me. Now this is not exactly an academic reason to travel abroad, but if you support your reasoning enough and tell how your experience well encourage you to grow, even academically, trust me, the scholarship committee will see that you are telling the truth and that you really care about traveling abroad.

3. Submit your application on time with all documents, and if any information changes, make sure you inform the committee who will be reviewing your scholarship. If information is incorrect and they know about it, you will not be receiving any scholarship.

4. If you are chosen as a recipient for a scholarship, make sure you accept it and reply with any needed information or documents as soon as possible. Some scholarships have deadlines for when you need to submit follow-up material, and if you miss it, they will think you are declining the scholarship. This is important!

My number one tip for planning to study abroad and for applying for scholarships is to stay organized. I keep a folder for all of the documents that I need and for what I might need. I also make multiple copies of all these documents because if you use it once, it is likely that you will need it again. Having extra copies make things easier and saves time. It is also nice to just have a record of everything that you are doing.


So now to the really helpful part. Here are a bunch of links to scholarship websites and scholarship search engines:
Gilman Scholarship
Boren Scholarship
Foundation for Asia-Pacific Education
Freeman-Asia
Global Studies
Associaton of Teachers of Japanese
Study Abroad Immersion
Study Abroad.com

These are just some links and most are for Asian study abroad sites. There are many more though, and it takes a lot of time to search through the internet to find them so try to put aside a day or two to do so.

For those of you interested in the scholarship I received, here is some information:
I was chosen to receive the Freeman Asia scholarship to study abroad in Japan for an academic year. It is a scholarship for those who are planning to study in the East of Southeast Asia. The maximum you can receive for one year is $7,000 dollars to be paid half in the fall and half in the spring. For a semester you can receive up to $5,000 and for the summer $3,000. You do need to do a service project for this scholarship.

If anyone has any questions about how to apply for scholarships, writing essays, or anything in general, please comment and I will try to help as much as possible. As a recipient of the Gilman Scholarship and as a student who has gone through this whole process, I understand the need to ask many questions, so please do so.