COE
So, here's the details of my particular case. As I live in Rochester, NY, my local consulate is the New York City Consulate in which... well, it's not particularly local for me and I wasn't exactly looking forward to buying airfare, hostel stays, and food just to apply for my visa. So, I contacted IES, who redirected me to the NYC consulate. They were VERY helpful, and I was especially impressed when I realized that most of the information was already on their website and they could have just redirected me there. However, for your information, I'll post it here as well.
First of all, if you live outside of NYC, you DO NOT have to report to the consulate, which is very nice for saving time and money. Here are the instructions for obtaining your visa:
1) Complete and Sign an Application Form (Download). Note that even lines that have NOTHING to do with you must have "n/a" or "none" written on them. If you have court records, they must be included.
2) Download the release of liability form (Download) and fill it out completely
3)Buy a U.S. Express Mail self-addressed stamped envelope with completed express mailing label and the postage
4)Take your valid passport (that is fine for 6 months past when you are leaving Japan), a 2 inch square photograph taken within the past 6 months, your self labeled envelope, liability waver, and COE (the original and one photocopy)and ship them the materials through the US Postal Service (and ONLY through USPS) to:
2) Download the release of liability form (Download) and fill it out completely
3)Buy a U.S. Express Mail self-addressed stamped envelope with completed express mailing label and the postage
4)Take your valid passport (that is fine for 6 months past when you are leaving Japan), a 2 inch square photograph taken within the past 6 months, your self labeled envelope, liability waver, and COE (the original and one photocopy)and ship them the materials through the US Postal Service (and ONLY through USPS) to:
5) At the moment, we are exempt from Visa fees and processing is estimated to take 4-7 days.
Yep.
PicCell
IES requires all students to have a cell phone. Well, getting a cell for Japan is a little bit of a headache, but what I found is that PicCell actually offers a pretty good deal... that is, if you're not bent on getting something fancy. In that case, you could still rent a pretty cheap SIM card from them. Personally, I'm only going to get the cell to make IES happy and really don't intend to use it. It's Skype for me. =] The 30 dollar one time activation fee is really all I intend to pour into this thing. But, here's where I got my phone.
Dorms and Strict Vegetarianism
Well, I got to thinking about how strict of a vegetarian I am and how odd it would be if they could actually place me in a homestay without placing a strain on some generous family or a strain on my diet. So, I let IES know that I am close to being a vegan. I received a frantic call from IES the next day, asking if that meant I didn't eat fish in any form. I found this interesting, since I thought expressing that I was a vegetarian on my application would have made this obvious. However, it apparently is not obvious. So, if you are applying through IES and do not intend to compromise, tell them you are a vegan. If you are a pescetarian or are willing to eat fish, noting vegetarian is not such a bad idea.
Their first solution to this was that I obviously could not be placed in a homestay and they immediately placed me in the KUIS Women's dorm. In ways, this was a cool situation to land in, in other ways, not so much. Suddenly, I had to budget 3,500 dollars for food and I had a strict curfew to return by 11 pm every night. I understood that it was different than America, but just the fact that the Get Set! handbook noted that they were very stringent with women annoyed me something awful. While the private room, bathroom, and kitchen were all nice assets, I cannot say that I was particularly hurt when I received news from Beth on Friday that they couldn't place me in KUIS, as it's for Society and Culture students only. Now it looks like I'll be in endo-ryo. If the pictures I have found of endo-ryo are accurate, I think I would rather be there anyway.
E-Pal
Oh! I applied for the e-pal program and got an email from Maika Sato, my epal. She sent me a short email and I kind of responded a little epically... I think I might have overwhelmed her. haha. Still, it was very nice to get an email from Japan! The closer I get, the more real it feels to me. It's crazy to think that in a little over a month, I'll be back in the country I left 6 years ago.
Well, that's it for now!
