Demotivation, a word (is it, really?) that has been following me the past few months. At first, I didn’t get it. I mean, I achieved some of the most important goals I have ever set for myself. I came to Japan and entered a Master’s program, with complete financial support. The thought about staying back home, struggling for a decent job in the middle of this economic downturn, just gives me the creeps. Then why wasn’t I satisfied? I was visiting Kyoto, attending interesting lectures, meeting new people, establishing a healthy routine, but it still felt like there was a big hole. Personally, I don’t believe in whatever it is they call “culture shock”. I imagine people use this phrase because they refuse to understand their new environment and adapt: an attitude which, not surprisingly, gives heaps of negative feedback. An easy way for refer to the sum of these bad experiences would be “culture shock”. I’ve had my share of unfavorable incidents, but the only shock I’ve had, as of today, is how studying abroad opens your mind and refreshes your perspective on your home country.

So what was the cause of my discouragement? I had troubles with those tasks I need to be in a good mood for: writing papers, tidying the room, working on the blog. I didn’t have time to figure it out so I scooped it all underneath the carpet and got the urgent stuff done, with the help of caffeine and good music. It was only in holidays which I could make sense out of it. I organized a two-week trip to western Japan, without being aware how well it was going to suit me.

Each line represents a trail, the dark blue one being the first of these.

It was a good electroshock for my half-hearted disposition. Somewhere between coastlines, volcanoes, hot springs and medieval castles it was clear: I missed the thrill of aiming for something really big. Applying for the scholarship took every calorie out of me, but I did my best and it was a rewarding experience. When all I had were a bunch of papers to do, I guess things turned to be somewhat less meaningful. Traveling helped me find out where I really am and what it means to be here. It was like getting rid of a spirit that’s being haunting you. The whole scholarship achievement had raised the bar and the tasks I’ve been handling weren’t cutting it. Now that I figured that out, I know I have to be patient for the next significant jump.

Then I thought again about the blog. I had promised fate that if I got the scholarship I would give something back, and I certainly don’t want to let fate down. Understanding what had me a little off gave me a new perspective on the snowball analogy mentioned earlier. It didn’t take me long to realize that publishing frequent was unimportant. I don’t have to run a mediocre newsletter in order to make Seeking Japan what it’s meant out to be.

As I said in the past, I’ll do this based entirely on my experience. For a couple of years I gathered information and devised a strategy for my application on my own. The one thing I would’ve liked was to read about someone who actually lived through the process of earning the scholarship. Now that I’m that person, I’ll try to imagine as the present me reporting to the past me. As you might be thinking, this guide might be highly biased. Well, you’re right, that’s what I intend it to be. If you’re looking for the guidelines to the scholarship go to the website of the Japanese embassy based in your country, or just google for it. In fact, I’ll assume you’ve already read the guidelines (arriving to this blog means that you know about the scholarship and you’re digging through the whole internet to look for more information). With that in mind, lets get down to business.

Tell me what kind of guy you are and I’ll tell you what scholarship you need
As I also said before, it’s ambiguous to talk about a monbukagakusho scholarship. There are actually around six different scholarships that could fall in this name. They have big similarities, the most relevant one being the fact that the are only given to non-Japanese. The differences rely on the profile of the awardee MEXT is looking for. There’s one for undergraduate students, another one for graduates, for teachers, artists and even one for the lovers of the japanese language. When I first learned of how generous the Japanese government was, I was around half-way from finishing my undergraduate studies, so I aimed for the graduate type. If that’s the one you’re interested in, be happy to know that that’s the one I’ll focus on. If you’re a japanese major, things might look out of place but I’m sure you can take a thing or two from my experience.

A confusing question for starters: who gives the scholarship?
Here’s the answer, plain and simple. You apply for a recommendation, not for the actual scholarship. You submit documents to either the japanese embassy in your country or one of the universities which are allowed to recommend people to MEXT (I’ll get on this in the next section). The actual application for the scholarship is presented to MEXT by that third party which is endorsing you. So for future reference, when I talk about your application I mean the one that you’ll arrange and send for getting the recommendation. As I wrote in the comment section of another post, getting a recommendation is kind of the same as getting the scholarship. I haven’t heard of someone who has gotten the former but being rejected the latter. I think this would be specially true when you’re being backed by an embassy, but saying otherwise for the university case would be unfundamented. In the end though, the one who reserve your air tickets, pays your tuition fees and gives the famous monthly stipend is the Japanese government, specifically MEXT.

Two different ways to apply
For the graduate scholarship, you can either ask the embassy or a host university for the recommendation. I would say your application would vary greatly depending on which of the two you choose. The two institutions look for different things. For example: embassies pay extra attention on how your research will serve your country, while universities want to know a bit more about how your profile as a graduate will accomplish the same. I chose to apply for the host university recommendation, mainly because in my country too many people apply for the embassy recommendation. Like I imagined, I found my choice to be less complicated and quicker in comparison. Also, finding a college that suits you would be a very good sign that you might suit them too. For instance, when I applied for a master’s program in Economic Development my undergraduate minor degree in Economics and development-oriented thesis weighted a lot. Perhaps the embassy would have taken it into account, but it wouldn’t have mattered as much. One thing about the embassy path is that you can have an extra semester entirely dedicated to learning japanese in Japan, naturally it beign entirely sponsored. The universities, on the other hand, offer all the lectures in english, so when you arrive in Japan you immediately start your master’s program.

Once you decide which scholarship you need and which third party will more likely recommend you, the whole process of designing your application strategy can start. Note that there are some procedures you can start working on while you decide, no matter which path you choose. The decision will be most pertinent for the field description, research proposal and the letters of recommendation. In the next part of this guide, I’ll make some remarks of my actual recommendation and how I chose to design it. For now, I hope the basics are cleared out. If you have a question/suggestion on the issues covered in this post, please leave it in a comment. Ganbare!

I got the formal stuff I wanted to see just a week later from my last entry. The package sent via Japan Post traveled all around the world and included a letter which I took to the embassy. There, turns out my name was already registered as a government scholar and they already knew about me. It was interesting that they had no idea on how three other Colombians and I got the scholarship, but they were instructed to help us entirely. For the student visa, I only had to fill a one-paged-form and attach a photo to it. They are even asking for a Canadian visa (transit) on my behalf and offered me a legal way to avoid paying international travel taxes. Really nice, compared to how the US embassy works.

I was also sent my travel itinerary by email. The time it takes me to arrive to Kyoto, 45 hours (between the 13th and 15th of September), gives a really distant feel to my destination. I’ll land on Toronto and Seoul before getting to Osaka, where I’ll have to take a train towards Kusatsu, where my college campus resides. I’ll stay a week there and that’s as far as I know, the rest is an interesting blur of unceritainty.

I discovered two facts that Monbukagakusho scholars should take note on to plan ahead. First, the one thing that the scholarship doesn’t include is something MEXT calls Airport Tax. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t hear about something like this before. I thought it was a fee charged by either the Canadian, South Korean or Japanese airport, something not too expensive. To my surprise airport tax equals the sales tax the airline charges, in my case a 15% of the whole fare. Those were 400 USD I wasn’t counting on. Good luck I had some savings under the sleeve, bye-bye for those though. The second fact I want to highlight for this preliminary stage I’m on, is the date the first monthly stipend comes: the last days of the first month of study in Japan. I’ll travel around month and a half away from that day ( and what a fine day it will be =) ), so arranging some buffer money is a serious business.

Where will I live? When do I start classes? Who’s going to be my advisor? Where will I ask for my alien-registration card? Known and unknown questions wait. The other day I heard (from the embassy) that Japanese don’t need to use deodorants, so I should take my own for the time that I’m going to be there! What would’ve happened if I didn’t learned that before leaving? What other things should I know beforehand?? Still, it seems that I’ve been worrying too much. I’ve come to blame this habit on how everything works sort of disorganized here in my home country. I guess I’ll follow the advice I’ve been hearing lately on how everything works itself out there in Japan.

Now for the big news. As my fellow commentators I also received an email, stating that MEXT granted me the status of an international government-sponsored student!!! That’s right, it seems that the reason for starting this blog was confirmed. Now I’ll be able to share my experience of applying and winning the Monbukagakusho Scholarship with others. Through my veins runs excitement and cheerfulness: in September I’ll be starting my life in Kyoto (“Ah! So the picture of Kinkakuji wasn’t coincidence, eh?”).

I’ve bought the Lonely Planet on Japan guide since some time now (betting on a positive final result) and it should be arriving today. That seems like a good first step for building up a knowledge base on where to go and what to expect when traveling in Japan. Like I usually do, I checked out the reviews of the different guides available. In Amazon the LP one had a 3.5/5, but the bad reviews seemed to come from rednecks who didn’t welcome the low-budget perspective or complained about not liking the recommended places to eat. Well, I thought I’ll give it a shot anyway, those people should go to a local McDonald’s if they’re so sensitive about their taste. I think I’ll post on the guide after I read it.

Coming back to the main issue, I would have to add that I feel kind of lost. I think I haven’t mentioned this before, but I was recommended me to MEXT by a university I applied to, not by the Japanese embassy of my country as usually done by Monbukagakusho recipients. Well, one thing is being hosted by the embassy (be written formal letters, signed by the ambassador or some high official, being able to contact somebody by phone to ask questions, etc…) and another is receiving an email from the other side of the world. I mean, it could be someone from the university’s international office pulling a prank on me for all I know. Ok, that’s highly unlikely, but you get the point.

Luckily, I’m supposed to get a package sent over seas with all the formal stuff I want to see. I hope to get some questions answered regarding plane tickets, visa application and finding a place to live. Being used to waiting, I guess I’ll keep on doing just that. I hope I have the time to put on something new when the whole deal is somewhat cleared out.

I think I told you about my application in the last post (the one published ages ago), well, in that time I was all hyped up. I was extremely focused and happy for being able to put all of my energy in the job of filling out my application. I thought “now I can share something real with my inexistent readers”, so I went ahead and posted the intro of the monbusho guide. Little did I know then what it mean to wait for three months for a definite answer.

At first, I had to finish my undergrad thesis and couldn’t get any concentration. I only read about the university I planned to attend and other stuff related to Japan (culture, language, daily life). Then (naturally) I got sick of procrastinating as my due date approached. I wanted to take the scholarship off my head, with almost everything related to it, including this blog (just having it on my firefox bookmark’s toolbar made me feel uneasy).

Then, I finished my thesis. I convinced myself that I needed to relax a little bit and enjoy some things I disregarded as important. The problem with this approach is that I started to become unattached with my dream of traveling to Japan. But wasn’t that what I wanted in the first place?

Well, I was wrong. Now I believe on “shikata ga nai”. It means “it can’t be helped” or “nothing can be done about it”. It’s a famous Japanese phrase that cames from the buddhist belief related to karma, which suggest that one must surrender to things you can’t control. In my case, it means that I must stop running from the task of staying still with my goal in mind. It’s a pain but if you accept this you can make use of the extra time and enjoy the calmness of having to wait.

PS: MEXT makes the definite decision by the end of this month, so I’ll be letting you know of the liftoff or hibernation of this blog..

Today I will introduce you to my main plan (ok.. it’s the only serious one right now :S) for experiencing Japan. Actually this plan is much more ambitious and would fulfill more than just the desire of living over there for a while. In fact, it’s a scheme that would convey three goals I established myself some time ago.

As currently shown in the about page, I’m a semester away from my bachelor’s degree. That means I’ll be out on the street in no time, or “kicked out the nest” as I like to say. No more support from my parents means the need to get a job, getting a job means routine. If I would be serious about my goal to experience Japan I would need to save until I have enough money for something as expensive as traveling. That’s the most dull way I can think of financing a trip to Japan. Why would you spend your own money while third parties pay you to go there? Of course, funding isn’t given to the common bum. You need to want to go there for a reason less egoistic than recreating your eyesight. There has to be a convergence of interests between what you have to offer and what these organizations are looking for. For example, if you are a cellist virtuoso who wants to see cherry blossoms and buddhist temples, surely you’ll find a way to play there or even join an orchestra.

I have no idea on how to play an instrument or have any other special talent for that matter, so I chose to focus on education. I have my eyes set on the Japanese Government, specifically its Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, referred to as MEXT. Not only they have the largest scholarship fund, they have the widest variety of programs. Generally, japanese foundations tend to look for artists who want to create cultural links between Nippon and their native country. Most of these programs are for artistic fields such as literature or photography. MEXT, on the other hand, are pretty much interested in anyone who is sufficiently motivated in any mainstream discipline. They grant the ambiguously called Monbukagakusho Scholarship. It is actually a set of scholarships, all with this name but classified depending the study level you are aiming for. Some of the available categories are undergraduate, technical or graduate. They even have special Monbukagakusho scholarships for those crazy enough to major in Japanese.

Nevertheless, where is offer, there is demand. This program is getting increasingly popular every year (specially now that those rumors of a new world order are flying around) and high competition is starting to be a drawback. That’s why gathering all available information about how presenting an attractive application is a must. I’ve been on this task for around two years and one thing that I always wished was to read a blog of an applicant. Apparently there is no such thing, so I’ll be posting what I have digged out all this time. Right now I consider finding this blog an achievement, something only done by someone who REALLY wants to visit Japan or win this scholarship. I hope I can reward you by telling you about the real deal behind Monbukagakusho. Right now I can think of covering the following subjects:

• A beginner’s guide to the application process.
• Different ways to apply for the same scholarship.
• Planning your application.
• Where to find important resources.
• How to build an attractive application.
• How to make competition irrelevant.

In case you were wondering, I also hope those posts start coming a bit faster. I guess it’s up to what those visit stats have to say.

What people don’t know from the start is that this is utmost difficult by a series of factors, which are covered by the article pretty well. First of all, their grammar structure is upturned compared to how we speak here in the west (actually, a lot of eastern countries have this same pattern, like South Korea, China and surprisingly Turkey). Japanese speech is syllable composed and its writing system was adapted from the character based chinese, which contrary to popular belief happens to be spoken in a totally differently way. So it’s not like learning german from english or italian/french from spanish, where the languages share common roots and associations are made easily. What may be comforting for western learners is the fact that the Chinese have a harder time compared to them. Even though some characters share the same meaning in both of the neighboring countries, some randomly don’t. What doesn’t change is the fact stated above: the pronunciation is entirely different.

If this wasn’t daunting enough, what I would highlight about the article is reason number three for NOT studying japanese: your classmates. He mentions three annoying types, but the one I would definitively recommend getting prepared to face is the anime geek. These guys love those cartoons that much that they actually want their lives to become one, and the most logical way to accomplish this seems to be acting exactly like their favorite character. If you think I’m just being intolerant, try dealing with folks like these every day. Imagine someone constantly putting effort to show that he/she knows more than you, and show it off by applauding to himself -or perhaps another geek- while pronouncing the corresponding japanese onomatopoeia “pachi pachi pachi…..”. Adding up, he wont miss a chance to try to spread his/her beliefs to you, like a member from an unpopular religion trying to feel less lonely.

It’s a relief that you get used to ignore this kind of people and, if you’re that much into learning the language, you’ll get over the other stuff as well. So if your starting to learn japanese and begin to feel discouraged, know that you’re not suffering from something special or rare. Be proud of knowing the difference of saying to yourself “ganbarimasu” and not “haiii, watashi wa ganbatteyooo… banzai!!!!”.

Being the first paragraph of the first real post of this blog, I realize it may have sounded discouraging. I did it on purpose, though, because I know that people like me don’t find the reasons stated above enough for falling in dismay. If you really seek Japan you know that you’ll be losing some things, but you are also aware of what you will gain and that this plus side is much larger. It may be that you want to learn about their “economic miracle”, traditional and hi-tech blend, epic history, complicated social system, developed and exceptional arts or how they fostered the path that other Asian countries are adapting and following towards industrialization. Whichever may be the reason, you are most likely convinced that by being a foreigner, or gaijin as they say, you will build up the main features that defines a human: spirit, mind and body. And no rant like the one before could convince you otherwise.

Why nonmonetary then? Well, money isn’t a restriction these days. Most likely someone over there is demanding something that you can offer. For example, Japanese universities are constantly working for a higher international recognition. This requires a certain amount of students from abroad, which is unsatisfied by those “cultural barriers” mentioned earlier on. With a little bit of luck, you could help fill up voids like these.

So don’t try to chain yourself to false obstacles. That’s the hard part. If you can throw yourself in betting your effort in the uncertain satisfaction of your dream, you’re in the right path. After all, there is the following unquestionable truth: trying might be risky, but there is no doubt you’ll lose if you don’t.