1. Being the clumsy, ugly gaijin.
You don't have to be an expert on Japan to know that the country is full of beautiful, petit little women (and men). This is of course a stereotype, and you do get the exceptions to the rule, but for now I can assume that I am going to be stared at a lot (according to stories). I'm going to be the tall, fat, clumsy white gaijin (foreigner) with bright coloured hair (ok, that one is my fault :P). I don't like to be the same as everyone else - normal is boring, hence my bright coloured hair. I don't mind facing some prejudiced occasionally because of it, because it really does make me happy. However, I am worried about the reception that the colour of my skin, height and body size could give me. Luckily, I'm not very tall. It'd be interesting to see what reaction my tall little sister gets when she visits, too.
2. Ermm... What does that say?
Yes, I have been studying Japanese for two years now. However, my Japanese is still very basic, and my experience of speaking with native Japanese people, in Japanese, is very little. After having been to France, having studied French for 9 years, and having language troubles, Japan is even scarier. However, the biggest thing I'm still worried about is Kanji. The inability to even pronounce the word you are reading, let alone comprehend it, is pretty embarrassing. One of my biggest fears is to be in a group of Japanese people, hanging out and doing something and then being unable to read some kanji. The most likely circumstance I can think of is travelling to another town or city. 'Then we can take the bus to... erm... what does that say?' because I have no idea how to pronounce the place's name based on the Kanji.
3. Chikan
As a 20 year old female, Chikan are something I am greatly worried about. Luckily for me, Kyoto does not have a subway network, and so the risk of being encountering that horror reduces itself from the chance I'd have if I were taking an underground every day, or every week. Chikan is the Japanese word for pervert, really. I'm not the best person to explain about Chikans, but since I've read a lot about them, I thought I'd post some of the best things I've read or seen to help explain why I'm so worried about this.
Here - is a blog post by Grace Minata, a texan who has married a Japanese man and one of my new favourite bloggers. including what to do if you are targeted by a chikan. This was a really helpful read.
Vlogger Mira telling of her first Chikan experience. I thought this video was really insightful.
4. Money
I'm a student, so worrying about money is a normal thing for me, but Japan is the first time that it's quite likely that I will be relying on only the money given to me by student finance and the government here in England. I've been working in part time retail jobs since I was 16, but the likelihood of me being lucky enough to find one of those in Japan, let alone the likelihood that I will have proficient enough Japanese to do something like that is really quite low. I'm not really sure how big the part of me that wants to find a part time job is, since working has always given me very little of my own free time, and I don't really fancy spending the entirety of my time in Japan working/studying and not exploring, meeting people, and diving headfirst into the culture.
5. Making loads of friends! None of which are Japanese.
As an international student at Ryukoku University, I've already been assigned my room W3103 in Ryukoku's appropriately named 'International House'. We don't get a say in the kind of accommodation that we live in, but unfortunately, if you are a foreigner, it is likely that you will be lumped into an accommodation block filled with other foreigners. I'm a bit worried that in accommodation full of foreigners, and classes full of foreigners, I will end up making friends that are all foreigners, and not Japanese. Its not that I don't want to associate with other foreigners or anything like that, but I'm going to Japan to speak Japanese and get involved with the Japanese culture, so I'm a little worried about being put into the 'gaijin' group and being unable to leave and make Japanese friends.
6. High Latency
This is where my real nerdy streak shows. I'm worried about having high latency on online games, such as the MMO I've recently returned to (I know, I know), World of Warcraft. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm panicking over the fact that my fps could be so unbearable that I can't play WoW, it's just that I have a few people I can only really spend time with on wow, including Lee, who has been desperate for me to mention him since he found out that I had a blog (Hi, Lee!), my mother and one of my sisters and I don't fancy giving that quality time a break for the next year. A lot of my guildmates have warned me that trying to access the European servers from Japan will probably make the game lag a lot - maybe to the point where I can't actually play it. I like games - and I have to leave all my consoles, except my 3DS, at home, which just leaves my PC - My MMOs and my lovely collection of Steam games. I don't want to spend too much time online, because I'll be in JAPAN! But I'm still not planning on kicking the habit completely. Lee might cry.
7. Mobile Phones and Internet access
Continuing on the whole staying connected front, I'm a little worried about mobile phones and internet out in Japan. Mobile phones have been a pretty constant source of confusion and discussion among me and my classmates for the past year or so, as we worry about how easy it is to use our own phones in the country, and whether we might have to buy our own phones in Japan. The information on it online helps a little, but it is still rather confusing, and it's difficult to find information online about the different offers and how much you're looking to pay, for things like sim cards and plans. With internet access, I'm also pretty sure that in my accommodation, the internet is wired rather than wireless (just like UEA's halls), which is better than nothing, but means that I can only really get internet on my laptop, and my tablet, mobile phone, 3DS and anything else I may have are left to suffer in silence.
8. Food
I love food. Well, I love the food that I love, but I'm actually quite a fussy eater, and sometimes reluctant to try new things. Textures are a big thing for me, and because of this I don't like seafood. That's right. I'm going to live in Japan for a year and no, I don't like sushi, most fish, and pretty much anything that has come from the water. I've tried very hard to like sushi, but I just don't. I know that there are plenty of other things to eat in Japan, but the completely different foods in Japan are making me a little nervous. I want to try it all, of course, but I'm a little worried about how much food I will enjoy eating. A silly worry, really, especially since I'd quite like to lose weight. This will have an interesting update come the end of my year away, I feel.
9. Dental or health problems
In Japan, you have to pay a compulsory health insurance, and then there are also private ones you can go for. I don't really have any idea about this, but since the recent stuff that has gone on in France with my teeth, (you can read about it here) I'm a bit worried about something like this coming up in Japan, especially with the even bigger language barrier!
There are some other little worries, but these are the biggest ones I can think of really. I'm hoping these are all going to be silly, baseless, and nothing will come of them, but I will update at the end of my trip to Japan to let you all know!
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