1 week!

Today marks 1 week from my departure. Eep! I still don't really have any idea what I should be packing, I have a rough list, but I think in reality I'll just end up putting everything that I think I might need on my bed on Sunday and I'll slowly sift through and remove stuff so that I end up with a pile that will fit in my suitcase. Probably not the best plan, but since I'll be living in Japan and not just going on a holiday my list at the moment consists of pretty much everything in my room.

Although we have the option to hire bedding from the dorms, I've heard it's not overly comfortable so I've ordered my own. I got the link from Emily, a student from Sheffield in the UK who studied at Rikkyo a couple of years ago. I stumbled across her blog about a year ago when I was trying to find out more information on the dorms. Here's the link to her blog if any future Rikkyo students are interested, and here's the link to the bedding. I bought the 'fresh pink' colour of course. There was a bit of guesswork involved in the ordering process since I know very little Japanese, but with the help of my old friend Google Translate we made it through. やった!

My international sim card also arrived in the mail the other day. I bought my travel insurance through Covermore, and they give you the option of a free sim card which you then top up. The rates aren't exactly great, but they're better than what I would be paying if I was using my normal Virgin Mobile sim. Calls to Australia are 45c/min, texts are 48c, and data is 70c/mb (I'll be avoiding using any data if I can), and I don't get charged for incoming calls or texts like I would if I was using the Virgin sim, so the plan is to put the Covermore sim into my phone once I arrive in Japan. I'll give my family the number of course, but if anyone else wants it just let me know. I'll probably only have the number for a couple of weeks though until I sort out a Japanese sim/phone.

So that's it! I'll let you know how packing goes :p

Anthea xx