getting into Japanese University is a
mess hi there on this video I'm going to
tell you the process of applying to
Japan for university as a disclaimer I
have to say that there are other ways to
but this is one of the most common way
to do it it's also the method I used for
getting into university so a lot of my
advice will obviously be based on my own
experiences also you should know that
even though knowing Japanese is often a
requirement there are a lot of
universities that offer courses in
English so you can still have that anime
life without having to know a single
word of Japanese but enough rambling
let's start honestly it's going to be
quite right until the moment you enter
the gates of your university for the
first time I'm going to tell you how it
was for me so you can decide if you want
to go after all so first thing I did was
decide the university I wanted to enroll
him for privacy reasons let's just call
this something generic like so first
thing I did was check their website for
the requirements EJ you exam TOEFL score
a guarantee that lives in Japan high
school diploma your unborn child you
know basic stuff okay let's break this
down a bit so first we have this exam
called EJ you this EJ you exam is only
held in Japan plus some other Asian
cities but unfortunately there was none
in Finland so I flew all the way to
Japan just to do an exam yeah I don't
think that was a good idea so I took the
exam and it's basically these subjects
from which you have to do the ones that
are required by the university and of
course you're applying to
after taking the exam I flew back to
Finland to wait and hope the score was
enough to apply to my University
and luckily it was next I have to apply
to the Sakura University and guess what
you can only apply from Japan so here I
go again flying to Japan just to apply
to University yeah now when you think
about it I flew probably like three four
times just to do like stupid I could
have done anywhere else okay
the next thing I needed was a contact
person in Japan that would sign these
weird documents and give a copy of their
proof of residence
yeah in Japan there's this culture of
always having to have someone to vouch
for you and the reason isn't always for
financial reasons like if I wouldn't pay
for my tuition then the guarantee person
would have to pay that I could
understand for example in my case I
asked my university faculty staff if
this was the reason for the document and
they told me that it's not for financial
reason but necessary because they need
someone to vouch for me I don't know
what this was about maybe it's just like
there has to be some Japanese approval
of me I didn't have anyone I really
wanted to ask to do this at the time in
Japan so I was really scratching my head
long story short I became friends with
the cleaning lady of a share house I was
staying at the time and asked her to be
my contact person and she agreed so last
obstacle cleared so I put all the
requirement documents together and set
them to my University of course in a
specified in envelope that was required
and that was that except it wasn't I
still had to do the University exam and
the interview but fortunately I was
already in Japan so I could do these on
the same trip so what is typical
Japanese University exam like for
international students you ask well for
me it was just a Japanese language exam
and a small essay the exam that I do
goes about jlpt and through your n2 ich
not too difficult
after that the only thing that was left
was the interview and I'm not gonna lie
I was nervous I had come all the way and
just thinking about that I could fail
this was enough to send chills up my
spine
fortunately the interviewees were really
chill and asked me pretty casual
questions it was this one awkward moment
however when they asked me something I
don't remember what it was anymore and I
think I answered with the phrase Yamaha
doe which basically means like a plot or
Tanis but probably because of my nervous
states it didn't sound like Yamaha doe
but it sounded more like the mode and
they were all like excuse me and I
repeated it again and this time it was
more like Yamaha but they eventually
understood it and we're all like Naruto
and I was relieved other than that the
interview went pretty okay
and thus the waiting game started again
a few weeks later the results came in
and the way you can check whether you
passed or not was on the internet or on
the school bulletin board for some
reason I insisted on going to the campus
and check the bulletin board because I
was too committed at this point to just
check it online
seeing my examinee number on that board
was one of the happiest moments in my
life anyway I had to return to Finland
before starting the university cause
visas and stuff so I flew back if you're
still listening to this ramble here
comes the last part of my Japanese
university applying extravaganza getting
the visa to be honest this was the
easier part of the process the
university sent me an acceptance letter
in email yeah for some reason after I
got accepted into the uni the process of
sending and receiving stuff became more
flexible
it's like suddenly they realize that
email existed so I started receiving
different document templates on the
email filling them out and sending them
back the documents that I needed to get
the student visa was called a
Certificate of Eligibility not to make
it too easy I had to send some documents
by post mail all the way to the
University in Japan how do you think
about it it's pretty weird one of the
most technologically developed nation is
refusing to give in to the
digitalization in certain aspects so I
sent the documents and not before long I
was on my way to the embassy to get my
visa this was basically the end of the
process of getting into Japanese uni of
course there were still a few documents
I had to fill when arriving to the
airport for the first time but other
than that I was done to be honest I'm
still surprised I went through with all
that living in Finland I would have had
the opportunity for free university
education with very little hassle I'm
still glad I did it and these three
years in Japan has been amazing I want
to encourage every one of you who are
interested to study in Japan to do it
but also give you a realistic view of
what it can be like to apply to a
Japanese University on the next video I
will be talking about why I wanted to
study in Japan thanks for listening to
my rant see you next time