Arrival in JapanDS2020Dr. Elliot Byford
Settling inThe Daiwa Scholarship started in the UK with a one
month stay at EJEF in Lane End, a small, leafy village inBuckinghamshire. We were lucky enough to all stay
together in the Lane End Conference Centre and I’d saythat somehow all 17 of us hit it off pretty well. We
received small group tutoring in Japanese with somesaintly sensei which was excellent preparation for
arriving in Japan. Honestly though, focusing on
homework was difficult given the temptations of tabletennis, a sauna, a gym, a bar, footgolf, snooker,
proximity to London, the FOMO when any of the 17 ofyour peers invite you to do something. (Maybe this waspreparing us for trying to study in Japan where it’smuch worse…)
Moving swiftly on to Japan:
After waiting for 2 years to enter Japan and begin the Daiwa Scholarship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I
did start to wonder if the experience could be worth the wait. Thankfully I can confirm that Japan is just as
good as I remember it from 5 years ago and I am very happy to be back! I’m easily pleased and endlessly
entertained simply walking around Tokyo gazing at the patterns and shapes made by the narrow streets
filled with tiny shops, bars and restaurants and the mishmash of architecture found within before getting
assaulted by neon in the centres of Shinjuku and Shibuya.

Step into my office…

The first two months have, however, been quite busy! With
only 3 weeks booked in a hotel, we had to decide where inTokyo we should live pretty much immediately uponlanding. In such a massive city with so many options, that
was a challenge. In addition, the process of renting anapartment turns out to be not so easy. Being foreign meansthat a lot of apartments are unavailable to you andadministrative procedures were interesting in that had togo through a strange odyssey of interdependent tasks. For
example, you can’t rent an apartment without a bankaccount, but you need an address (and therefore, anapartment…) to open a bank account, and so on. Oh andvirtually all apartments in Japan are unfurnished. The topicof house hunting featured in pretty much every single
conversation between us scholars during that time which
got old quite quickly. Having said all that, I imagine that theexperience for a foreigner that doesn’t speak English
coming to the UK would probably be similar so I shouldn’t
complain too much!

Anyway, I’m pleased to say that we eventually all
managed it and I like my new apartment! I’m in thebeautiful, peaceful suburb (ahem) of 高 田 馬 場 .
Speaking of Waseda, the Japanese language course
can be brutal. I can’t really describe the amount of
homework – every lesson I accumulate more and It’s
certainly far more than I had at medical school - but I
genuinely do enjoy studying the language and it reallyis a privilege to be able to study Japanese full timewith the generous assistance of the Daiwa
Foundation and see myself (slowly) improve. Building
my language skills really binds the whole experience
together and feels very fulfilling.
Overall, while it has been an intense start and there has been very little rest, I’m having a great time andam fitting lots of fun things in! For example, visiting the British Embassy in Tokyo and Daiwa Securities HQ;
a birthday party at a Demon themed Izakaya; Halloween in Shibuya; many Izakaya, temple/shrine andkaraoke trips and much, much more. Being in Tokyo feels great, I’m surrounded by both old and newfriends, and it’s really comforting to feel that there’s so much to do here that you could never possibly bebored. I look forward to what the rest of the scholarship will bring!

Fun at EJEF in Buckinghamshire

A very jetlagged arrival

New (empty) room!

Furniture procurement…

Just taking some measurements

Furniture!

Some Atmosphere!

Scary Demons

Shooting sparklers withWaseda Photo Club

Checking out theAutumn leaves inHakone

Would you trust it?