-22 days: Preparing to Move out...

Only 22 days before leaving for Japan. Still many things to do. Most of them are paperwork.
During the past weekend i've started packing my stuff. I think i Can pack all my belongings in about 8 Ikea boxes.

You cannot imagine the stuff i had to throw away... i'm really keeping now only essential things... I'm trying not to leave too many things at my parent's and my sister's house...

The Plan is to move out on March 25th and move all the furniture (a Bed, a Closet, a Desk and 8 boxes) to my sister's house. I will be spending few days with my parents and a couple of days with my sister, nephew and niece. It will be a while before i can meet them again...

School Enrollment Completed...

Togheter with the CoE, the school confirmed my enrollment as a student!
To keep the Student Visa, i will need an attendance of 80% ...

CoE Arrived! (Certificate of Eligibility)

After 3 months waiting time, the Certificate of Eligibility has arrived! With this certificate, Issuing the visa by the Japanese Embassy should be done in few days. Normally it might take up to 3 months to get the visa once applied.
Fortunately I've been assigned a 1-year visa that should allow me to open a bank account, find a job (max 20 hours per week) and be resident as a student.

Doll Festival (雛祭り - Hina-matsuri)

Each year the 3rd of march, is the Girl's Day and it's called Hina-Matsuri (雛祭り). It is custom in japan to prepare and display ornamental Dolls. How it is done today, the dolls are displayed in homes and shrines starting mid of February and take them out right after this festival. It is believed that families too slow to put them away, might have troubles marrying their daughters ;)

The origin of this festival was during the Heian Period in Japan (794 to 1185 d.c.) and originally called hina-nagashi (雛流し) and people used to put the dolls on a boat and send them down the river. It was believed that doing so, bad spirits would be sent away. This tradition partly died because the dolls would get stuck in fishermens nets. So, for a while, after people sent the dolls down the river and spectators are gone, dolls are taken back to the temple and burned.
In any case, the more modern tradition is a little bit different. Dolls are not burned. Actually some of the dolls can be very expensive, therefore, as many other celebrations, the more modern way of celebration might slightly differ in meaning and way of doing...