- 1.1 Whats new - the latest additions
- 1.2 So why is there an FAQ ???
Most of the questions received by the staff of Yamasa's
International Office have been asked at least once before, and as
almost all of the staff are located in Japan there are the following four factors to consider. The primary purpose of publishing this expanded FAQ is so that you can find what you need without
having to wait about 24 to 72 hours during business days (longer if your email is sent on a Friday night or at
the beginning of a holiday break) before we can get a reply to you by email (or fax).
- 1.2.1 Time differences: Japan Standard Time is 8 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.
(Click for current date and time in Okazaki). This means
that as a general rule the office is staffed from 9am until 6pm local time. Emails are usually answered in the same
order they were received in. Emails sent on a Thursday afternoon/evening in the western hemisphere (ie: North, Central and
South America) will usually not be answered until Monday.
- 1.2.2 Calendar differences: Some holidays in Japan correspond with those overseas - for example we
are definitely on holiday on News Year's Day, but other holidays do not. For example there is no Christmas or Easter
holiday in Japan. Similarly during Golden Week or the Obon Festival the office is
unlikely to be staffed. This means that sometimes the response time to email inquiries may be longer or shorter than expected.
(Click for a list of Japanese holiday dates)
- 1.2.3 An enormous number of emails: It can take a long time to answer several hundred emails - this is one of the reasons
why we are trying to put as much of the information into the FAQ as possible.
- 1.2.4 Significant number of other duties: Nagoya airport and Okazaki station pickups, interviewing and counselling,
processing applications, solving problems, building the website, helping onsite students, writing the newsletter, cleaning,
maintenance, sudden trips to the hospital in the middle of the night - there are a lot of other jobs in the International
Office. We give full priority to answering emails, but sometimes the staff have to do other
urgent things. Your understanding is requested.
Another reason why we have collated all of the FAQ questions into one centralized directory (until 2002 the answers to
frequently asked questions were located at the bottom of each and every file) is because of ease of maintenance,
particularly in terms of managing translation (see language neutrality), and
because too many emails were coming in through the old mailto
<a href="mailto:faq@yamasa.org">
- 1.3 How can I find my information fast!!!
To make it easier to find what you want, we have arranged the FAQ into 9 sections. Some topics are difficult to classify -
for example lets consider a question such as "How to obtain a Japanese driver's license"?. Its hard to decide whether
this would be best located in the "About Japan", "Life-in-Japan" or perhaps the "Travel" section? For
this reason we have ensured that the entire directory is fully searchable and have included an alphabetical index as well
to try to make it as easy as possible to locate information. Another thing to remember is that the English language has both
British and North American spellings and regionalisms - and the English version of this FAQ (the other language versions are
also designed to be inclusive of regional usage) endeavours to take this into account. For example we try to include both
for things such as "hire car" & "rental car", so that all English speakers can understand the information. There are some
exceptions, for example you will be able to find the word "bus" or "subway", but not "omnibus" or "underground". Most
spellings are the North American spellings. For example, "standardized", not "standardised". If you find any exceptions,
you can blame the maintainer (who rightly or wrongly thinks North Americans are
usually "less cosmopolitan" in their English usage and knowledge and therefore less likely to
understand English lexicon from outside their region).
- 1.3.1 The FAQ Menu - The Menu has 8 sections. Number 1 is the table of contents and FAQ notes.
Numbers 2 to 8 are included in the colored menu bar (on the contents page) that is reproduced below. The 9th section is for
USENET / FJ - Japan related newsgroups - and this section only appears
(in this form at least) in the English language version of the FAQ.
- 1.3.1.1
The first section is called "Menu" on the index.html page, and clicking
the hyperlink will always take you back to the main contents page of the English version of this directory. The contents
page itself includes hyperlinks to every single file and will grow gradually longer as new content is added. All
items in the contents section are numbered 1.* (for example this item is 1.3.1.1) making the FAQ easier to quote
if you have more detailed questions. You can either scroll down, or use any of the 7 color coded shortcuts explained next
to jump to a shorter menu specific to its title.
- 1.3.1.2
This section covers questions concerning enrolment in Yamasa programs (either in Japan or
Online), application procedures & student status, the curriculum, faculty and teaching methodologies of the various Japanese language
programs including textbooks and learning resources etc, the various visa categories available for students at Yamasa,
minimum entry requirements for courses etc. Enter Study/Applications
- 1.3.1.3
This section covers questions concerning Yamasa's on-campus facilities, all of
accommodation [including the homestay program], internet & telephone facilities, food/beverage, private study areas,
parking, the radio station, multimedia etc. Enter Facilities/Housing
- 1.3.1.4
This section covers questions concerning Aichi Prefecture, Nagoya City, the Hane-cho
suburb where our campus is located in Okazaki City, things to do, local services and organizations, festivals, historic
sites, local transport, places to shop, eat or sightsee etc. Enter Local Area
- 1.3.1.5
This directory contains answers to questions about Japan in general, non-language specific
aspects of Japanese Culture (including Art, Craft, Music, Climate + Weather, Demography & People, Economy + Industry,
Education, Entertainment, Environment, Nature, Ethnic Groups, Food/Cuisine, Geography, Geology/Earthquakes,
Government/Politics, Money and Banking, News & Media, Religion, Sports), the history of Japan and
questions concerning Yamasa's History of Japan and Japan Encyclopedia projects. Enter About Japan
- 1.3.1.6
This directory contains answers to questions about the Japanese language, historical and
modern linguistics, learning Japanese, the Japanese Language Proficiency test and the JETRO Business Japanese Proficiency
Test, the usage
of "keigo", Japanese sign language and braille, Japanese literature, regional dialects, dictionaries & book reviews,
kanji - old & modern, Japanese family and given names, proverbs & tongue twisters, pronunication & intonation, newspaper headlines, translation &
intepreting, modern slang, the particles, "dajare" & wordplay. Enter About Nihongo
- 1.3.1.7
This directory contains answers to questions about practical matters concerning living in Japan such as
health care & insurance, finding and renting apartments, connecting electricity, gas, water, telephones, internet,
emergency services - police (110), ambulance & fire (119),
public transport, obtaining a driver's license or using an IDP (international driving permit), trash/rubbish recycling,
credit cards, post office services, banking services including transfers and loans,
precautions concerning typhoons/ earthquakes/ fire, electronics (voltages, region coding), bookshops, counselling services,
pregnancy help, legal advice, foreign embassies, chambers of commerce, neighbourhood issues including the chonaikai,
futons, print and electronic media, the "NHK man", drug laws (prescription and otherwise),
customs and quarantine restrictions, finding part-time or full-time employment, labor/employment laws & regulations,
holidays, taxation, establishing a company, alien registration, inkan registration, visas, changing or extending
visa status, obtaining permanent residence/naturalization. Enter Life-in-Japan
- 1.3.1.8
This directory contains answers to questions about travelling in Japan including the online travel guide, phrase book,
travel by train, bus, ferry, hitchhiking, driving in japan & rent-a-car, finding and reserving accommodation, major
festivals, skiing, snowboarding & winter sports, national parks, safety. Enter Travel
- 1.3.1.9
This introduces some useful
USENET / FJ - Japan related newsgroups, links to the FAQ's and/or Alt-FAQ's of each group where available,
and some background information.
Enter Japan related newsgroups
- 1.3.2 Search Box
A search box is located on every page in the FAQ as it now is with virtually every page on
yamasa.org. The search engine is powered by Google. Things to
think about are British versus American spellings or usage, misspellings, etc.
- 1.3.3 Alphabetical Index
Also located on every page in the FAQ is an alphabetical index. This is updated everytime a new file is added and is designed
to complement the color coded menu on the contents page and the search
box. Again, things to think about are British versus American spellings or usage.
- 1.4 What if I still can't find it?
If the information you are looking for is on our server, but you can't find it through the search
box or alphabetical index, then an advanced
search will definitely find it. If you try that and find that we simply do not have your answer online,
please contact the maintainers - we should have your answer in 24-72 hours.
- 1.5 The Usual Nasty Evil (yet reasonably yasashii) Copyright Notice
Last update: 2002/MAY/27
All text, pictures, graphics, video and any other data on this Web server is
copyright (c) 1996-2002 by Declan Murphy.
All rights are reserved.
This document may be quoted freely only for non-commercial purposes; please use the following acknowledgment and
source code if you are web publishing,
"From the <a href="http://www.yamasa.org/faq">yamasa.org FAQ</a>"
and also notify us of the URL of your site whenever doing so.
This FAQ may NOT be mirrored or freely redistributed by electronic or printed
means without the prior permission of the maintainer.
- 1.6 Disclaimer
With the exception of services to students directly provided by the Yamasa Institute,
these files carry no guarantee of accuracy whatsoever. If you are going to utilize the information provided, read the
terms of service first. No mention of any product or service (for example prices of
restaurants in Okazaki, method for obtaining a drivers license, train
fares to towns in distant Hokkaido etc etc) on this
domain constitutes a recommendation
or an endorsement by the maintainers in any way, shape or form. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented here and considerable investment is made in continuous improvement, some information will inevitably
become out of date in due time. If it is important, check first. And should you find any mistakes, please contact the
maintainers.
- 1.7 Maintainers / Contributers
This FAQ is maintained by Mr Declan Murphy and the staff of the
International Office of the Yamasa Institute. Declan is also
the webmaster of the yamasa.org domain, and is responsible for the management and accuracy of all content published, in all
languages. Contact details are below.
- 1.8 Who, When & How can I contact someone for help? Or for apparent errors?
If you can't locate the information you are looking for or have found what you think is an error, please click here.
C O M M U N I T Y M E M B E R S
