After completing all the documents and getting the green light from both universities, we finally thought about our flight to Japan!
In all honesty, it was hard to decide on it... On one hand, we wanted to make use of our time and get there erlier, on the other hand we wanted to save as much money as possible. In the end, we decided to leave Japan at the end of August. How and why is a process I want to show you, to help you think about your own ideal time for arrival.
First problem is: How much is a flight to Osaka? I really love to check flight prices for possible journeys, so I already knew a bit about the prices. Since we are staying for one year, it was hard to think about how to book our flight. For example, we could book a 2-way flight and fly there and then when it's time to go home book a two-way flight and just go back, without ever going the other way. We would have to pay for it, but with a good offer it would be cheaper than booking a one-way-ticket both times.
So, the second possibility isto book a one-way-ticket at a time. Be careful, could be expensive.
And lastly, you can go to a travel agency and book there. This is what we did. In the end, there are various reasons why we are happy and at the same time unhappy about our decision.
We went to the AAKH Campus in Vienna, to STA Travel Agency. They really helped us a lot, gave us all the information we needed and we even ended up getting a pretty awesome insurance. We left Japan on 26th August 2013 and arrived in Japan, Osaka on 27th August 2013. We could have stopped for a day in Dubai, but we didn't really want to. And with all the baggage we had, it would have been too hard. So another plus for the travel agency! Price was also good - we paid ~1.200 Euro for the flight, including the first 8 months of insurance. Not too bad.
The only thing that wasn't good was a misunderstanding, that makes us leave Japan one month earlier than we wanted to. Since we didn't know when we would come back, we wanted a ticket that has an open date. We were told that this kind of thing is not possible, but we can book until the last day possible and then re-schedule our flight for a tiny charge of 100 €. And we could change to any date possible! So we were happy and this April we wanted to fix our flight. Just that the latest day we can leave Japan is 26th of August - so exactly one year after the ticket was issued. And that is not what I understand as "re-schedule your flight to any date you want". So what I want to say here is:
A flight ticket is only valid for one year.
No matter what they tell you, if you want to stay even only 1 day longer than a year, you should book separately. The second thing that wasn't so nice was, that we had to pay 200 € instead of 100 € because our "booking class" was not available anymore. I remember hearing those words once, so I won't say that they never told us. But some kind of advice on how much earlier we should book to get it for only 100 € would have been nice. So, please, if you book with STA Travel, keep the things I mentioned in mind.
Next thing we had to think about were all the things to bring and NOT getting over the weight limit. The good thing is, you can bring as many bags as you want to the check in, as long as the weight is not over 30 kg. (At least that was what we had when we took Emirates to Osaka.) And the hand baggage is not checked too strictly, but you definitely should not bring too many heavy things with you on the plane.
So things you can definitely buy easily in Japan are accesoires, kitchen goods etc. I even didn't bring any towels. If you want to do that, please just remember to buy one as soon as you arrive. I will tell you in another post about what to buy where and how.
I would just pack the things you normally need during your week, things you can't live without, and the rest caan be bought new - not even that expensive!
