Welcome to Tohoku University!
On September 20th, new FGL students arrived from eight countries and began a new life in Sendai City. For the majority of them, it is their first time to come to Japan, let alone living here!But they have no time to be wondering about residence registration, application for National Health Insurance, opening bank accounts and so on. School will start on October 1st, so there is not much time left for preparation.
Therefore, the staff at the student exchange division of Tohoku University assisted the students with all those procedures. This is done every year when new students arrive.
The first place to visit was City Hall for registration of residence. There were many papers to fill out, but the staff’s support enabled them to apply, and by the time the new students left the place, they were formally Sendai residents, insured by National Health Care. As proof, they received residential and insurance cards. Thanks to this insurance, 70% of any medical bills will always be covered.
For their bank accounts, we visited 77 Bank, the biggest bank in northern Japan. The application form here is carbon-copied, so if you make a mistake on it, there will be multiple copies of the error. In such cases, you have to cross them all out and sign your name on every copy! So all students became quiet and were very careful when writing on it.