anchor.diff:  
   [[img-bic]]
   .Sašo showing which SIMs we considered to choose
  -image::http://youri.discovers.asia/images/settling/bic.jpg[]
  +image::settling/bic.jpg[]
   
   === Commuter pass 
   From September until December, I will travel 5 days a week to the Naganuma School to learn Japanese. In order to ease my commuting with public transport, I bought a PASMO card. It's an IC card that allows you to charge money on it which you can use to travel around using public transport including trains, metro and buses. It is a must-have if you want to travel using public transport in a comfortable way. Otherwise, you'll have to buy tickets at a counter everytime and this can become complicated if you need to transfer onto lines that are from another company. IC cards work on all the lines. There exist several types of cards and normally it doesn't really matter which one you buy, *UNLESS* you want to charge a commuter pass on it. A commuter pass is a fee you pay to travel between 2 stations on a more regular basis. Therefore, it does matter which IC card you buy, because you are obliged to travel through at least one station of the company from which you bought the IC card. Therefore I had to get a PASMO card specifically, because I can travel to the school using the Tokyu Toyoko Line, which is owned by the Tokyu Coorporation. However, in the airport I bought another IC card, Suica. This card is offered by JR, a train company. Since I do not need to travel using a JR line, I was obliged to get the other IC card. Luckily, I can get a refund on my Suica if I return it to one of the JR stations, but for now I decided to keep it since it is a pretty card with a cute penguin on it. The commuter pass is valid for a month or 3 months. For my own safety I bought a 1-month commuter passes in case I might lose my PASMO card.
   
   [[img-pasmo]]
   .The very convenient PASMO card loaded with my commuter pass
  -image::http://youri.discovers.asia/images/settling/pasmo.jpg[PASMO]
  +image::settling/pasmo.jpg[PASMO]
   
   === Get Internet in your room, so that you can write long blog posts
   Leopalace21 provides its own Internet sevice to their appartments, which is called LEONET.
  
positive.code: 
  [[img-visa]]
  .Look at this prety sticker, it has flowers and stuff written on it!
  image::http://youri.discovers.asia/images/settling/visa.jpg[visa] 
  
  For my flight, I chose to leave from Schiphol, the international airport of The Netherlands. During the period I wanted to book my flight, there were regular strikes and delays at the Belgian airport due to the recent terrorist attacks. Therefore, I wanted to choose an airport with more stability. Gautier, the lone French Vulcanus trainee who had an intership in Amsterdam back then, was also planning to leave from Schiphol. Therefore we booked tickets for the same flight and reserved seats next to each other. The day of the flight was one full of nerves and excitement. I checked my luggage 3 times, just to be sure I would take everything I'd need with me! I arrived at the airport 3 hours before departure, so I could go tranquilly to my gate without any issues. The plane I was going to board was already waiting for me.
  
  [[img-plane]]
  .This plane brought me to Qatar
  image::http://youri.discovers.asia/images/settling/plane.jpg[Qatar]
  
  First, Gautier and I flew to Qatar, where we had to transfer for our flight to Narita International Airport. In Qatar, we had to sprint since we only had an hour of transfer time and we needed to go through security checks a second time and queuing took a while. We got on time in our plane, so the real trip to Japan could start! I slept a couple of hours in this plane, so the 10-hour trip didn't feel this long luckily! When I woke up we were already flying over China. Two hours later, we were flying over Japanese soil. With a setting sun at the horizon, I was welcomed by Mount Fuji during the landing. This was for me a sign of the start of an incredible experience!
  
  [[img-fuji]]
  .This is how I was welcomed into Japan
  image::http://youri.discovers.asia/images/settling/fuji.jpg[Fuji]
  
  == Congratulations, you made it to Japan! Now what?
  === Get a Residence Card
  
negative.code: 
  [[img-nhi]]
  .My health insurance card, but some privacy bug removed my address ;)
  image::settling/nhi.jpg[NHI]
  
  === Get a bank account
  The next day, Friday the 2nd of September, the 3 Fujitsu guys went to Shibuya to get a bank account. We chose to go to Shinsei Bank, since they are one of the only banks that offer English services (as already mentioned, you easily get confronted with language barriers when it comes to particular domestic services). We went to the Shibuya office, but got kicked out. We were advised to go to the Head office near Tokyo Station, half an hour from Shibuya, because this office wasn't familiar with dealing with a lot of foreigners at the same time. This was because there were already 2 Vulcanus trainees inside. The Head Office could handle us better...
  