I've just got my finances back from Middlesbrough LEA regarding my year abroad in Japan. Basically I've got £300 and then my parents must supply around £1000 and anything on top of that will be refunded back.

So therefore shipping, visa costs, travel insurance will all come to around that amount but things like shipping back from Japan and return flights during the year will probably be refunded back. Its all a little too embarrassing, given the fact I am left with no other option to seek financial compensation from my parents.

This all leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Had I not been altogether too hasty in going to uni and waited one year - my LEA would be paying for everything because I will be over 25. This sucks when I'm getting no scholarship monies and will have to look for work in Japan. Fuck whatever immigration and my uni are saying - if they don't want me to physically fucking starve to death in Japan they should have gave me a scholarship. I'm also slightly worried about my accommodation in Japan. Unless the rent is below 30,000 yen a month I am fucking screwed. In the odd case that Seijo decide to screw me over with the accommodation costs I've found a decent gaijin guest house in Suginami, which works out a bit cheaper than Sheffield.

Bah! My only salvation is that NEXT year will be awesome, because I'll be getting the full amount plus a huge non-repayable amount of £1000 for being an old duffer. That money is going direct on a trans-Siberian journey to Singapore. Quite frankly Japan and the whole year abroad is looking like a pain in the arse financially. Altogether its seeming more of a one year inconvenience and less of this wondrous 'journey of a lifetime' that is opined by some and preached to by many.