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Questions and Answers

I've gotten lots of questions from people about studying Japanese in Japan so I've decided to put together my answers to those questions and make this page. My answers are based only on my own experience so they're not the definitive truth but I think they should give you an idea of how things are. If you've got a question that's not answered here then email me.

Osaka YWCA
Summer Language Courses
Visa and School Applications
Part-Time Work while Studying
About the Classes
General Language School Questions
Osaka, Kyoto, and other Kansai
Other Places and Things in Japan

Osaka YWCA Questions


> I think the YWCA course sounds good for me, are there any things you
> didn't like about it?

Oh yeah, I said I would comment about the course at the YWCA a bit. My opinion is that it's an excellent program and if you work hard you'll really learn a lot. However the one bad point at the YWCA and at almost all Japanese language schools is that the focus is mostly on reading and listening comprehension rather than on speaking. This is because most of the students at the language schools are learning Japanese so they can pass the Japanese language exam required to enter a university in Japan. I think that if you're in the beginning class you'll find that to not be much of a problem, in fact the teachers do all the teaching in Japanese only so you may complain about hearing too much Japanese rather than too little! It's all in Japanese because the students are from all over the place : ~60% Chinese and Taiwanese, 15% Korean, last 15% SE Asian, 10% "Western".


> Is $150/wk very expensive? Sounds expensive to me.

Remember that you're getting 20 hours a week of class in a country with one of the highest costs of living in the world. If you consider that $150 a week works out to about $6000 a year (because of holidays) then it doesn't sound so bad for a private institution, college is much more expensive.


> Or is the best deal you are probably going to get for a decent place.

Some schools are slightly cheaper but it's not much of a difference, at most 10%. In fact most schools you find will probably be more expensive.

Summer Language Courses


> YWCA summer program looks nice but it seems short.

I agree with you on that. I've now put together a page just about this topic, it's the Summer Courses of 2 Months or Longer page.


> Your description of how to apply to study at the YWCA for 2 months in
> the summer sounds so complicated.

I probably made the application stuff sound rather difficult. Basically you just need to
1) Call them and explain that you heard about the school from a former student (me) and you want to study in the full-time course from the beginning of June until the end of the Summer Course.
2) They'll probably ask about your previous Japanese experience and tell them you'll have studied 1 semester at the university so you think you'll know enough for the beginning ("Shoukyuu") class.
3) If they say it's OK and you can come then tell them that you also need a homestay or somewhere to stay and ask if they can help you with that.
4) Get a plane ticket and go in June. That's it!


> What about schools in Tokyo?

Unfortunately I don't know anything about school there so you'll just have to check some of the links on my page. In any case Kansai (Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto) isn't a bad area for a short term visit because Kyoto and Nara are only 30 minutes - 1 hour away by local train (only $3 each way from Osaka to Kyoto!). In case you don't know, Kyoto and Nara are Japan's two former capital cities before Tokyo, and they're both full of ancient temples, shrines, etc. Also, the biggest festival in Japan is in Kyoto in June (Gion festival) and another big one is in Osaka in July (Tenjin festival) so that would be a reason to go to Kansai.


> I am planning to go to Osaka or Kobe this summer for three months and I am
> going there specifically to learn japanese. I would like to find a
> school that offers classes privately or in small group at least five
> hours a day, five days a week. Full time.

I hope you enjoy your experience in Japan. As far as finding a course or private lessons go I do have a few comments.

As far as private tutoring is concerned, this is very expensive. At the YWCA it was a little over 5000 yen ($40) per hour! You might want to supplement your course with a little tutoring on the side, but if you're planning on going for three months full time then I imagine you can't afford to pay that much. See later in this email for info on language courses.

If you do want to have someone supplement your classes by tutoring you privately I copied the page from "Kansai Time Out" that has ads from people offering tutoring. The magazine is June '98 so it's a bit out of date. This magazine is monthly in Kansai (Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, etc.) so you can just buy an issue after you get there and find someone then. Last but not least, on the bottom of that same page is an ad for "Japanese, The Silent Way". I don't know where the school is located but I've heard that if your goal is to study Japanese conversation, as opposed to reading and listening, then this is supposed to be a good program. It works by having the students converse and then the teacher corrects them when they make mistakes, but without speaking herself, hence the name "The Silent Way". This should make you more confident in speaking because you're speaking the whole class time, rather than the teacher doing all the speaking like most schools, and you'll also learn to speak correctly because the teacher is correcting you. Anyways, that stuff is at : ../Osaka_Schools/Schools3.jpg

If you opt for a language course then first you should know that generally there is a summer vacation from mid-July to mid-August although the length and time varies a bit from school to school. I think that most schools offer a 2-3 week course during this period, but it usually runs independent of the regular full time course. Whereas the full-time course I was in consisted almost entirely of Asians the summer vacation course was almost all westerners who were there over their vacation. I've got information on how to enroll in Summer Language courses at ../Japan/early_summer.html.

Second, you'll find that the typical full-time course focuses more on reading / listening comprehension then on conversation, which frustrated many of the other westerners I knew, although "summer courses" are probaly different. The reason for this system is that the students in the full-time course generally want to attend a Japanese university so they are taking the course in order to learn enough to pass the "Nouryoku Shiken", sort of the Japanese language equivalent of the TOEFL. This exam has no writing or conversation section and hence the emphasis on reading and listening. Summer Course students tend to want to learn more conversation material so I think the summer programs will probably spend more time on that than a full-time course.

Nevertheless, I think this doesn't need to be a serious impediment to your studies. Classes generally end by 3pm so what I did was find "language exchange" partners, Japanese people who wanted to practice speaking English. Generally we spoke about an hour and a half in Japanese and then an hour in English. Actually many Japanese soon give up on the English practice side of things and you may be able to get away with speaking almost only Japanese. Anyways, in this way I managed to get lots of conversation practice and when I had problems those Japanese friends were generally willing to help out. If you go to Osaka then you can find language exchange partners at the Osaka International House message board.
http://www.ih-osaka.or.jp/

Btw, what level is your Japanese currently at? If you already can manage to speak a bit, say for example you have to struggle a bit but can communicate what you want, then your 3 month experience will be much more meaningful. Looking at the beginning class at my school, it seemed that it took them about 3 months or a bit more to go from the "I can't understand a word of Japanese" to the point where they suddenly caught on to things and could communicate what they wanted. So if you can't communicate yet then you should make an effort to do some studying before you go.

Last of all, if you're only there for 3 months then you won't have to get a special visa, as an American you can get a three month visa just by filling out a few forms on the airplane. If you do stay a bit over 3 months then it's possible to get another 3 month extension or you can just visit South Korea, Hong Kong, or somewhere and when you come back they'll give you another 3 month visa.

Visa and Application Questions


> You said on your page that the student should cover the 1st semester's
> expenses himself but even that, how to pass the entrance procedure to
> Japan?

If you mean the application then the only thing to worry about is the money / guarantor problem. The schools want you to come so that they can get tuition money from you, so if you have the money or a guarantor then you should not need to worry about being rejected.


> I heard I need a Japanese Guarantor or I need to show I have a lot
> of money to get the visa for Japan. How else can I get a visa?

As far as the $15,000 or a guarantor is concerned, I was in the same situation as you but the way I solved the problem was that my grandparents in the US became my guarantors. So, if you have a relative who has a lot of money then it is probably possible for them to be your guarantor. In my case the grandparents had to prove that we were related (from Birth Certificates) and had to send copies of their bank and tax statements (bank shows lots of savings, taxes show income).

Several other people have asked me about the money issue so I think I should ask my former school in Japan to see what they do. However, at the moment I only know that either having $15,000 or having a guarantor is good enough, I don't know yet about what other options are available.


> I have someone there (in Japan)who wants to invite me this june.The
> problem is, the visa I can get from the invitation expires after
> 1-3months.From your experience,is it possible to process my student
> visa while still in Japan?Or I'll have to come back and process it in my
> country.

To get a student visa you'll need to apply to your language school about 4 months early, for example at the YWCA the application deadline for the October courses is June 12. If you go to Japan to visit your friend it shouldn't be a problem, the student visa application is done by your school and should be independent of any other visas. However, once the Student Visa is approved you'll have to leave Japan to pick it up, they don't issue new visas in Japan.

In my case I went to Japan with a tourist visa in April '97, applied to my school for the Student Visa in June '97, and when the Student Visa was approved in September '97 I went back to the US to get it and returned to Japan a few weeks later to start courses in October. You don't have to go back to your home country to get the Student Visa, any foreign country is OK so many people just go to South Korea or Hong Kong because it's easier than returning to their own country.

I was told that it's impossible to change your visa to a Student Visa in Japan which is why I went back to the US but if you talk to the school you apply to then perhaps they'll know some way to get the Visa while you're still in Japan. I don't think it's possible but there's a chance they know something I didn't know.


> I am interested in Studying Japanese in Japan, with the likely hood of
> moving into a Japanese University to complete a masters degree (as I
> already hold a B.A with hon).
>
> Do you think that I should head over to Japan before enrollement
> commences and 'inspect' these language universities before attempting to
> enroll in one? As I am a little confused, as I don't want to get stuck
> in a place that wasn't up to my expectations. Also, I don't like the
> idea of handing up so much money before even having the chance to
> 'inspect the goods' !

If you want to go to graduate school in Japan then one thing you should check on is scholarships, such as the Monbusho scholarships. Check http://www.aiej.or.jp/ for info on this and other scholarships for foreigners.

When you asked about "inspecting" langage universities are you referring to a place to get your Masters or to learn Japanese before you go to school in Japan? In the former case I should imagine you'd want to visit before you decide where to go but I can't really say as I know nothing about graduate degrees in Japanese. In the latter case I think that as long as you go with a reputable place then you'll probably not have a problem, the cost of your plane ticket and traveling to visit would be expensive and I don't imagine you'll be able to figure out if a place is good or not in just a few days.


> When do I need to apply to the language schools by?

When do you want to start? You should be warned that schools in Japan start in April and October. Generally it would be impossible to start in the April semester because the visa applications were due in December, but since you're Australian you could go on a "Working Holiday" visa for the first 6 months and then change to a student visa after that. The only drawback would be that some "student discounts" wouldn't be available to you, in the case of Osaka this might mean (I'm not sure, you should check) that you can't stay in the government subsidized dorms unless you have a student visa, which could raise your rent costs considerably if your language school doesn't have it's own dorms (mine didn't).


> Did you have any trouble getting into the Language school that
> you wanted? Is there fierce competition?

Actually, right now they are desperate for students because 90% of students are Asian and with the current economic crisis that means that the number of foreign students is dropping. So if you apply somewhere you're almost certain to get in.


> I heard from someone that has been
> there, that as a western native english speaker, you have no touble entering
> into these courses as the Japanese regard us more highly than their Asian
> neighbours. Did you find this the case?

As far as getting the Student Visa is concerned, it's probably easily for a westerner than an Asian, but as far as getting into a school is concerned they'll take anyone as I said above.

Part-Time Work While Studying


> My first question is :
> 1) Is it risky to go there with less financial resources and try to find a
> job as a tutor? In other words, what is my chance to find a job as a tutor ?

The first warning I have is that you need to realize you can't officially work for the first 3 months on a student visa so it would be best if you have at least enough money to support yourself for 3 months and pay for tuition for 1 semester.

In reality this requirement is flexible, if you find students to tutor or if you work at a smaller language school then you probably won't be asked about your visa but if you work at a large language school then it's quite possible they'll be strict. If you go to a "Foreigners Bar" after you get to Japan and talk to some people there then they can also give you advice.

In any case once you get to Osaka I'd recommend you pick up the "Kansai Time Out" (~300 yen), a monthly English language magazine which has lots of ads for companies looking to hire English and other language teachers. You can buy it at the Kinokuniya in Hankyu-Umeda station or probably at your language school too. Another good thing to get is "Kansai Flea Market" (weekly, free) which you can get in the English language section of the Hankyu-Umeda Kinokuniya, it's full of ads for language schools.


> I'm a native French speaker, will it be easy to find a job teaching
> French while I study Japanese?

From what you said I'm not sure if you're a native French speaker, native English speaker, or a native speaker of both languages. The ideal situation would be if you were a native speaker of both French and English (for example French-Canadian), I saw many ads for such people and my friends in that situation found work immediately. You should have absolutely nothing to worry about in this case.

If you're only a native French speaker then you'll probably only be able to teach French as Japanese seem to think that non-native speakers can never learn the language correctly. Probably your best bet would be to apply at one of the large language schools that teach French (they all teach English but many do French too). Try Nova, they have 1 or 2 schools in Osaka that taught French and they're big enough that they can probably offer you hours every night.
http://www.novajapan.com/
or check the phone and address in France at
http://www.novajapan.com/applicat1.htm
However since you'll be studying full time and only want a part time position they may tell you to contact them after you get to Japan. You might also try searching for some native French speakers at a foreigners bar, they may even pass on their private students to you if they're leaving Japan soon.

In any case once you get to Osaka I'd recommend you pick up the "Kansai Time Out" (~300 yen), a monthly English language magazine which has lots of ads for companies looking to hire English and other language teachers. You can buy it at the Kinokuniya in Hankyu-Umeda station or probably at your language school too. Another good thing to get is "Kansai Flea Market" (weekly, free) which you can get in the English language section of the Hankyu-Umeda Kinokuniya, it's full of ads for language schools.


> Anyway...as for the teaching English in Japan you mentioned that you must
> have a 4 year degree. However, you did not mention whether that degree must
> be a degree in English or a 4 year teaching English degree or simply any
> four year degree.

Anything's OK, very few of the English teachers I met had degrees in English or ESL. If you have the TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) qualification then it'll be easier to get a job and the pay will be higher, but as far as finding a job is concerned any 4 year degree is OK.


> Without a degree is it possible to find part-time work teaching english?
> I'm looking for full-time courses lasting 6 months to a year.

Good question. As far as the visa goes it's not a problem because the student visa you'd get for the Japanese language program allows you to work. However I don't know what English Language Schools will think, it's generally taken for granted that people have a college degree because the vast majority of people have a "Working Visa" and the working visa requires a college degree. On the other hand the degree is completely irrelevant to teaching unless you majored in Teaching English as a Second Language. So not having a degree might make things a bit harder but if you're patient and aren't in a rush to start working immediately then I imagine something will work out. Perhaps work experience and age will help since they'll figure you're more responsible than the 25 year olds who do most of the English teaching.


> In regards to the costs, did you head over to Japan with plenty of money ( i.e.
> able to pay upfront for you accomodation and studying costs etc..), or did you
> have to work to help pay these costs over a period of time?

I had enough to pay for about 6 months worth of my course and living expenses but I started working when I became eligible because there was no point in spending my savings when it wasn't necessary.

Questions About Life in the Classroom


> I want to study Japanese and saw your page on Osaka`s
> Ywca. Please tell me , what size are the pre college classes , what
> percentage of students come from Kanji based backgrounds , and what are
> the teaching methods like?

At the YWCA the class size varies but is generally 10-20 students. Usually the lower levels have fewer students (say 10-12) and the higher levels have more students (say near 20) since the lower level students need more help.

As for the question of students with a Kanji based background, you will find that at all language schools the vast majority of students are Chinese or Taiwanese. At the YWCA those two groups probably made up 2/3rds of the students, Koreans were another 15% and the last 20% was mixed between SE Asians and Westerners.


> A friend of mine goes to Kyoto Ymca and she
> says they are very rigid in their style.90 percent of the students are
> Chinese and she finds it hard keeping up. I would really value some
> advice. Thanks.

So, yes I think that no matter where you go you'll find it'll take a lot of studying to keep up. The alternative would be to go through a university exchange program. Many universities in Japan have these programs with US universities and the majority of students in these programs are westerners, or so I hear. The big drawback to this is that you won't learn nearly as much because the pace is much slower and you may also find you don't speak Japanese much as the other students all know English. A friend of mine who went to Kansai Foreign Language Institute for 1 year was placed in only the 2nd semester class at my school (despite the fact that as a "Hong Kong Canadian" he could already read Kanji).

Guess that means that if your goal is to learn the most possible then you should suffer through a program with lots of Kanji, but if you'd prefer to take your time or you don't think you can deal with it then perhaps an exchange program would be better.

Another alternative is to study Japanese back home for a while before going, I had 1.5 years of Japanese at the university here before I went so I could already read around 300-400 Kanji when I went. That was a big help because it meant I already knew the common Kanji radicals (parts of the characters) and understood a decent amount of grammer. As a result I never really had the big shock of having to learn to "speak backwards" in Japanese while getting tons of strange Chinese characters stuffed down my throat, I already knew how to do a bit of both when I went. I once read about a study on this issue and it found that people who studied some Japanese in their home country before going to Japan overwhelmingly felt more confidence with the language then people who had learned Japanese from scratch in Japan, even after they had lived in Japan for several years.


> Did you have a mixture of ages in your classes or were they more geared to
> the younger folks..

Mostly younger people, but not exclusively. For example of the 15 people in my class one was 35, another 30, and several in their late 20's but the majority were in their late teens or early 20's.


> Also, did you have a high level of Japanese before starting your course? C ould
> you read much kanji?

I had studied 1.5 years at the university in America so I already knew the grammar and could read ~400 Kanji. If possible you should learn about this much too because you'll find the experience much more productive then people who start from scratch. It's possible to make it even if you have no background but the first 6 months will be very difficult as the courses are generally taught entirely in Japanese, even for beginners (this is because there is no common language that everyone understands).

General Language School Questions


> There are so many schools to choose from! Any advice on how to go about
> choosing a "good" school?

If you know what city you want to go to then that'll narrow things down a bit. Schools geared towards westerners, such as "Eurocenters", are often expensive so you probably don't want to consider those. You should also make sure the school either has a dorm or can help with housing, if you have to find your own housing it will be very expensive. Other then that I guess you just have to see what other people have to say about particular schools. If you want to go to Osaka / Kansai I can recommend the Osaka YWCA which is where I studied, if you want to go to Tokyo then there's a million places to choose from and I can't say too much about that. If you go to Tokyo a teacher here at Yale once recommended the Naganuma school since they say that's one of the oldest language schools in Japan. The Human Academy in Yokohama has dorm rooms for reasonable rates, but I think most schools can help you with housing anyways. The YMCA & YWCA schools have good reputations, they're not health clubs like in America but are in fact language schools. Anyways, good luck in finding a good place!


> what level of Japanese did you leave the course with (i.e. could you
> communication quite freely with people, having no trouble understanding radio
> and TV etc...)?

I could read the newspaper and regular books (classics/literature are still too hard), could understand TV, and could communicate just fine.

If you go to Japan knowing no Japanese and take a full time course then you'll probably be able to communicate OK after less than 6 months, if you're 25 or younger (older people tend to learn slower). TV shouldn't take too much longer. As far as reading is concerned you should be able to read some newspaper articles after 1.5 years and the majority of articles in under 2 years (less time if you know Japanese before you go, I took 1 year since I started out knowing some). This probably sounds very slow but it's not as bad as it sounds, even adult Japanese don't understand some newspaper articles when it's about a topic they aren't familiar with and hence uses Kanji they aren't familiar with. In fact after only 6 months you can read some simple stories.

Another gauge of ability if the "Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken" (Japanese language proficiency exam). This is basically equivalent to the TOEFL in the US (Test of English as a Foreign Language). There are 4 different Nouryoku Shiken's. Level 4 is the easiest, after 3 months in Japan you can pass that. After 6 months you can pass Level 3. After 1-1.5 years you can pass Level 2 (depends on how hard you work and if you knew something when you went to Japan). If you pass Level 1 then all universities in Japan will accept that as sufficient Japanese ability to study in Japan. Level 1 will take 1.5-2 years depending again on your previous study.


> Your page about studying in japan at cheapest way is indeed very useful!
> One thing i would like to know: insurance. I heard it is quite expensive.
> Does the school covers insurance?.

I'm not sure what kind of insurance you are referring to but it is probably health insurance, right? I don't know how it is for people working in Japan, but for students it is very cheap, under 2000 yen (US$17) per month. Unfortunately this only covers 70% of your medical bills, if you need to go to the doctor for anything you'll still have to cover the other 30%. On the bright side, in Osaka Prefecture the "International House" provides free suplementary insurance to foreign students that covers something like 75% of that 30%, meaning that in the end you only have to pay about 8% of your medical bill. Probably there's similar programs in other areas.

If you're working full time then insurance may be much more expensive as the monthly fee is based on your income. I don't know what the rate is, perhaps it is quite high. However since America has probably the highest medical expenses in the world it may still not be so bad from my perspective.


> I'm third generation Japanese and have the the yearning
> to really learn the language.

Be prepared to get some strange looks from people when they find out you aren't fluent in Japanese. For some reason many Japanese people just can't seem to grasp the concept of an ethnic Japanese not speaking the language. Probably it's just because every Japanese person they've ever met is a native speaker so it's a strange concept to them that a Japanese person might not speak the language. A Japanese-Philipino friend said the most useful word for him was "wakaranai" ("I don't know" / "I don't understand"), he used that anytime a random Japanese person would ask him something like directions. I never had that problem since most people assume a white person can't speak Japanese.


> I Have looked into scholarships for Japanese Universities but virtually al l
> apply for a Graduate/Masters level. I would have to spend a year in a Japa nese
> Language school before being able to qualify to enter at that level.

This is probably the case most of the time but I think it also depends on your major. I had a Mexican friend who was studying management and she didn't know any Japanese when she got her scholarship, likewise a Tunisian friend also in management at a different university didn't know Japanese either. These are probably special cases but perhaps there is something available for you, depending on your major. Try looking at :
http://www.aiej.or.jp/nr/nre3.html
My friends both had the Monbusho scholarship and according to the following web page it looks like some of them don't require Japanese.
http://www.aiej.or.jp/nr/nre3_a_004.html#sisj2


> Also, what was the attitude of the Japanese people to you?

As far as the attitude of Japanese people towards me, they love native English speakers so there's nothing for you to worry about. Actually it can at times get annoying because people are constantly amazed at anything "Japanese" that you can do, if you can use chopsticks or say "Konnichiwa" then you'll be constantly told "jyouzu desu nee!" ("you're so good at chopsticks / Japanese").


> 2) In similar question, what is my chance to find a job in a company after
> my studies?
> I have a BA in internaltional business in France. Then an MBA in the
> University of Northern Iowa. 2 years experience in Singapore as a sales
> exectutive in international logistics.

I am not as optimistic about this because I have had two friends (one German, one American) who tried to find jobs in Japan after studying Japanese and both who ended up returning to their home countries. Like you both had college degrees and experience, one as a lawyer in International Law and the other as an Electrical Engineer. This is not to say things are impossible, but it does seem rare for foreigners to be hired in Japan for anything other than jobs involving their foreign language skills (usually that means teaching English). The best option is generally to interview in your own country for a position in Japan, for example two friends of mine got programming jobs with Mitsubishi-Japan after interviews at their college in the US. To find web sites with job opportunities check some of the things on my web page at :
../?jobs


> help me in search of cheap Language Institution with part time language
> studyto which I can apply,it would be ok if it is not so good in
> teaching,as I think I could learn it by myself as i know nearly 800
> Kanji. Where can you advise me to apply? THANK YOU VERY MUCH

How long do you want to study? Do you know about the problems in getting a visa? If you want to study three months or less then you can possibly get a tourist visa and study with that. However, if you want to study long term, say a year or so, then you MUST have a work visa or a student visa unless you're Australian, New Zealander, or Canadian in which case you can get a working holiday visa. To get a student visa you have to study full time, that means at least 20 hours of Japanese class per week. So, unless you already have a job in Japan then it is probably impossible for you to study only part time in Japan.

If you somehow can get a visa to Japan without being a student then a really cheap place to study is the Osaka International House. The Japanese course there is subsidized by the Osaka government so it only costs 10,000 yen for a 3 month course with 3 days per week, 2 hours per day. However you can probably only apply when you're already in Japan and you'll anyways need a visa, which you can usually only get when you're a full-time student at a language school or else a company hires you full time.

If you study full time then you probably saw the information on my web page about that. To begin in April you must apply by early December or to begin in October you must apply by mid-June. That is so the government has time to approve your visa. The application will cost about 20,000 yen, entrance fee about 80,000 yen, and tuition about 600,000-700,000 yen per year. That is kind of expensive, but with the student visa you can do 20 hours of part time work per week. You asked where to apply. If you want to go to Kansai (Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto area) then why don't you look at the Japanese language programs advertising in Kansai Time Out. I scanned their advertisements into the computer so you can find out their phone numbers and stuff on the internet.

../Japan/Osaka_Schools/Schools2.jpg
../Japan/Osaka_Schools/Schools1.jpg

I think the school I studied at was very good, information about the YWCA is at

../?YWCA

I am sorry I could not give you a good answer about studying part time. The YWCA and all the other schools have part-time courses but you must have a visa to go to Japan. If you can somehow get a visa for part-time study then these courses are cheaper, for example at the YWCA it is about 70,000 for a 3 day per week 3 month course.


> I am a bit rusty in my language skills
> now, so I am looking for a corrsepondance course to study Japanese at
> home. My university doesn't offer any Japanese. If you can help me or
> know who I should contact please let me know as soon as possible.

I noticed one thing in "Mangajin", but it's probably not exactly what you had in mind. There's some other ideas later in this email. Anyways, the Mangajin ad says :

Study Japanese Conversation at Home!

With comprehensive audio castte/book. Your work is corrected and comments are given twice a month.

21,00 yen for three months (don't know if that means 2,100 or 21,000)

Central Japanese Language School
1-11-5 Nihombashi Muromachi
Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Tel : 03-3243-1960, Fax : 03-3231-1913

The magazine I looked at was a few years old so this may be out of date. Also, if you call Japan you should dial
011-81-3-3243-1960
as the "0" at the beginning of the number ("03-...") should not be dialed when you call from a foreign country. See my "Calling to Japan" info on calling there cheaply.
other_Japan.html#phone

Also, there are tons of computer programs advertised in Mangajin that are supposed to help you learn Japanese. If you want to try using a program then check the web pages
http://www.tjp.washington.edu/computing/japanese/
and there's also a bunch of free software, including learning stuff, at
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/japanese/monash/00INDEX.html

You might also want to check through a recent "Mangajin" because they have a lot of advertisements related to studying Japanese : language schools, computer software for studying, and perhaps there's a correspondence course too. Their web site is
http://www.wasabibrothers.com/index2.htm
although I imagine they don't have info about their advertisers on the page. I have a few issues from a couple of years ago, I'll flip through one and see if I come across anything.

Stanford University's JGuide might also have something. A quick glance at the "Study" section of it didn't seem to show any correspondence courses but if you look around more there might be something.

Osaka, Kyoto, and other Kansai


> Ravi, I really need a peaceful serene place where I can escape to. I
> suppose Osaka, Kyoto are all places like that -- places of the Old Times.

Osaka is a completely modern city, no serene places around unless you go out of your way and go to some of the parks. The buildings aren't that tall, over 10 stories is rare, so it's not a city of skyscrapers but it is nevertheless definitely a modern city. Kyoto is the same but if you go to temples there then it's nice and somewhat serene (but there's an entrance fee of around $4 per temple at the popular temples, it's free at the smaller ones). Anyways, if you're in Osaka it's only a 45 minute $3.50 ride to Kyoto on the train so you can go some nice places on weekends or the like.


> We go for five days to Kyoto where we found a
> guest house which has a former gardener's hut resurrected into a small
> apartment.

That should be nice, I found Kyoto to be a very strange city because there are so many old things like temples and such, but it's all surrounded by modern buildings. The new central train station is an especially sharp contrast to the Kyoto you're probably imagining.


> I'm using a Japan Rail Pass when I go to Kyoto, is there anything I
> need to know about it?

It should be very easy to use because it lets you use all JR trains including Shinkansen (bullet trains), except for the very fastest Shinkansen which has an extra charge. One thing to be careful about is that you take a JR train, the city subway lines and some other rail lines are run by different companies and you can't use the JR Rail Pass on them. Kansai (Kyoto, Osaka, etc.) is said to have the worst case of this, there are around 10 different train companies there! For example if you go between Osaka and Kyoto you'll have 3 different choices. However the train tracks and train stations for the different companies aren't shared, so as long as you go to a station labelled JR then you don't need to worry that you might take a different company's train.

Other Places and Things in Japan


> Please tell me anything which i have to do to apply for the host, when is
> the date available for me to stay there? ....

I am sorry but the only host family programs I know are arranged by language schools and only students studying there can have host families. There should be other programs but I don't know of them.

If you want to take a language course and do a homestay at the same time then there are summer courses. The one at my former school was from July 21 - August 8th, the tuition was 65,000 yen and the homestay is probably under 60,000 yen including meals. So in total about US$1,000 for a homestay and three week language course.

If you plan to study full time at a language school in Osaka then you should be able to find a host family. At my school some students stayed with a host family the first few months in Japan and others enrolled in an Osaka Prefecture program where they still lived in a dorm but they spent holidays with a host family. However both are options only if you are a full-time student.

If you don't plan on studying full-time then I'm not sure how you can arrange something. I know programs exist but unfortunately I don't know how to get ahold of them.

As for my experience, my host family was very nice and helpful and it was overall a great experience. Everyone I knew who had a homestay also thought it was a great experience and it was also nice to have someone else to talk to.

One place you might be able to find some homestay info is through the "Homestay" links at
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2025.html
It looks like these pages are only people's stories about their homestay experiences, but perhaps if you look a bit more carefully than I did then you'll find something useful.

Sorry I couldn't answer your question completely.


> Then we go for two nights to Ushimado in the Okayama
> Prefecture. The Prefecture runs six "villas" with five or so bedrooms
> each and a kitchen and common living area.

I stayed in one of those places too and put a little comment about it on my home page. If you haven't already seen the information from Okayama Prefecture then you might want to check the home page for the villas you're planning on staying in. It's at :
http://www.harenet.or.jp/villa/index.html
The Ushimado one's at :
http://www.harenet.or.jp/villa/ushi.htm
I stayed in the one in Hattoji. It's too bad you'll have to walk 30 minutes to get there, the Hattoji one could be reached by a bus from the train station around 30 minutes away.


> My friend is going to Japan in three days and has offered to bring
> something back for me. He ask me what I would like to have , it can't be
> very big because of his limit on space do you have any ideas Thanks

Well, there's the standard Japanese fan. You can buy them in tourist designs with geisha or whatever looks "Japanese" to you. But as with tourist items everywhere, that isn't what Japanese people actually use. They go with simpler designs that don't have anything distinctively "Japanese" about them.

You could also get a sake cup. The tourist spots will have them with designs that look like a famous building or object there, others that are just glazed, etc. That might look interesting to display in your room back home.

One interesting habit in Japan is that they often give towels as gifts to people (perhaps because Japanese like the furo/bath so much). Hence you can find bath towels or small towels with sumo on them or some other more local design at many tourist spots. Don't know if you want something like that but it might be an interesting addition to the bathroom. Some American friends of mine hung up the "Sumo" hand towel I gave them in their bathroom.

You might like some Japanese sweets. For example souvenir boxes of mochi, etc. are available for 500-1000 yen at the train stations or airport.

I got a traditional straw farmers hat that everyone here thinks is interesting, but I don't think I saw those at tourist spots in the city (I got it in a small rural town that's preserved as it was 100 years ago). It was also a real hassle to bring back because it would get squished in luggage. As a result I wore it around my neck on the airplane, I'm sure everyone else thought it was funny.

There's tons of "omiyage" shops at all tourist spots in Japan. If you don't like the recommendations I gave then your friend should go into one of those shops and there are a million other possibilities there.


> I was wondering if you could tell me what the time difference is
> between here and Japan.

Well I don't know where you live, but let's suppose it's the East Coast of the US. In that case Japan is 14 hours ahead of you during the winter (~October - April), but when daylight savings time changes (~April - September) then it will only be 13 hours ahead.

Last modified: February 15, 1999
Ravi Montenegro (monteneg@yahoo.com)