hiroshima.html

Hiroshima University

Questions

1. How many years did you study Japanese at the U before going to Japan? Any thoughts on what is best?
2. How long did you study in Japan?
3. Why did you decide on the program that you did?
4. What were monthly expenses? Any advice?
5. Where did you live? Apartment/Dorm/Hostfamily? Any suggestions?
6. What courses did you take in Japan? Was it easy to get your credits transferred?
7. How difficult were the classes? Any advice?
8. Any advice on how to make Japanese friends?
9. What is spoken most often, Japanese or English? Is it true that English is spoken more often at Universities which are located in as big a city as Tokyo. Is it true that in Universities like Hiroshima, Kanda and Nanzan Japanese is spoken more often?
10. Would you recommend the program you experienced to fellow students?

Male 1 (00-01)

1. I studied for two years at the U before going to Japan. I finished 3rd year Japanese before leaving.

2. I studied for 10 months at Hiroshima University.

3. Bilateral Exchange was by far the cheapest option. It also offered a great scholarship. I chose Hiroshima over Tokyo because there was a better chance of getting accepted and also receiving the scholarship.

4. The dorms at Hiroshima are like 40-45 dollars a month. I spent most of my money on food. To use a cell phone, it costs about 35 to 60 dollars a month. To save money on food, it was cost effective to eat at the school cafetarias. Also, by cooking noodles or rice, that would also be somewhat cheap. Although I didn't cook much.

5. I lived in the student dormitories at Hiroshima University.

6. I actually ran into trouble as far as some of the transfer credits. As long as the course is different from anything at the U, you should be okay. But if you want any courses to cuont as upper level, you must bring back the course syllabus and the completed work.

7. The courses at Hiroshima were incredibly easy. But I only took courses taught in English, which are geared mainly to foreigners. But they were extremely easy. Although I heard from other students who took a couple courses by the head of our program, and he assigned a lot more homeowork and reports than did the Japanese instructors.

8. The best way to make Japanese friends was to be very open and just start talking to people, even if you don't know them. Although most Japanese are surprised at such forwardness because they tend to be unduly shy. It is a good idea to join a club circle. This is how the Japanese usually make their friends. They choose a club activity. It reminded me of high school , and I thought it was a little odd for people who were notably bad at tennnis to play 20 hours a week. But apparently, those are the social imperatives. Also go to organizational meetings for foreigners and Japanese.

9. In HIroshima, not many people were good at English. Their shyness fettered their language learning curve in my opinion. But many of them were eager to speak English if in a comfortable environment. But your Japanese should improve, unless of course you only hang out with foriegners. This happened to be the case for some people, as most of the Japanese students aren't apt to go to as many social events as foreigners. Most of the Japanese at the dormitories aren't very friendly. But many of them are very nice, but you should take the initiative and get to know them. For the Tokyo , the bilateral exchange program is for an English speaking school, so naturally the students you get to know there probably use a lot of Englsish.

10. I would absolutely recommend the program. Hiroshima campus an interesting place, but it is seeped with rusticity. Although Hiroshima is about 30 minutes away by train, and it was enjoyable to go there during the weekends. The Hiroshima experience is totally what you make out of it. If you go out and meet people, and go to the city for fun, I think you can have an enjoyable experience.

Male 2 (00-01)

1. Technically, I only studied for two years at the U, but I went through 3rd year Japanese. I think the best amount of Japanese to have studied before you go to Japan is as much as possible. The more you know, the more you'll get out of your experience. I, personally, don't understand why anyone would want to jump into living in a foreign country before first having a comfortable grasp of the local language. More importantly than how many years you've studied in college, I would make sure that you have at least had some experience speaking some Japanese with a conversation partner or Japanese friend. If you haven't had any experience communicating in Japanese at all, you're going to have a lot of trouble getting by in Japan. Of course, getting better at Japanese is one of the main reasons to study in Japan, but if you come completely unable to hold a conversation, the likelihood that you'll spend most of your time with other English speakers during the entirety of your stay and learn relatively little is very high.

2. One academic year.

3. Hiroshima University wasn't my first choice, and I didn't have any particular reason for wanting to go to Hiroshima, but that seemed to be the easiest program to get into, and with a scholarship at that (though it was still pretty difficult for me). It sounded like about as good a program as any of them to me, so I went ahead with Hiroshima. I had also applied for a few other programs and didn't get in.

4. I received a stipend of 80,000 yen a month, and it was more than enough to live on. I felt like I had so much money, I would often spend it on frivolous things. I could have probably gotten by on only 50,000 yen a month if I had to. The biggest reason it's so inexpensive is because the rent at the dorms we lived in was only about 10,000 yen a month (including utilities). If you get a monthly allowance, try not to spend most of it right away at the beginning of the month. If you have only your own money, you will probably want to make sure that you always a few 10,000 yen available in case of emergencies. If you are in any social clubs, they might have a few eating/drinking parties (konpa), which may cost you 5,000 yen or more, and you don't want to miss out on that.

5. Dorm. I also had a host family who lived in the country who I would come to visit occasionally. I couldn't imagine living with a host family for my entire stay. I enjoyed the independence of having my own one-person dorm room. I suppose I would have gotten used to my host family if I had had to live with them the whole time, and I probably would have always had plenty of good food to eat. I hear host families also introduce you to their friends, which can be another good way to meet people, but I really liked the independence of the dorms. An apartment would have been much nicer than the filthy little dorms we lived in, but much more expensive. Definitely go with the dorms if you can.

6. I took exclusively Japanese language and culture classes that were offered for foreign students, much to the dismay of some of my friends and advisers who wanted me to take some of the regular classes there, but I wasn't really interested in taking any. The credits transferred automatically. It's good if you just need plain credits. If you need to fulfill any specific requirements, that's a lot harder. You will need to get most of them approved before you go, and you'll find that there aren't many requirements that you'll be able to fulfill while studying abroad. I managed to get some of my Japanese language and culture to count toward my ALL major and one class to count toward my CLA requirements, but it wasn't much. If you're hoping to graduate as soon as possible, you might want to skip the whole thing.

7. They varied a lot depending on the class and instructor, but they were generaly pretty easy. We were allowed to take Japanese classes one level higher than what we tested into if we wanted a challenge, but it was still kind of a chance thing. They didn't really have their act together and some of the level 4 classes were much harder than the other level 4 classes. Registration was done after the first week of classes, so we had the opportunity to sample the classes before we commited ourselves to them. The classes all meet only once a week, which makes the work load seem pretty light. You can take as many classes as you want though.

8. I joined a club. I didn't have many Japanese friends from outside my club, so I don't know how I would have made many friends without joining. My club turned out to be a little bit more commitment than I wanted though.

9. I really don't know since I've only gone to school in Hiroshima. It seems that there were very few Japanese who spoke English in Hiroshima. If you want to speak English, you have to stick to the other foreign students. You can very easily end up hanging out almost exclusively with the other foreign students, as most of the students in my program did, especially if you don't speak much Japanese. I also probably spent more time with the other foreign students than I should have, especially during the first few months I was there. It's very easy to get along with the other foreign students there, because they can all relate very easily as foreign students in Japan, even if they are from different countries. Hanging out with people from lots of different countries is cool too, but if you want to learn Japanese and about Japanese culture, it's probably a good idea not to spend all of your time with them.

10. I would recommend it, because it's a very flexible program. What you get out of it is in direct relation to what you put into it. If you are afraid that you'll end up speaking too much English and not learn any Japanese, and would rather be put into a sink or swim experience where hardly anyone else speaks English and you are forced to speak Japanese, this program probably isn't quite what you're looking for. If you want to just try living in Japan, knowing that you will always have people to speak English with so you won't get homesick, this program will probably work well for that too. If you have a good base knowledge of Japanese and come willing to learn, this program should probably do the job for you.

Male 3 (03-04)

1. I studied at the U for two years before I went to HIroshima. I would recommend taking as much Japanese as possible before going so that it's easier to be independent and learn the language, which will greatly influence the type of experience.

2. One year in the bilateral exchange program.

3. There were many reasons for me to pick Hiroshima over Tokyo including: almost guaranteed scholarship money, people in Hiroshima speak less English which would force me to speak Japanese, Tokyo is ridiculously expensive to live in, and I liked the idea that Hiroshima University was in the country side, but I could access Hiroshima City easily.

4. Monthly expenses include: Rent - 4700 yen, Utilities - about 5000 to10000 yen depending on how much air conditioning is used, Cell Phone - about 6000 yen if you dont call home all the time, not much else after that.

5. I lived in Ikenoue Gakusei Shukusha, which was livable, but not exactly comfortable. To get an idea of what it looks like, think of a prison with doors instead of bars. The rooms are tiny, the kitchen is dirty and it's just not very comfortable, but livable. On the plus side, many of the friends I made lived there so it was convenient. I recommend trying to get into International House. Those rooms have their own showers, hot water in their sinks, more room altogether, a cooking area, and it is cleaner...Just a better deal.

6. I got back a month ago, so I'm still not sure about the whole credit transferring stuff, but I really don't expect much transferring since the classes in Hiroshima were ridiculously easy. I would feel like I didn't deserve any true University of Minnesota credits... basically I'm saying, "have fun, travel a lot, study and do well in classes for your own sake"

7. The classes are easy like I said previously, but there is a lot of busy work sometimes. I recommend you do the busy work, study for tests (it's not that much studying) and get the grades, but mostly I recommend you speak as much as you can everyday and self teach yourself because the Japanese classes aren't that great.

8. Joining the clubs and circles are usually a great way to meet people. Most of the friends I met were through other friends, my Aikido dojo, my job, parties, and bars... so its pretty much the same as America if you think about it. I recommend not jumping into a group right away out of convenience. There are plenty of really cool people in Saijo and most of the people from other countries are willing to to meet new friends.

9. I've never been to school in Tokyo, so I am not really sure if English is spoken more; however, when I visited there for sightseeing, I did notice that a lot more people could speak English. I am pretty sure that someone could get around Tokyo not knowing any Japanese. In Saijo, the only people who feel comfortable speaking English are the professors and foreign students. Therefore, you will be forced to use Japanese anytime you leave your dorm to do anything, which is good for practice.

10. I recommend this program to anyone who wants to learn more about Japan or improve their Japanese language proficiency. I am really happy that I went and I'm pretty sure that all my other friends were too.

11. I'm sure every student who has gone to Japan has said not to hang out with strictly Americans because it will limit your experience, and from what I have seen it is completely true. The Americans in the year I went, stuck together to continue living their lives exactly the way they did in America such as playing video games all day, disrespecting foreign cultures and causing havoc wherever they went. A lot of the Americans I talked to, after the year was over, told me that they regretted not having more Japanese friends, not exploring Japan more, and not learning more about the culture. It is comforting to be around Americans that can relate with you regarding American topics, but limiting yourself to only talk to Americans is limiting yourself to all of the great learning experiences in Saijo you could have.

Male 4 (04-05)

1. I took 3 years of Japanese before going to Japan. Maybe I wasn't the best student of Japanese but I think atleast one year of Japanese will make your experience better. The more Japanese you know prior to going, the more likely you are to interact with Japanese students and make meaningful and lasting friendships in Japan.

2. One year.

3. It was one of the cheaper programs. I didn't want to go to a big city like Tokyo. I hear Tokyo is so different from the rest of Japan anyway. I just wanted to go to Japan and didn't have much of a preference where since I had never been to Japan before. This was the only program I applied for.

4. Rent was about 4,700 yen a month and utilities were about 9,000 yen a month (it varies based on how much electricity and water you use). Cellphone was about the 5,000 yen a month. I probably spent about 25,000 yen a month on food. I chose to get a dialup internet connection in my dorm room for about 2,500 yen a month. I received the JASSO scholarship, which awards 80,000 a month. It sounds like a lot but if you want to travel a lot you will need to bring more money on your own. I worked a number of part time jobs on top of getting the scholarship and between drinking parties, some light travel, and daily expenses I always found myself draining my accound by the end of the month. If you want to save money try cooking yourself and making use of the cafeterias on campus. Other expenses to take into account are things like a re-entry permit, which is required if you wish to travel outside of the country during your stay in Japan. This costs around 6,000 yen, or 8,000 yen depending on the kind you get. Also, when you fly back you will have to pay an airport tax even if you are on scholarship. This is generally from 7,000 to 12,000 yen.

5. I lived in the ikenoue gakusei shukusha (dormitory). There are about 15 people (japanese and international students together) per floor, shared shower and kitchen facilities and personal toilets and sinks (only running cold water). The airconditioners are old and if you don't clean them out you can get sick from using them. The dorms are pretty small, dirty and depressing. Also, the dorms are separated by girls and boys and the staff will try to be really strict about not letting guys in the girls dorm and vice versa. The year I was in the dorms the coordinator gave us some empty threats about guys going to the girls dorm. In short, the coordinator threatened to have all of the exchange students removed from the dorms when in all reality she would have lost her job had that happen. So be prepared to deal with a lot of passive-aggressive threats and lies in regards to dormitory policy.

6. I took Japanese courses and linguistics courses. I would have liked to take more classes in Japanese but my proficiency level wasn't good enough. Some of my classes were taught in a combination of English and Japanese. My credits have yet to transfer. There are 5 levels of Japanese classes. You can take up to 2 levels at a time. I took level 2 and 3 first semester, and 3 and 4 second semester. I took a great linguistics class by Yanase-sensei (Communicative Competence) and a hand full of education courses.

7. The upper level language courses are very demanding but I recommend taking level 4 as that Tamura-sensei is the best teacher you will ever meet. The classes focus on reading and writing and spend a lot of time on kanji. I didn't retain any of the kanji I learned or any of the vocabulary because I never used it outside of the classroom even though I was using Japanese every day. However, it is still a good experience to take the classes. Aside from the classes taught by Hotta-sensei and Yanase-sensei (a linguistics teacher) I found the other classes to be a joke and not worth my time.

8. There are clubs on campus for meeting Japanese friends. I recommend joining a club. It is good to see the whole culture around school clubs and you can get more involved in the school. I found it very hard to make friends in Japan as many people are very shy and introverted. Even if you have a high proficiency in Japanese, everyone I knew said they had a really hard time making friends. My best friends were other foreign students, so I'd recommend making Korean or Chinese friends right away because they always have better Japanese.

9. I spoke English too much in Japan. I had a number of part time jobs and tutoring jobs where I was required to use English. I'm interested in education and this is a big problem for a lot of teachers I talked to. They want to learn Japanese but they use English all day for their job. Good places to go for using Japanese are places like karaoke, homestays, university events like hanami and such. Towards the end of the year you can sign up for an internship. Even if you have low Japanese proficiency and the teachers tell you that you can't do it try anyway. You will find the staff will tell you one thing, and then when you approach them in their office they will tell you something totally different. So I really recommend trying to do an internship or somehow get involved in the University of community. This was one of the weaknesses of the program, the staff don't encourage the students to really get involved so you have to work at it yourself. We had a very active group the year I went, but had not a few people stepped out and pushed for some events everyone would have had a much more boring and uneventful time.

10. I really recommend this program. I have a low opinion of some of the study abroad staff at Hiroshima University but there are enough things to do at the campus that anyone can have a lot of fun. You just have to put in a bit more effort and energy to get something done.

Male 5 (05-06)

1. I studied for 3 years before leaving for Japan, but I took 1st through 4th year Japanese. I think it's a good idea to take as much Japanese as possible before leaving. The reason is, once you have a base in Japanese it is a lot easier to grow even more once you are in Japan. I would recommend that one have taken at least 3rd year in order to get the maximum benefit from studying abroad.

2. I studied for 2 semesters at Hiroshima University. The visa you receive allows you to stay in Japan for a maximum of 1 year, and I stayed 11 months, as long as I could. I would definitely try and spend as much time as possible when you go there, because its going to be difficult and expensive to try and get over there again. Plus, it is great to be able to travel around Japan after you have gotten used to being there.

3. I chose Hiroshima because it was recommended to me by someone who was going there. The main benefits the Hiroshima program has to offer is first and foremost the JASSO scholarship. Although it isn't guaranteed that you will receive it, but it is very likely you will get it at Hiroshima. It pays for your ticket to and from Japan, plus a monthly stipend of 80,000 yen, which was more than enough for me to live off of. Hiroshima University is not in a big city, so if you are going to Japan to experience that it might not be for you. The smaller town breeds a larger sense of community, and there are lots of ways to get involved.

4. It can be hard to gauge monthly expenses, since it is tied to personal habits. Your first month will be where you spend the majority of your money. You'll have to buy bedding, cooking utensils, and various other things. The first month I wouldn't be surprised if someone would spend around $1000 or so. From the second month on it gets much less expensive. If you are just spending money to eat and pay rent, its very inexpensive at Hiroshima U. Rent in the dormitories is only around $50 a month, plus utilities which add up to around $100 or so on average (more expensive in Winter, less in Summer). With other costs like food and miscellaneous, it only cost me around $300-400 a month. However, I like to save my money so this may differ from others. I would recommend saving as much money as possible so that you can travel throughout your study abroad.

5. You stay in the infamous dormitories at Hiroshima U. They are called Ikenoue Gakusei Shukusha, or just Ikenoue. The living conditions are analogous to a really bad apartment you might find off-campus at the U. The rooms are tiny, and it gets really cold in the winter. The kitchens are fairly dirty, but you do have cleaning ladies that clean every day (but they are a bit nosy and tend to make trouble for you if they don't like you. Get on their good side!). The upside to the living situation there though, is that you are part of the larger community both amongst the fellow program participants and other Japanese students. And of course, really cheap rent. I would definitely recommend living in the dorms over other options. You may not like the physical conditions, but at least you'll have something in common with all your other program participants.

6. I took Japanese language, law, and economy courses. I don't know about other programs in terms of academic classes offered, but Hiroshima's classes are rather easy. I didn't particularly need any credits ( only 4 or so for my Japanese major, some other classes for a International Business minor which I dropped for other reasons). I would recommend talking with your advisers before going on your study abroad and seeing which classes they would accept as transfer, if credits are really important to you than this study abroad may not be the best. The credits transferred fairly easily, but I had talked to my advisers beforehand.

7. The non-language courses were really easy, at least the ones I took. (Literature may be more difficult) Language courses were I would say average. I would recommend classes from Tamura-sensei, and from what I hear, classes from Tsunematsu-sensei are really bad. I think that is another reason I would recommend improving your Japanese ability before you get to Japan, is that the lower level classes are so-so but the higher ability classes are fairly good. However, I would strongly recommend against taking the listening classes. They were not that helpful and just plain frustrating.

8. Don't be shy. That's the first and most important point. Try and talk with as many people as possible in as many situations as possible. Don't feel embarrassed about your Japanese abilities, just try and talk with them and you'll be surprised how well it works out. Also, join a club that interests you. That's a great way to become part of a group and make some close friends. Finally, some people will want your help with various school projects, I made some great friends by just helping people out. You also get a mentor/tutor when you first come to Japan. Try and integrate them into your circle of friends (as it will be very likely that a sort of HUSA clique will form).

9. What is spoken is entirely dependent on you. If you surround yourself with Japanese friends and only hang out with Japanese people, then you will be speaking Japanese. On the other hand, if you surround yourself with just fellow program participants you'll find yourself only speaking English. In the general campus and immediate area, there will be some English, but shopping and pretty much everyday life will require you to speak Japanese, or at least some. Hiroshima U is in town called Saijo, 45 minutes away from Hiroshima city, so the majority of people don't speak English. However, the town is used to foreigner presence, so you won't feel like an alien in the city. There is probably a plethora of English menus and the like, however I never really used them.

10. I think the program overall is not structured too well. However, for someone like me who likes to do my own thing, it provides a lot of freedom to do things on my own. The scholarship is one of the best things about the program, and will make your study abroad incredibly better, since you wont have to worry about money and you will be able to travel to all different parts of Japan. (If you are good at saving money) I was able to visit Okinawa, remote parts of Kyushu, various areas around Hiroshima, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto (twice), Tokyo (twice), Yokohama and Nikko. If I didn't have the scholarship or the latitude of the program, I probably wouldn't have been able to be as active as I was. However, if you are looking for lots of opportunities to engage in programs like Homestays or other such trips that you don't want to organize on your own, then Hiroshima may not be for you. My overall experience was benefited by the other foreign students who came to the program, they were some of the greatest people I have met with a wide range of backgrounds. This definitely made my stay in Japan great.

11. Be proactive and don't just settle into malaise on whatever study abroad trip you go on. I think the fact that I didn't have to worry about classes made the experience better because I could devote more time to doing other things. Try and find as much things to get involved in and your experience will be incredible. Study abroad is also a great chance to improve yourself, I changed so much as a person when I was in Japan. Take the opportunity to try and do the things you never thought you would do, but secretly wanted to. Having fun and making friends is the most important thing you can do in Japan, if you are continually thinking about home and how you miss America, your trip abroad would be pointless.

Male 6 (06-07)

1. I finished second-year Japanese at the University of Minnesota before going to Japan. I also spent a lot of time studying kanji using flash cards and learning how to write all of the vocabulary in the genki books in kanji. I also studied a lot of the grammar forms in the third-year Intermediate Japanese textbook.

Everything I studied before I went to Japan was useful and helped me get even better at Japanese. I think that two years of Japanese is enough to create meaningful relationships by communicating in Japanese, and of course any more studied will make it even better. I think it is important to develop studying habits of things like Kanji, more than is required in the U of M Japanese courses. Also, I think that if you are able to take higher level language courses in Japan you will get more out of it.

2.I was there for the 2006-2007 academic year, when the second semester was over I spent about a month and a half in Japan on vacation before returning to Minnesota .

3. I chose the Hiroshima program for two reasons.

The first is, I didn't want a program in Tokyo , because I think a program in Tokyo will make it harder to build relationships with local people. I think a program in Tokyo will be popular for people who just want to have fun, and may put you in a group of Americans that always stay together and don't meet locals. Also, I had the impression that people in the big city are very used to foreigners and aren't very interested in talking to you. Actually, I think now that Tokyo locals are very friendly, but I found out the there are still two problems: one is that many Tokyo locals will insist on using English with you, making it hard to develop your Japanese skills, and two: it is inconvenient and expensive to live and travel around Tokyo no one lives by campus), making it harder to meet people on a regular basis (for example, in Sophia University, I heard that almost no one lives by campus).

The second reason is that the Hiroshima program was more easily affordable than other programs, because of paying U of M tuition directly instead of tuition to Hiroshima U, and also because of the availability of the JASSO scholarship. Also, the program housing at the dormitory is extremely inexpensive.

4.If you get the JASSO scholarship, and financial aid, you will be relatively comfortable for the stay. Rent at the dorm is about $100 dollars a month. It is good to apply for as many relevant scholarships as possible. You will need more money for travelling, which can take you from anywhere to Kyuushuu, Tokyo , or Hokkaido , to Okinawa , Korea , and Thailand .

Other than that you should investigate the program costs with the Learning Abroad Center , starting with the website.

5. I stayed in a dormitory that was very cheap, and not only did all of my exchange student friends live there, making sure you have friends near you, but it is a mixed dorm with Japanese students and you have the opportunity to mix with them. Actually the Japanese students in the dorm were pretty private, and a lot of people say that they never make friends with the Japanese students in the dorms, but actually, the few students who were proactive to make relationships with the dorm students were usually successful.
The dorm is great because you have a lot of freedom. No curfews, no responsibilities, etc. There were strict rules against having other people stay in the dorm, and having members of the opposite sex enter the dorm, but these were only lightly regulated and we often had get-togethers in the dormitory.

A disadvantage of the dorm is that the rooms are small, you share showers, you don't have hot water in your room, the dorm is quite ugly and unimpressive, it is at the top of a steep hill, and you have to share the kitchen. The bad thing about sharing the kitchens is that other students make it very messy, and also they leave food in the refrigerator so long that most of us thought it was too unsanitary to use the common refrigerators. A couple people with more money bought refrigerators, televisions, etc for their rooms but the rooms were really small so it took up a lot of space. Many people dislike the dorm because of limited amenities and little privacy.

I think an apartment would be nice because of complete freedom and more room, but it is quite expensive and you might not have friends living near you.

When I applied I really wanted to be in a host family (I have previously done a study abroad in high school in a host family and it was a great experience) and was disappointed that it wasn't available. I think host families are great because you have much more opportunities to be immersed in a language and you are more likely to develop deep relationships with members of the host family. Also, you get very in-depth experiences of Japanese culture, like holidays, food, way of living, and more. Sometimes living in a dorm you can easily associate only with other exchange students, but in a host family you are forced to make relationships with Japanese people.

A disadvantage of a host family is limited freedom. Curfews, limited transportation, and pressure to spend more time with the family that might limit you from parties with friends, long/frequent trips to other places without your family, etc. You can always depend on a host family for help, but living by yourself prepares you more for adulthood, especially adapting to another culture. Also, there can be conflicts with host families, which can create a stressful experience (although I don't think that reason should discourage people from choosing a host family option).

6. I took mostly Japanese language courses, with some other courses in Japanese culture/society, linguistics, and a couple others. All of my credits transferred as general credits, but I'm not sure yet what classes will help me complete my major, and the reality is that study abroad pushed my graduation back by a semester. However, there are a million reasons why I don't regret it and that a year abroad was worth more than four years at home.

7. Classes are not too hard. They require study habits but since they are all only two credits the work load is usually significantly less than in the U of M. My advice is to focus on Japanese language courses and study for those classes not only to get a good grade, but to improve your Japanese. Also you should take classes that are also open to Japanese students, which is a good way to meet people.

8. Join a club (or circle). Something related to your interests, or something new that sounds fun. Students in the club are trained to help you and make relationships with you if you become a serious member of the club. Whether the club is strict and skill-based, or just for fun, they are all highly focused on building relationships between the club members. One problem about clubs is that clubs actually recruit new members in the spring semester, the beginning of their school year, which is at least halfway through your study abroad. Joining in the spring semester will make it easier for them to accommodate you, but it will make your experience much shorter. To important thing is to be proactive about finding clubs and joining them, during any time of the year. It is good to have extra money for club activities.

The exchange students to Japan my year were successful at making friends: the biggest thing they did was to organize big open BYOB parties and encouraged everyone to invite all their Japanese friends, making it easily accessible in a park or open area. This created a network of relationships between exchange students and Japanese students.

If you get a tutor or conversation partner, which I did both, be proactive about regularly spending time with him/her, because even if at first you don't seem like you get along very well, you can have a very valuable relationship with them, and they can introduce you to their friends.

There are a few good classes in the Hiroshima University program that purposefully invite both exchange students and Japanese students and set up exchanges between them.

The Hiroshima program has a few short-term homestays that I highly recommend.

Also, this is important, be aware of the choices you make about your friends. Especially, if you have the choice to hang out with Japanese friends or exchange students friends, always choose the Japanese friends. It is very easy for the college exchange student to fall into the trap of only spending time with exchange students, and never getting immersed in Japanese culture.

Finally, THIS THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE I HAVE about making friends in Japan : use Japanese as much as possible. Many Japanese will be happy to practice English with you, but it is your time to learn Japanese. Also, most people that said that Japanese are unfriendly and hard to make friends with were people that tried using English to communicate with Japanese people. Japanese people actually have low confidence speaking English and will become shy if you only use English with them. If you use Japanese, even with terrible grammar and horrible pronunciation, it will be a great way to improve your Japanese, and your Japanese partner will feel more comfortable developing a normal relationship with you. Also it is kind of fun because Japanese people often act very impressed and pleased when you use Japanese.

9. I think this is largely true. Tokyo locals are much more accustomed to communicating in English with foreigners and since foreigner density is high you are likely to be meeting people who speak English, while out of Tokyo Japanese people lack confidence in English and are happy to be talked to in Japanese. But I think that at any program, you can end speaking almost only English, or you can end speaking almost all the time in Japanese. Planning, setting goals, and talking to people who went to the program helps a lot.

10. Definitely.