Kansai Gaidai University

You can choose between living in a seminarhouse and living with a family. Living with a family is convenient depending on the family and how close you are to the university. Living in a seminarhouse is great too because you live with many students from different countries and you are totally free.

If you end up at Kansai Gaidai, take advantage of all of the free time your easy classes will provide you and do some traveling. Kansai is a great region to be in. Kyoto, Kobe, and Osaka have tons to explore. Head down to Mount Koya-san and stay at a temple in the forest. Check out the untrammeled byways of Shikoku. Take a Shinkansen down to Hiroshima or in the other direction to Tokyo. During a longer break you could head as far as Okinawa or Hokkaido, or perhaps even to another Asian destination like Seoul or Bangkok.

Travel!! The school is at this wonderful location right between Osaka and Kyoto. The school have a lot more international students from the US than anywhere else, and the profs are basically all from the US. If you are not from the US it can get a little irritating because of the America-oriented viewpoint in most occasions and classes.

The Japanese classes were well designed and taught at a right pace. Communication with local students was also encouraged through the "Speaking-Partner Program". The social settings also gave me a lot of opportunities to practise the language. Basically it was due to the fact that Japanese people don't speak languages other than Japanese.

Avoid fresh fruit, expensive. Eat at small local family restaurants, can get a meal there for around 500yen =5$. Talk to the local students, they have a lot of great tips.

I had an easier time because I could read Kanji (Chinese characters) and I had some knowledge of Japanese culture before I came. But I know some students definitely had trouble with buying even basic things like groceries and soap, which were not only products manufactured in Japan but also all labels were written in Japanese.