[Hatredcopter]

If you're going on an exchange through your school/university, they will give you all the forms and stuff associated with passports and visas, as well as the dates of when they are due, etc, so you generally don't need to worry too much about that. In other words, everything that's required to enter Japan will most likely be arranged by your school.

The university I went to was Nanzan University in Nagoya. I know there are many other great places to study abroad at in Japan, but I highly recommend this university if your school has a partnership with this one. They operate on the US's August to May school year, unlike 95% of the other schools in Japan, which run from April to March. Also, along with teaching highly intensive Japanese courses, they also teach many Japanese-related courses in English. This is very nice, because you generally have to be completely fluent in Japanese to attend a university class taught in Japanese.

I would say work on your verbal skills first and foremost, because they will be more useful when you arrive in Japan - you can learn writing and reading Japanese when you're actually there.