[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

Thank you Nyororin for your reply.

You`re welcome.

Yeah, it looks like money is the big thing. I have been saving up money for the past two years, and I am going to be saving up for the rest of this year. But even with all that money, I don't think it'll be enough to live on for two years in Japan, even if I'm not in Tokyo or Osaka (which I've heard are the most expensive cities). So I'll try figure that part out.
Also, do you know more or less how much it would cost for one years Japanese language schooling in Japan?

Well, there are scholarships and loans in your home country, along with those granted by Japan. (Samokan wrote more about them)
As for the cost of schooling, that really depends on the school. Around here it seems that the average prices for a year are around 600,000yen. Some are less, some are more, some include housing and some don`t.

The thing is, I'm not 100% comitted to coming over yet, I have alot of doubts. I'm torn between coming over next year and staying here in the UK to do a degree. I can hear a little voice in my head telling me that the smarter choice would be to do the degree first, but on the other hand it's been my dream to go to Japan for years now, and I don't realy want to wait another four or five years before I do so.

I understand your reasoning. That`s really something you`ll have to decide on your own. On one hand, it may be faster to come over before you get your degree, but without a lot of money you may have trouble continuing to stay here / returning to school back in the UK. (Your money will most likely all be gone, and you may be in debt before you even start working toward a degree.)

And also do you realy think a year is enough to become near fluent in Japanese? I'm just not so sure that I would be able to learn enough Japanese reading/writng in a year to be good enough to go to university there. The speaking part seems do-able, but learning all those characters seems near impossible.

All I can say is that they`re not as hard as they look. The rest really depends on the course you take and how good you are at remembering them. Some people have no trouble, and others can`t seem to remember even the simplest.

EDIT: Oh and one last thing. You mentioned getting a sponsor for a student visa. I have heard alot about these sponsors, but don't realy know alot about them. I just always assumed you can just apply for a visa if you have enough money. So could you tell me a little more about sponsors.

In order to obtain a visa, you almost *always* have to have a sponsor. In most cases, the sponsor for a student visa is the school you will attend. For a working visa, it`s usually where you plan to work. It`s basically a way of making sure that you really intend to do what you`re applying for the visa for. The sponsor is generally the one who is "financially and morally responsible" for you while you`re in Japan.