Anyone W/Info Regarding Visiting/Living and Costs/Schools/Cities etc

[SamuraiAlchemistNinja]

Konichiwa and Hajimemashite!
Can anyone tell me anything about:
*Basic Academic Standards of Japanese schools
*The "best" and most affordable city to live in (for someone who plans on having things to do most all the time) with pretty good transportation
*Which would be smarter/more affordable...visiting Japan for a month to 5 weeks or just living there?
And generally anything else that comes to mind
Arigato!

[Nyororin]

I`ll try to help you out here.

*Basic Academic Standards of Japanese schools

What type of schools? Elementary schools? Middle schools? High schools? Universities? Japanese language schools? I can`t really help until I know which. ^^;

*The "best" and most affordable city to live in (for someone who plans on having things to do most all the time) with pretty good transportation

I would personally say Nagoya - which is why we live here. It`s the third largest metropolitan area in Japan, but yet isn`t nearly as crowded and hectic as Tokyo or Osaka... But you still get all the great amenities of living in a big city, right in the middle of Japan. To the east is Tokyo, to the west is Osaka. We have a great public transportation system, plus it`s much much much cheaper to live here.

*Which would be smarter/more affordable...visiting Japan for a month to 5 weeks or just living there?

This more depends on your visa than anything else. If you have the means to get a proper visa, I would say living here would be more "smart". You would be able to rent a proper room, etc, and it would end up being less than a hotel.
If you really only can manage to stay a month or so, hotel and food costs (as you`ll have no kitchen in a hotel - all eating out) will REALLY add up. I would guess that 9 months to a year of living in an apartment would be relatively equal to 5 weeks in a hotel.

Trying to rent an apartment for 4 or 5 weeks would probably be impossible, and even if they let you, you`d still have to cover all the costs of starting new utility accounts, etc plus regular deposits for everything. It isn`t much if you were to spread it out over 9 months or a year, but for one month it would be a complete and total waste.

[SamuraiAlchemistNinja]

[quote=Nyororin;11639]I`ll try to help you out here.

What type of schools? Elementary schools? Middle schools? High schools? Universities? Japanese language schools? I can`t really help until I know which. ^^;

Gomen nasai! I am speaking of High Schools, as I might be finishing my senior year there. Also, possibly universities, but really I'd just like to know about HighSchools...

I would personally say Nagoya - which is why we live here. It`s the third largest metropolitan area in Japan, but yet isn`t nearly as crowded and hectic as Tokyo or Osaka... But you still get all the great amenities of living in a big city, right in the middle of Japan. To the east is Tokyo, to the west is Osaka. We have a great public transportation system, plus it`s much much much cheaper to live here.

Nagoya sounds great; exactly what I was going for. I only have a limited time on the computer, and limited free time for research, so thanks for helping out!
>If there's anything else, anything at all, I'm all ears! ^,,,,^

[Nyororin]

Well, if you`d be an exchange student, it might be difficult to get into a public high school without going through some sort of system.
For a private school, if you can pay for it they`ll pretty much let you in.

Either way, if you are expecting credit for that year, you`ll NEED to have a very high level of Japanese. Otherwise, it becomes an uncredited, but excused, year away from school. For universities, if you`re not there to study Japanese, you have to have JLPT 1. For high schools, I believe it is JLPT 2, but I may be mistaken. Either way, you have to be at a high enough level that you can actually complete the school work (in Japanese) in order to receive credit.

Edit: And I forgot - the basic academic standards are VERY HIGH. Expect very very difficult - as in high level university level stuff - at the senior level of Japanese high school. I`m not sure what country you`re from, but a 2nd year middle school student here is studying the same stuff that my friends studied in their senior year of high school in the US.

[SamuraiAlchemistNinja]

Well...that sounds good...it's a good thing I'm a dedicated person...*sigh* but I wish my parents would just let me go without a fight and quit seizing all my Japanese stuff...
How about "closeness" of places? Things are close, right? (It's probably a given, but just to make sure...) I'm talking about the fact that it's not going to take more than 20-25 minutes just to get to a given store. I'm sure it's not, but just to verify...

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by SamuraiAlchemistNinja

Well...that sounds good...it's a good thing I'm a dedicated person...*sigh* but I wish my parents would just let me go without a fight and quit seizing all my Japanese stuff...
How about "closeness" of places? Things are close, right? (It's probably a given, but just to make sure...) I'm talking about the fact that it's not going to take more than 20-25 minutes just to get to a given store. I'm sure it's not, but just to verify...

Closeness? Well, it really depends on where you want to go. It is a big city, so if you`re traveling from one end to the other it might take a while. But if you mean convenience, there is nothing to worry about. There is generally a grocery store and convenience store within a 10 minute walk of any spot in the city. For clothing and household goods (like a big department store) you might need to ride a bike for 15 minutes, or take the train or something.

It really all depends on WHERE you would live in the city. Some places are closer to things than others. :P

[Okimoto_Tatsuki]

Nagoya sounds so much better than the usual Tokyo XD

Any universities in Nagoya or around that area?
and say if you were about JLPT4 level, do they expect you to study the japanese language to get to level 1 or until you are about fluent?

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Okimoto_Tatsuki

Nagoya sounds so much better than the usual Tokyo XD

Any universities in Nagoya or around that area?
and say if you were about JLPT4 level, do they expect you to study the japanese language to get to level 1 or until you are about fluent?

Nagoya has a TON of really good universities. Some of the best in the country are here. :P Nanzai, Meidai, Meijo, etc. (Many many many more, those are just nationally famous ones)

If you are JLPT4, then you won`t be able to get into a university for actual studies. You HAVE to have the JLPT1 to do that. If you are just going to do a program to study Japanese (not "real" university) then you can do it from whatever level you have - but you won`t be getting points to put toward a degree... However, most of the places that offer Japanese courses like that will get you to JLPT1 within a year, and you can then enroll normally.

[Okimoto_Tatsuki]

nyaa perfect

[tamago]

Originally Posted by SamuraiAlchemistNinja

Well...that sounds good...it's a good thing I'm a dedicated person...*sigh* but I wish my parents would just let me go without a fight and quit seizing all my Japanese stuff...
How about "closeness" of places? Things are close, right? (It's probably a given, but just to make sure...) I'm talking about the fact that it's not going to take more than 20-25 minutes just to get to a given store. I'm sure it's not, but just to verify...

out of curiosity and to clarify, youre leaving on your own for your senior year in hs?

good luck i guess.......