Studying in Japan as an exchange student

[Lioness]

Hi everyone.

As part of my University program, I can study abroad once I've been at Uni for a year. As I've studied Japanese for 5 years, and will continue to study it at Uni, I thought I'd take my exchange in Japan.

I have several questions regarding study, living, transport, and how to get around only knowing half the language.

Study

• I have a choice of several Universities...is it better for a foreigner to study in Tokyo, or in more regional areas? If I remember correctly, there are a couple of universities in Tokyo, two in Nagoya, and at least one in Osaka. I've got a friend in Gifu I'd like to see at some point, so Nagoya would be my first choice, but if it's easier to study/live in Tokyo, then I'd prefer that. I'll be studying for either 6 months or a year

Living

• Is it better for a student to live in an apartment, a dorm, or to share a room in a house. In Australia, it's common for University students to share a house - maybe 2-4 people per house, with shared kitchen, bathrooms, and living room, but with private bedrooms. How common is that in Japan?
• How much is average accommodation? What is a reasonable price for a room in a house, and how much would I need to live on for, say, a month?
• Could I, as a foreigner, get a part time job tutoring students in English? I have a fairly decent grasp of Japanese, and so I could communicate fairly easily. Could I just put up notices offering tutoring, or is that generally frowned upon?
• If that's not feasible, are there other types of part-time work available to foreigners?

Transport

• Ok, so there are trains everywhere. How much would you pay, weekly, for a train pass? Is it better to live closer to the university and ride a bike?

Language

• I've been studying Japanese for 5 years, and by the time I go to Japan, that will be 6. I've got a fairly good grasp of sentence structure, speaking, etc. However, I'm not great with vocab, and I'm absolutely shocking at Kanji. Will people I'm talking to mind if I stop mid-sentence and look up a word? Does it matter terribly if I make a lot of mistakes, and accidentally say something stupid?
• How much of a knowledge of kanji is necessary for reading signs and stuff? I'm at about the kanji level of a Japanese 3rd-4th grader

Thanks

[WingsToDiscovery]

Study:
- It all depends on what part of Japan you want to see. I feel that most university students enjoy the sights and sounds of Tokyo best since it's the most famous, but there are a few odd students who would prefer the countryside. As far as living is concerned, Tokyo is probably the easiest for foreigners because of it's internationalism. It's different enough to feel like you're in another country but similar enough to where you can communicate, get commodities from home, and generally live life a bit easier than some smaller or more rural areas.

Living:
- Many Japanese (realtors anyway) understand that the foreign community is pretty tight knit, so it's not uncommon to have a few different foreigners living together on the same lease. In fact, it's what I'm doing right now with two other friends. It's not hard to find an apartment with several rooms, kitchen, and bath in Tokyo, or even a house in Yokohama or Chiba like some of my other friends.
- Average accomodation mainly depends on both the location and the size of the place, just like anywhere else. It's hard to answer this without giving a figure of your intended stay and location. But, if you're rooming by yourself, you can end up paying anywhere between 400-800 USD in any given place per month in Tokyo. That's an extremely broad figure, but it's just kind of an average based on what my friends are paying.
- You do what you do to get by. There are plenty of resources for under the table work. Many people like to have cafe meet ups, and can make up to 1500 yen per hour on average. If you want real work, however, you'll have to get a work permit through your university, and the limit of registered work hours should be something like 28 hours a week.
- Other jobs are really about knowing people and having connections. I've met guys my age doing everything from photography to club promotion, but these are jobs found from social networking.

Transportation:
Train passes can be bought in 1, 3, and 6 month denominations in Tokyo. Depending on where your school from your house and what train line you take determines the price. I personally pay about 6,500 yen per month for a commuter pass. However, with a commuter pass, not only does it cover the cost from your house to your nearest school station, but all stops along the way are free of cost as well. Considering my route costs 600 yen round trip to school without a commuter pas (600 yen per day X 5 days a week= 3000 yen a week. Or, I could pay 6500 for the month, plus the free stops at any location en route. The Suica (commuter pass) is totally worth it.

Language:
-People are quite understanding that it's not your native language. Don't worry about it. However, don't stop someone mid sentence to look something up, either ask them to explain it better, or wait until they're done speaking and then excuse yourself to translate whatever it is you need.

[Lioness]

Thankyou for your response

I'm surprised that apartments/rooming is that cheap...that's good news, I suppose.
Also, what do you mean by "cafe meetings"?

The commuter's pass does sound like a good deal...From what I can see, the public transport system in Japan is very different from that in Australia.