Studying Abroad in Japan
 

Hello, I'm interested in attending High School in Japan for an "academic year" (10 months) and was wondering how much extra money I would need straight off hand.

The program I've applied to costs $5000 (including application fee), and I'm estimating about $1500 for a plane ticket. My Japanese friend said that she thought it would cost about $500 total for a school uniform, books, and other supplies. So my total is $7000. I will be getting a monthly allowance of about $300 during my stay as well. I don't know where I'll be staying, though.

Should I have another $1000 too? I've raised about $6200 so far and will be raising to my estimated total in the coming few months... What advice do you have for me? Are my estimations correct do you think? And is there anything I have to get in order to be prepared?

Im curious you say for highschool? Just wondering cause I'm new to these forums and well just wondering if you know the language or well idk you would have to explain how there schools work

Yeah there are High School study abroad programs from the US to other countries. As far as I know, its not through your own school- like in College, but through a company. Some of the ones that I've seen are AFS, ASSE, CEE, NWSE, Rotary, and theres a lot more out there.

I'm technically at "Novice High" level (I've passed Benchmark 4) if that counts for anything. I know enough Japanese to survive+ and have fairly basic conversations. Though I can read Japanese better than I can speak or write it.

And what do you really mean by "how their schools work"? They have Elementary, Middle, and High Schools over there. Elementary is from grades 1-6, Middle is 7-9, and their High Schools are 10-12. Their school year starts in March (instead of September) and it used to be that they had school 6 days a week. (But that changed a few years ago). Most kids go to private schools (even in Kindergarten and Preschool), and education is highly valued. All (or at least most) schools require students to have issued uniforms, bags, and even shoes. They don't have extracurricular classes during school like in America. And... Thats what I can think of off the top of my head.

It really depends where you live, but if you are in any urban area, 300 dollars a month is not a lot. Probably enough for a suburban or more rural area. It's easy to spend 10 to 15 a day just on train tickets if you are travelling around.

to really want to try this I plan on saving cash during summer

Whats the cheepest way to travel do you think? I don't think I'll have to travel too far too often.

Do they sell year-long train passes in Japan? I was thinking that if I did have to travel then that might be cheeper and easier than just buying one daily.