Japan trip 2009- Gap year
 

hello all

well I'm 17 and i want to have a gap year before i go to university (to study medicine hopefully:D ) and I've found a company which offer medical placements in Hospitals all over Japan which last 6 MONTHS!!
yeah well I'm hoping to go with them but i don't know what time is best, i have a choice of September-march or march-August. currently i think the latter is better as then I'll have time to save up and stuff but summer in Japan might be too hot.

over all the trip will cost 2000 pounds- including flight, visa, accommodation, food e.t.c.

any info will be much appreciated.

Where will you be. I avoid Japan June to August because of the typhoons and the humid heat. But I am more of a winter type.

oh a reply yey:D

well i haven't picked a place yet, the choices are Osaka, Hokkaido, Nishio city (never heard of this place), Okinawa, Fukuoka, Ashikaga and Tokyo are most of the main places, I think I'll choose to work with the British red cross in Osaka.

my adivice
 

My adovice is not to come to Japan for medical internship.
It's a wrong choice.
Japanese medical care system may be quite different from that of UK.
Newspaper reports every day and night the accidents or incidents in hospitals all over Japan.
Stay in UK.
If you dare to visit Japan, come for sightseeing.

Nishio is a decent place, south of Nagoya. Have never been to a hospital there though.

They have GAP medical placements at the hospital my son was in - and they always seemed to be doing a good job. I don`t think Japan is a bad choice.

thanks for the replies

I know that Japans medical system is different from the UK's but the main aim of this gap year is really just to gain experience in caring environment so that i can say at uni interviews 'yeah I really want to be a doctor, i even did some experience in Japan for my GAP blah blah' also i will be doing hospital work in the UK soon so I'll get the best of both.

im planning on goin in 2009 myself, first for sightseeing and next to study aboad. i pretty much find out all of the costs for the trip. it goin to cost me $2583 for me to go and im bring my cousin along with me.... i nowhere im goin to stay,where time of year im goin,what im goin to do and everything......

I know a good flight agency for travel to Japan. It's a Japanese travel agency called IACE Travel and they have a lot of offices in the US and a few in Canada. Maybe you can still make a purchase by phone from another country? Anyway, I went to Japan last year on a study abroad trip, fall semester, and the round trip cost was under $1000 from US to Japan. They were the *absolute best* price I found too. Everyone else was at least $200 above these guys. Tickets were for the same airline and flight I would have gotten from the other places too. Google them to find their website.

I just thought that might help cut down some of your costs... Good luck!

By the way, fall is really great for a long time, but it *does* get really cold by late November, early December. I'm not sure how long it lasts because I left Jan 3rd, but I also never had to deal with snow in all of that time. I have heard that the summers are really really hot in Japan though... I guess what time of year you want depends on what your temperature preference is.

I have no idea what season i should go. the trip is 6 months long so i can choose sep-march or march-august. I can't handle hot hot but i also dislike the cold. DAMN i have no idea.

Your question is too easy. If you snowboard or ski, Hokkaido from September-March. If you don't, Osaka any time of the year. If you are going to whine about the weather, just stay home.

The reason I say Osaka is this, it is easy to get to Kyoto but also cheap to get to Tokyo. It is more laid back than Tokyo as well.