In spring 2025, I’m going on an exchange program in Japan. Feel free to share your experience or thoughts relating to my own thoughts below.
# Background
The classes I take will be taught in Japanese. I have passed the JLPT N1 and feel confident about my input ability in most scenarios. My output ability is still about upper-intermediate, but I will continue working on it for the next year. I’ve learned to handwrite at an upper-intermediate level. I’ve visited Japan once, for a few weeks.
During my stay, I am ridding myself of any responsibilities (aside from attending class) so I can use this opportunity to have fun, make Japanese friends, and get to know Japan better. Of course, I want to do stuff that takes advantage of me being in Japan and knowing Japanese, so while I’m not strictly opposed to interacting with foreigners, I will not seek it out.
# Location
I’m mainly choosing between Kyoto University and Waseda University (in Tokyo). I’m leaning toward Kyoto because Tokyo is a bit bustly of a city for my liking. Another option is a smaller, even more cozy place like Iwate University, but that’s probably too far on the spectrum from a city experience.
# Housing
My ideal is to do a homestay, but a practical limitation is that it may be far from campus. I’ve contacted homestay-in-japan and am waiting for a response. In Kyoto’s university housing, there will be Japanese students, so with this option too I’ll have the chance to make Japanese friends in my immediate surroundings.
# Time outside of class
This will probably be the most important part of my experience and is where I am having the hardest time deciding things for.
The first thing to come to mind is circles at the university. The thing is I’m not confident in being into these circle activities enough to enjoy sticking around. I grew up playing sports and playing music, but these things are not incorporated into my university life, if that says something. I do like weeb stuff, but I’m not that hardcore. Regardless, I’ll check out some circles and try my best to find one to stick to.
I hold a romanticized image of working with a small team to build something that we’re passionate about. This reads sort of like a sports anime and probably sounds generic, but some examples I have are making a computer game and synthesizing music. A practical issue with these is that they have a major technical component that is understated in my mental image.
Another thing I’m considering is translating Japanese media to English. Language learning is one of my main hobbies, and translation is something I consider fun and that I have some experience with. I have contacted MangaGamer and Shiravune, teams that translate visual novels, and am waiting to hear back. However, the issue is that this activity is unlikely to live up to my mental image, mainly in terms of how unique it is to me being in Japan.
Working a part-time job sounds like a great way to have interactions outside of school and learn about Japan in a hands-on way. I’m currently favoring working at a konbini, but I’m also thinking about stuff like karaoke, cafe, theater, etc. It could also be cool to volunteer, but I don’t know for what.
I’d also want to travel, but first I need friends to do that with.
by ofthesamename