Tokyo Triumph Terrorizes Torrid Travel Past Review
By Thomas D (Anthropology/History, Trinity University) for
IES Abroad: Tokyo - Language & Culture
I want to go back. I want to learn more Japanese. Japan is amazing. I was significantly lacking in motivation to manufacture my return to the states because I wanted to stay so badly.
Review Photos
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 2 weeks - 1 month |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
The workload and teaching methods were on par with Trinity University's, which pleasantly surprised me. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
The administration was capable, available, and understanding. Overall exceptional. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The neighborhood of my dorm was one of my favorite aspects of my trip. I also strongly recommend staying in a dormitory because it allows more freedom of travel than homestays, and many homestays had commutes upwards of an hour and a half. |
| * Food: |
Food was good, opinions as far as dietary limitations would probably be limited. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
IES plans two field trips on long weekends throughout the semester, go on them if you can. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
Its probably the safest place I've ever lived, safer than San Antonio. Health care coverage was great, I would estimate it to be approximate in quality to American health care. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | About 250 dollars (around 20,000 yen) on average. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Trains are expensive. Tokyo, in general, is expensive. I don't know how much money you are expecting to spend, expect to spend more. If at all possible I would say expect to spend about 10-20% more on personal expenses like food, leisure time, travel, etc. than the estimates that you receive from the program. This was true for me and for most other members of my program. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | None |
| Language acquisition improvement? |
There were many Japanese students to practice with, most practice was either in class or on campus with Japanese students. |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | I would recommend not to do homestay unless you are deadset on spending a lot of time with a host family in a host household. The experience comes with many responsibilities that can interfere with free time or make your life more difficult. Also, I recommend not taking Mekai Language Intensive, Kanda is a better school, there is more access to Japanese students, and the classes are better. |
