Always busy looking for the next place to visit. Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

The subjects offered were extremely interesting such as Gender and Family in Japan, Japanese Pop Culture, or Japanese Art and Society. However, the professors were not very rigorous or captivating so I never felt really engaged in the classes.

On-site administration of your program

The administration was amazing and always very helpful. They helped us discuss our classes and helped us discover what activities, places, or events we should visit. They ran the program very smoothly and I saw no problems in their methods or design.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The rooms were a bit small but they were clean and in good conditions with A/C and a heater. While I wish there were better laundry machines, for the most part all the facilities were nice.

I was very satisfied with the food because it gave us a good insight as to what Japanese students and families typically eat without feeling like a tourist.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

it was not hard to meet other students and visit the popular locations around us. The e-pal aspect of the program really helped because the e-pals were more than happy to teach us about the local culture and take us around Chiba and Tokyo.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

While I had no serious health issues that needed to be addressed, I had caught a cold and immediately one of the program advisors was willing to take me to the hospital and help me translate anything. Health Care was very accessible to us.

I felt that my community was very safe and had no problems with suspicious people. However a fellow student in my dorm did experience someone following her back to the dorm which means that despite how safe Japan is, it is better to be alert at all times. But she told our dorm manager what happened and he immediately helped her get the resources she needed and alerted the police and the rest of the dorm of what happened which was very impressive and comforting.

I thought that my prgram allowed me to have the perfect amount of time to still explore Japan while also providing me with educational classes that helped me understand concepts about Japan while I was there. Many of the things that I learned about I could see in real life and it gave me a deeper understanding of this completely different society.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

The food around the university and dorms were fairly priced if one looked for the cheapest options but anytime one went into Tokyo or other tourist areas the food tended to be more expensive. Not only that but the biggest cost was transportation since the subways were pretty expensive and they had to be taken to go everywhere.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

We had Japanese class every weekday however the e-pals did not encourage us to speak Japanese very much and the other students at Kanda University preferred to practice their english rather than help us practice our Japanese. But there were more advanced Japanese reading, writing, and listening classes available to further practice.

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• Local Students

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• Americans

• I thoroughly enjoyed the e-pal program
• I liked the class workload we were given.
• I liked the area we were at.

• I would incorporate more ways to practice Japanese.
• I would have more smaller excursions rather than a couple excursions that tried to fit too much in one day.
• I would have more relatable guest speakers come explain more every day Japanese life concepts.

The Outright Urbanite