Ideas how to get in Japan to study.

Hi,

First ill tell you my situation,I'm 17 years old and I'll graduate from high school in February so I signed up with a exchange student agency to go to Japan in March 2004, and the cost was 7 500$ USD for the trip and 1 year of food and I would have stayed with a host family and attend high school. But I got refused because I'm on medications.

So now I'm looking for an other way of getting there to learn the language and culture.

Some ideas my friends already gave me:

Go to College or University , This sounds kool but hard and expensive at the same time, I'm suppose to attend College in Canada so I'm pretty sure the cost is different and I only have beginners level Japanese knowledge.

Go as a missionary, This looks pretty sweet since you get a 1 year visa with a church but then you gotta work for them. And it doesn't seem like I would be learning too much Japanese and culture.

Pay a Japanese family to have you as a exchange student, that was my idea but it seems like a gamble since theres no agency to back you up and just finding a family is hard. I would pay them 3 500$USD for one year stay at there house, food included, I came up with that price since a plain ticket is around 3 500$USD so its pretty much my 7 500$ that I would have paid threw the agency.

If anyone has any ideas please post them.

Thanks in advance

medications for what? availability(sp) of certain medications is treated differently over there

I'm taking Venlafaxine HCI Effexor XR , its for depression but its when I was a kid

Only problem with the Christian missionary thing was if you weren't a Christian...If you are, then that sounds like a good way to do it, as long as your heart's in it.

Yeah well that idea is at the bottom of my list, anybody know someone who would want me in there house for a year while I study in Japan? I pay ya 3500$USA like I said and I can teach you some english , french also.

Depending on where you want to live in Japan, 3500USD probably won't cover the food and added utility expenses you will bring. You can also get a ticket from the US round trip, with set dates, not open-ended, for around 1200USD (for pretty much any time of year). Heck, I'm flying back to the US for Christmas this year, leaving on the 20th, flying to multiple places in the US and then coming home in the peak days of early January for around 1500USD. The most I ever paid for a ticket was an open ended round trip (no set return date) for 2100USD. Sorry if this is a little long winded, but 3500USD? I can get you the name of a good travel agent if you like ( I'm not being sarcastic).

To get to your question, I think the college route is the best way to go. Try and go your second or third year of university. Most of the time the tuition for a year will cover the exchange and you will have had a few years of Japanese. If you are really itching to get to Japan, take a few vacations while you get ready for the exchange.

I wouldn't try and find a family on your own, simply because you are left with no support structure if there is a problem or you get a bad family. Good luck!

Wow! 1500$US for a 2 way plain ticket thats sweet. I got my plain ticket price from Expedia.com and it was about 3400$US. So if I could get that deal I could offer 5500$US to a host family.

About College, prices seem to be form 4000$US and up for a year course and thery reange from 3to4 years. This is more expencive then the College I was planing on going. But I heard theres scholarships and othert offers to help foreigners to pay there stay and studies. But I'm just a 60-69% student it seems imposible. So any information of College courses that would teach Japanese first would be best.

Thanks

Hmmm $5500 huh? I'm almost tempted.

Actually I'm pretty sure you can get the price even lower than $1200 for the flight. Don't trust Expedia. I just booked a flight for a friend of mine to come to Japan. The cheapest price on Expedia was about $2200. After a bit of searching I got it for $750.

TIger

where is one flying from? plays a part too i think
los angeles is so easy? cheap?