Is Yamasa Worth It?

Hi there, next semester I'll be taking off to study abroad in Japan. So far my poor little heart is set on Yamasa but I'm severely disappointed in the location. :/ I'm a city girl and I enjoy eating out, shopping, sight seeing etc. so Yamasa's location is a bit of a disappointments to me.

Ideally I want to study in Tokyo. I'm interested in a high intensity course for beginners and wanted to know if there was a Yamasa like course in Tokyo. So my questions are these :

I see that some of you have already or are already attending Yamasa. Is the teaching there worth giving up studying in a more lively city?

For those of you who are or who have in the past studied in Tokyo how would you rate the school you studied at?

Since I'm serious about nuckling down and studding Japanese I thought it might be best if I did 3 months at Yamasa and then returned to study again in Tokyo right after that as soon as possible. But I realize there may be a problem with the visas. :x

Hmm? Where's Yamasa located at? Info : There's quite a LOT of Japanese Language School scattered around in the heart of Tokyo, such in Shinjuku etc. And yes, they do provide 1 year or 1 and 1/2 year high intensity ._. Japanese course,that comes with a pre-college student visa. Or they also have a 3 month course, High Intensity ._.;; too but doesnt come with a pre-college student visa tho. I do believe they have it for beginner, intermediete or Advance. Since most of the school do have a placement test before you start the class. Most likely

Rate my school? If the highest rating I can give is 5 stars, I'd give my school around 1 billion stars, probably more if I have more stars to give out.
Why? Because :

1. I'm here on a 1 year Ryuugakusei visa (College student visa, not pre-college)

2. Superb support, from when I'm at my home country till now, and still supporting the students till they enter their selected University in Japan such as interview practice, jyuken practice as for example.

3. Cheap dormitary, 1 inside the school and a few scattered around not so far away. 11.5 squaremeter room with furniture only for 40,000 yen per month with free water. Impossible to get this kind of room inside of tokyo for this kind of rent.

4-10. Superb student support >.< so many I don't even know which one to write down here, like free doctor cosulation once per month, since the doc come to the school, renew visa, extend visa, change visa status, apply for the part time work permit, reentry permit, All is done without going to the immigration. Work done by the admins office. Bla bla bla. I can go on forever.
Tho I don't think my school is your cup of tea But there's still plenty of good language school out there inside Tokyo.


Rio Lee ._.
Its been a while since I heard the word "High Intensity" ._.;;; Always heard that alot from my friend back in Malaysia.

Ha ha, "high intensity" is a bit strange sounding isn't it? But so far on most of the websites I've looked at that seems to be the term of choice. @__@ Oh those silly Japanese sites - how you intrigue me.

May I ask what school you're attending?

Yamasa's located at Okazaki. :/ From what I can tell it has a very nice vibe to it but I have my heart set on Tokyo or some other big city.

My school is called Asia Gakusei Bunka Kyoukai (They are a group that does everything, including language school.) Recommended to me by a professor from Nagoya National Univesity when they have a Japan Fair in Malaysia somewhat around 1 1/2 years ago? ._.

I'm attending "Shingaku nihongo course" (Prepatory course to enter Japan Unversity) that are recognize by the monbukasho, which is the reason we can get the college student visa (which usually dedicated for the real college student, since Japanese Language School is not considered a college) And they do have normal course with the normal pre-college visa.

Yes, I do realize theres an "Asia" word in the school name, but theres quite a few non-asian entered this school, we do have a few Americans and from England a few years back by looking at the statistic. They are quite rare since americans or people from the west don't really have any intention to enter Japanese University the hardway If I might say so as in the normal way Japanese enter University (not 100% the same as the normal Japanese entering the University tho, maybe 95% only similarity or maybe less). Thats obviously because the University in the west e.g America is better then over here (opinion). And westerner can easily enter Japan University with the student exchange route.

So thats why I said my school is not your cup of tea Since theres quite alot of Asian student running around everywhere in the school everytime (some Japanese University student too).

There I go again, writing useless info. But like a said before, theres quite alot of Japanese Language school scattered around here in tokyo. I'm not sure about your plan whatsoever so I can't recommend you anything.

Clarification : The hard way that I mention is like : National level Exams (kindda)-> Apply for Uni with the result -> Documents inspection -> Take the University own entrance exams (usually interview and writing test) -> Pass~ All in Japanese ._. Pretty much.
thats pretty much how it goes for us here~

Mmm, no none of that was useless. Thank you very much for bothering to type that out it was very helpful.

I have a friend who goes to Yamasa. He's a member of this board, as a matter of fact. Jx44m is his handle here, I think. You may want to PM him about Yamasa, as I know for a fact that he has first-hand experience with it.

Okazaki's not a bad place. If you want to get to the big city, Nagoya is only about 30 minutes away by train.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll defiantly look into contacting him.

No Okazaki looks like it's a beautiful place with a nice atmosphere, I've been looking at some information on it and it looks like it would be a wonderful place to relax and study, I'm not putting it down, its just not my first choice. :/ (I think it might be a bit similar to where I'm living now actually : X)

I studied at Yamasa for two months a few summers ago, and I really liked it. The teachers are well-trained and very knowledgeable, and I liked how the school/program was set up.

As someone mentioned earlier, it is fairly close to Nagoya. In my case, I studied hard during the week, and traveled on weekends, and it worked out really well--I didn't feel like I was a slacker, but I didn't feel like I was a work-horse, either.

Good luck!

I'm starting at Yamasa this April too and I think it's just as well it's not based in Tokto or I wouldn't get a thing done. I'll just have to bankrupt myself taking lots of weekend trips there ;o)