Everyday Life in Japan

Hello, study abroad blog! My name is Adam Cross, and I’ll be discussing my time studying abroad in Japan.

I studied abroad during the fall semester of 2019, and I’ll be going back to Japan in January 2020. I am studying at Nihon University through their Japanese language program. It is so much fun! I’ve met so many amazing people from all over the world!

The reason why I chose this program is because it is very Japanese language intensive. Japanese classes are in the morning from 9 a.m. – 12:10 p.m., and it is everyday. I’d recommend this program for people who are Japanese language majors. It is very nerve wracking at first, but it’s worth it because you can make friends with the Japanese volunteer students. The volunteers come once a week, and we play language games and practice conversation. Usually at the beginning of class we do speaking practice, and everyday, there is something different that we focus on; we have four different teachers. Most of them focus on grammar and conversation, but we have one teacher for reading and writing practice and one for the listening practice. They are all Japanese language native speakers, so they may or may not know English, which can be hard for someone who is placed in the A level class and knows nothing about Japanese language. I do recommend learning some Japanese before studying in this program. We use the Genki textbook series. 

Dorms are pretty different from dorms at American colleges. The dorms are not on campus, and they are gender segregated. Not all the students who live in the dorm go to the same university. There were native Japanese students there and other international students going to different universities from Nihon. The dorm I was placed in was about 20 minutes away from the college if you take the subway, which you pretty much have to do. The subways are really bad in the morning. You are squeezed in, and you’ll be in a very uncomfortable position, but they are so fast and convenient. Make sure when you arrive to get a pasmo card. The pasmo card can be used for the subway and regular trains. You can use it like a credit card at convenience stores too, so, unless you like carrying around change, I would recommend using that. Make sure to save up your money over the summer. 

Tokyo is such a cool place. It’s so big and there’s so much to do! Also, for one of the classes I took, we got to go on a lot of field trips and it was so much fun! I highly recommend coming to Japan. 

To learn more about the Japanese Language program at Nihon University, please click the hyperlink.

About the Author: Adam Cross ’21 – Fall 2018, Semester in Tokyo, Japan

Adam Cross is a junior Japanese major who is studying abroad in Tokyo, Japan for the 2019-20 academic year.