Study japanse abroad recommendations

Hello everyone, I would like to learn japanse and always have been interested in the culture so I figured why not try to enter a language school, immersing myself pretty much forcing myself to learn and adapt lol.
With that said I currently speak no japanse what-so ever. Would this be a foolish move? I rather find it exciting and would love to expereince a new culture but having difficulty finding a good abroad program to get me there

I'm reading mixed reviews about Go!Go!Nihon, also the KCP program has great reviews but seems I won't have much time for anything else.

I am currently NOT enrolled in a college. I graduated with an associates, originally I was going to try transferring abroad but I rather focus on learning the language at the moment. Mentioning this because I think not being enrolled will limit my abroad choices.

I apolgize for such a long post! Any suggestions, or recomendations on a program or which city to partake this in would be great! I also don't mind living with a host family.

i would stay away from gogonihon.
they tell you something and the school tells you something completely different when you ask them the same question. also,i had to mail my questions to gogonihon more than once. if i sent one email with 3 questions,the lady answered only 2 of them and i had to ask again. and most of the time the lady couldn't even understand what i wanted to know and gave me an answer that was absolutely not related to my question.
i also wanted to visit their office and asked for an address. never got an address. they are good with all the documents,i applied for a school with their help but canceled it in the end because,as i mentioned above,they don't give you all the info or don't really answer your questions. if you still wanna apply with their help,make sure you contact your school and ask them the exact same things because i feel like gogonihon is a bit lazy.

I am pretty much in the same spot as you OP, I am planning on going with Go Go Nihon because they will pretty much take the stress away with all the forms, etc.

When I emailed then, they emailed me a few business days later (like they said they would) and they seem very nice, I also know about some of the mixed feelings about it, I'm guessing you saw Bellatrix Threepwood videos on Youtube? Go Go Nihon also knows about her videos and on a Go Go Nihon Live stream they did back in September they answered questions about her experience and said they listened to her problems and fixed them, so it seems like they realized that they may have not given her the best up to date info, however there was some info she should of researched on her own.

Also about the Go Go Nihon Live Stream, they answered my questions that I asked and they made me even more excited for Japan.

I'd recommend doing the inquiry with them and ask them questions.

Here is some things they'll need from you...

In order to apply for a student visa in order to attend one of our language schools, you must provide the following documents:
-Copy of your passport
-Pages with previous entry into Japan (IF you visited Japan before or will visit before you attend the school, so this is optional)
-High quality self-photo on a plain white background different than your passport (example: http://gogonihon.com/images/static/form/picture-example.jpg)
-Diploma or transcript from the last school you graduated from
-Bank statement of your financial sponsor (or yourself) showing at least 2,000,000yen or equivalent (So about 20k)
-Payslip, income tax return, or proof of annual income of your financial sponsor (or yourself)

The good thing about Language schools also is the fact that they will help you find a job in Japan, but of course your going to need the 20k because you will only be able to work 28h maximum per week, so don't expect the job to help pay for school, food, rent, etc alone.

Thank you very much for the info and list of required documentation. I will most likely go through with GO!GO!nihon because of them taking care of the paperwork.

I am not 100 percent sure where to stay at the moment. Tokyo being the most expensive aside I was thinking about Osaka but would the kansai dialect effect/alter my japanse language learning? With that said everywhere of the Nihon schools and housing options sound great, Fukuoka looks promising. As a westerner would I beable to "make it" outside of Tokyo

Hi,

I used Go! Go! Nihon! for a short stay program at the Intercultural Institute of Japan in February this year. It was completely hassle free even though I was skeptical of them in the beginning. Only took a few e-mails to them, and after they heard back from the school I was good to go. Sort of forgot that I used them in the end because it was pretty stress free, but they didn't really keep in contact.

The school was reputable and I enjoyed my time there. I ended up getting accommodation through Borderless House. They were quite nice and I thought the accommodation was sound and affordable (about $16 a day in Tokyo incl. utilities). My school was in Akihabara in Tokyo, and I ended up staying in Koiwa, which is a suburb about 5 or 6 stops on Sobu-sen from Akiba. They do a set up of half foreigners half Japanese in a share house so that is a cool experience and helps a lot with the learning process. I made friends for life with my housemates from Japan, Russia, Netherlands and Germany. Without knowing this prior, my roommate was also a student at the same school.

I only did a short stay of 1 month at the school on a tourist visa, during my 3 months of travel in Japan. Skiing, studying, backpacking and WWOOFing. Hit me up with any questions.

Peace.

Yeah, I'm still debating between Tokyo and Osaka myself, there are positives and negatives with both really, I have a feeling at the end of the day I'll choose Osaka because it is cheaper to live there, but I'm going to push for Tokyo because...It's Tokyo lol.

Go Go Nihon will have an other live stream on December 15, just in case you don't get the email or something.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/go-go-nihon---live-and-study-in-japan