Recommendations Japanese Language School

I want to go to Japan to study Japanese for about 6 mos to a year. I speak some already. I can't check the schools out in advance, so want to hear from people who have gone to these schools. I want to go full time, work part time. I have read about them on GoGoNihongo but want to know from first hand knowledge. Mostly interested in Tokyo area. TIA.

I had the chance to check out some schools in Tokyo prior to deciding one. I finally decided on Naganuma School in Shibuya and attended class there for 1,5 years. I also liked KAI but had to decide.

I think it depends on your objective. Naganuma was very much concentrated on learning all skills, ie including writing, reading and dedicated a lot of time to these two skills. A bit less to speaking.
We had weekly tests and bigger tests every 6 weeks that you could also fail and would need to go back by 6 weeks. And that happened relatively frequently.

The class size at max 14 was quite big.

About 50% of students were from Taiwan, 40% from other Asian countries and the rest from western countries. This means Japanese was also the common language among students (obviously unless you speak Chinese).

I liked Naganuma, but it depends on your goal. If you want to learn to speak and understand but donft care so much about reading and writing that school (and many others) is not the right one for you.

In that case I can suggest Coto. I did only one trial lesson, but my husband did a 1 month intensive course last year. It was focused on speaking and listening. Hiragana or even romaji was used for quite some time.

Thank you so much LikeBike for the awesome response. I am graduating high school in the US, speak some basic Japanese (but no writing). I don't need visa support since my mom is Japanese, and I am looking to study Japanese for 6mos to a year so I can get a job in Japan (at least part time). Looking into KAI but heard that the more advanced levels are not that challenging. Will look into Coto. I am interested in anyone that has any info to share.

At Naganuma the more advanced levels continued to be challenging. But I canft speak to KAI.

If you have a Japanese passport you can work immediately, if you find a job.

Can you guess your current level on the JLPT stage system? N5?N4?
I started attending school at a level about midway through to N4 and from there it took me approximately 1 year to get to N2. But I obviously did not have experience of speaking/hearing Japanese at home.

BTW: as you wonft need a student visa, you can actually change school while you are in Japan relatively easily. Just sign up for the minimal period at the first school you choose and then test it out. If itfs not to your liking get to test some other schools while you are there.