How can I do it?

Okay, many people have questions on here about going to a language school in Tokyo but after searching the forum and the internet I could not find anyone with a similar situation. But, perhaps someone could give me some advice.

Just so you know I am a 20 year old female with no college degree.

Okay, I will be attending ALA (Language School) in Shinjuku for 9 months I will be there. That equals $6,132 and my credit card can pay for that easily.

Then my apartment, through Sakura House is $1,284/month which equals $11,556 for 9 months.

Also, my monthly budget for living expenses will be $905/month which equals $8,145 for 9 months.

That comes to $25,883 for the 9 months of me living there.

After 3 months of being there I will start working part-time somewhere. But, I need to be able to pay for this now or at least most of it. It's a huge amount for me. Is there any way that there is a program that will help pay for my stay in Japan while I study the language. Maybe a scholarship program or something for study in Japan starting in April?

Please help! I have to study at the school so that I can take the jlpt level 2, pass and enter an animation or illustration school over there in tokyo April 2010! Thank you!

P.S. if you have any advice on perhaps going about this a cheaper route please let me know! Thank you!

firstly i think you can find rent much cheaper but before i go into details, can you already speak some japanese?

if not then i'm afraid you are not going to pass level 2 in 9 months, especially if you think you are going to work part-time too.

what visa are you going to be on? i'm assuming a student visa, but if you are entitled to a working holiday visa, this will make you life easier as you don't have to get special permission to work, and your school won't have the visa issue to hang over you.

Do you mean $1,284 USD for your apartment? That is far more than a student should be paying for accommodation- it is about what my husband and I, both working full time, pay for our recently built, close to the station apartment not far out of Shinjuku. A one room apartment that is not too old and around 10 minutes from a station in the suburbs should go for about 60,000- 70,000 yen. Have a look at the "zero key money" and furnished apartments on this site: http://www.kimiwillbe.com/aptrec.htm

You can find decent accommodation in Tokyo for half of what you quoted if you look a bit harder. Unless for some reason you have to stay in that apartment, look around a bit more and try to stay below 70,000 per month.

Also, what will you be doing that will cost you $905 a month? When I was paying off my student loan I easily lived off about 60,000 yen a month. When I worked part-time I lived off less.

I think you need to find cheaper accommodation, and look at where you can cut back your expenses.

Remember if you put $6,000 or more on your credit card, your repayments will be quite high- have you budgeted for that- or is that why your expenses are so high?

The only scholarships I know of that are available to students are for university study- they are called Monbusho scholarships. If you go to a private language school most likely no-one is going to give you a scholarship for this.

If you really think you won't have enough money to pay for your stay, consider cutting back on your time in Japan. You aren't guaranteed to find enough work in the current economic climate, especially as you will be competing against people with degrees- what will you do if you run out of money part-way through?