I want to move to Japan from America

Thank you for the response!
I didn't realize that was an option.
I'v been going through a company called "Go! Go! Nihon!" to find the schools and courses I should take for language schools.
I will be sure to see if they can put me in one that has credits too it.

Austinite huh? Look for the University of Texas Japan-themed student groups (there should be a big list of them on the website or just google). I remember several when I went, including an informal conversation one, a Japanese American group, and a few other cultural ones (anime, etc.) that put on different events for students and the community every year.

Also in September at the Japanese Garden in Zilker is the Tsukimi Festival, and I remember there was a taiko group that sometimes played and green tea and tsukimi dango served.

Finding people who share your interests and making friends and contacts, even if not from the same school, will only help you in the future. And it could even help on college essays to show yourself to be interested in something and already participating.

(And I'd recommend a trip to Momoko too... Iri, the proprietor, is Taiwanese but has lived in Japan off and on before. She could have some useful advice if you can catch her when she's around!)

Re: scarreddragon
Do I have to attend UT to meet with these groups?
Also it might be a good idea for me to clarify. Do I need to be of Japanese organ to join a cultural group, or go to the festivals?

"No part time job will pay enough to cover everything.
Tuition at a language school - maybe $7000 / yr
Apartment rent - $500 / month
Food, other things - $500 / month
Total yearly cost ~$20k"

I don't agree with the above fully. It depends on where you stay. You can find plenty of options under $400. Food cost is debatable. If you cook yourself, you can save a lot.

Here is a cheap and convenient option in central Tokyo where you can cook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cheap-Tokyo-Hostel/769256559854500
You even get free and unlimited electricity.

Thanks for the tip on the Hostil!

So i'v been talking to this program called Go Go Nihon, and have determined I can attend essentially a community college in Japan.
It cost 13k all in all, including housing and living.

My only problem now is the money, I cant get a student loan from a US bank. Does anyone have any idea?
To get a scholarship I need to already be in an American college.

Can I get a loan from a Japanese bank?
Any other idea?

Internships and many types of training are almost always unpaid in Japan, and if you end up around Tokyo the cost of living will be steep (steeper than Tennessee at any rate). Pray for more yen weakening. Most likely you'd need another job to fund yourself while in Japan, such as teaching.

do you have a school career ?
there is no system like "Homeschool" in Japan. thus, you will be treated as you have nothing of school career.
I am afraid that, even if language schools, they reject your application. if they accept it and you graduate the language school, you have still no school career, because most of language school are not "true" academic schools. you just learn the language for your interest. after finishing, you have to go out from Japan.

I think it is the better and only way for you to get BS degree in US.

It is a legitimate college.
It will be counted as an associates.
http://gogonihon.com/en/kansai-college-japanese-language-school-osaka
That's the link.
Essentially a community college in Japan.

Can I get a loan from a Japanese bank?

Getting a loan from a Japanese bank while being fresh off the boat? I think you are dreaming too much; even in US, where a lot of people live on credit, foreign students don't get a loan just after arrival at US airports.

It would be a student loan I have a person to be a guarantee in America. I have a GPA, and transcript.
Really I just want to know if its possible to get a student loan from a Japanese bank, because American banks wont give me a loan for a foreign country for political reasons. (They don't want too invest in someone that wont be a productive part of there country.)

People have tried to put this to you gently. I'll be a bit more blunt.
It is exceptionally hard to get credit as a foreigner in Japan. Even if you have a job it's very tough. As a new arrival, with no job, no employment history in Japan, and no-one willing to be your guarantor, you have no hope.

Basically, unless you can fully fund this yourself, I think your dream will go unrealized.

Sorry.

btw, a US guarantor means nothing to Japanese banks. Basically, if you decide to run off (not saying you would, but it's happened to them before), they have no way of recovering their money. Foreigners are too big a risk unless they have PR / Japanese spouse, etc.

I appreciate you being straight up, but i'm not going to give up on moving to Japan.

I suppose 2 jobs at 10hr 14 hours a day 6 days a week will get me to Japan for college by 2016. I can do that, and will happily work through that.

And you shouldn't give up easily.

However, I would encourage you again to consider the programs taught in English I mentioned earlier
http://www.uni.international.mext.go.jp/
Or Hokkaido's modern Japanese studies program
http://www.oia.hokudai.ac.jp/mjsp/

If you work hard on any of these programs, after 4 years (give or take) you graduate with a degree from a top flight university, fluent in Japanese. I personally know people who started with no Japanese, and were fluent by the end.

If you go the language school to university route, I think it will take longer, and probably cost more. These English programs were set with people like you in mind, so don't overlook them.

These links are incredibly helpful!
I appreciate this.

I was born in Europe and worked in Germany on a special contract for 2 years...compared to being a tourist in Japan--never mind working there-- it was very very easy.

For one thing I could read signs and newspapers (I studied a bit of German first);
For another we used French and US English at work (long story) and because there was so many of us foreigners working there, most of the Germans in the small town where we lived and worked spoke perfect French and English.
It was frustrating not to be able to even speak our basic German..

In Japan you will be illiterate..signs will not mean anything.. Learning Japanese will take longer much than you think..

Don't despair, but be realistic. I travel often to Japan and really like it a lot (many things are similar to what we have in Europe but-obviously--with a Japanese twist) but I wouldn't be able to get a job there..

And don't think that you could get a job in a 7-11 etc. You would have to be very fluent.
Not just the language, but all the small cultural cues that are never taught in schools...and that are learned--as in any country--when one is growing...from baby to young child to..

Dude don't bother. Try and get a degree first otherwise you have no chance to get here.

Anyway why would you want to move? You can live far more comfortably in the US than Japan.

It's not about how comfortable, nice, or easy a living it is. It's more about the people, and the culture, but that's not really why I want to move its just perks.
I don't want to stay in the US for various reasons, but I also don't want to just move to another western country.
I'm 18 and obviously don't want to have kids, but if I did I wouldn't have them in America no reason in particular. I would in Japan again no reason in particular just what I feel about it. Japan is safer, more convenient in almost every aspect, and everyone is just nicer.

"Japan is safer, more convenient in almost every aspect, and everyone is just nicer"

Talk about being totally naive and/ or delusional!

I love Japan, but there are gangsters and thieves, not everything makes sense or is practical, and, as in any country, there are people that dislike foreigners and are not shy about it.

You can not sit there and tell me that Japan is not significantly safer then America. I don't know if you have ever been to America, but it is not a safe place. Don't get me wrong its not like crime is a huge rampant issue I can live 364 of my days with out even looking over my shoulder, but statistics tell me with out a doubt Japan is far far far safer then America. The US has a 44 times higher crime rate per 100 citizens then Japan. Just to add to my statement everyone i'v asked that lives in Japan (Which is quit a few.) tells me it's safe, and that people in the country side don't need to even bother locking there doors. That says alot.

I never said everything in Japan made sense, I don't expect it to. Not everything in the US makes sense, as I also don't expect it too.

I can live with minor racism. I wont get shot for being a Gaijin or beat up at random. At most I will get some remarks and maby stopped by the police every once in awhile.

There is no dissolution, i'm not Naive on the subject I know the statistics.