Moving to Hirakata, tips for a student?

Hi, again! Even though your Japanese is not great you should stay with a family if possible. You will find most of the families have hosted students before and will have a dictionary handy. My mom and I would sit at the table at night with our dictionaries and figure out a way to talk. I learned more in two weeks then I had in the prevoius four months. I would give it a try! The school will give you directions for getting back and forth from the school so that should not be a problem. You might even be able to request a family within biking distance to save on the bus/train fair. A few of my friends did that and got families within a 20 minute bike ride. My family even rode their bikes with me the first few days of school so I didn't get lost! And if you have a good pocket dictionary you will be fine! I found most Japanese are very willing to try to help you if you attempt to speak a little Japanese with them first. It was a wonderful adventure! I wish I could do it again!
Good luck!
Carol

Hey Carol!

Sounds like you had an awesome experience,I'm thinkking I will apply for homestay, hopefully close by to the school.

Your thoughts have really helped me get a better idea of what to expect.

I'll be sure to post what's happening for me as soon as I know!

I didn't do an exchange at Kansai Gaidai(was near tokyo, though I did visit Osaka and Kyoto), but I thought I'd share some thoughts anyway.

Since you've been to Japan before you may know some of this, but some of the hard to obtain things in Japan are somewhat surprising: like stick deodorant. Japanese shoe sizes don't run big at all, so bringing a spare pair of shoes and lots of socks is a good idea.

I definitely suggest a host family too. After the first month, I was able to think on my feet in Japanese enormously more than I ever could before, even though I had spent a whole month in Japan about a year before. Talking with the host family daily really, really helps. At first it is very hard, and you'll use a dictionary a lot. But if you can think of how to describe things even if you don't know the real word for it, they can probably guess the word and it will actually be less frustrating. It takes a very long time to know the word for everything, so explaining in Japanese ideas and things you don't know the word for is really a useful skill.

Good luck, and enjoy!