Here is a list of little useful tips I have if you want to become an exchange student in Japan (or even not in Japan; it’s still pretty useful ^_^)
>Before you leave:
-Pack everything you could possibly want, even (especially) if it’s disposable. Don’t worry about taking up room with shampoo or old clothes because you’re going to throw them all away/use them all up in Japan, and fill the empty space in your luggage with souvenirs. This may sound silly, but pack drugs (the legal kind ^_-) and candy, too!
-Bring your own deodorant and if you’re a girl, bring your own supplies. I never found this out myself, but apparently, Japanese deodorant is weak, and I found out first hand you can’t necessarily get what you want in the girl-department ^^; You have been warned… If you’re worried about these things taking up too much room, refer to the point I made above ^_-
-Get addresses of EVERYONE. Your rotary club, your mom, your dad, your grandma, your aunt, your ballet school, your friends…. EVERYONE. There are a couple reasons for this. A. You’ll never know whose address you’ll need and it will take a few weeks of turnaround time (through snail mail….you might not have e-mail, you know O_O) to inquire and find someone’s address. 2. Sometimes you are VERY bored and are DESPERATE to write letters to ANYONE (mainly so you’ll get letters back ^-^)
-Study the language as much as you can. No matter how much you know, you can always prepare yourself a little more. And if there’s no room for improvement, that means you’re already perfect and don’t need to be an exchange student in the first place : p Do whatever it takes; anything to at least get you an idea of what it’ll be like. (I watched all of EVA through [raw], and read the Ayashi no Ceres manga…took forever, but I managed to plow through it and it really did help) Because once you get off the plane…you’re on your own >: )=
-Write to your host family. I was very glad I did this. It showed them how much Japanese I knew (and didn’t know ^_-) and let them know what to expect before they got me. Also, send pictures of yourself and family in the letter. It’s almost un-written Japanese moral code to always include pictures in letters.
-Take lots of pictures. Naturally, this applies to when you get to Japan, too, but it also applies to before you leave. You might not be able to say much when you first get there and it will be very awkward. Pictures are very good ice-breakers and they also help the family understand you better. Take pictures of your house, your cars, your supermarket, your friends, family, parks, arcades, Christmas, EVERYTHING. ^_-
-Prepare some sort of "gift" Doesn’t have to be much, but it’s always nice, no matter what country you go to, to bring a gift/gifts to give to your host family to show you’re grateful they took you on for the year (or however long they did). Preferably something "American" (or whatever country you happen to come from). Like T-shirts, postcards, mugs, etc.
-Purchase a good dictionary(s). This is very important. I had two good dictionaries (one Japanese to English, the other English to Japanese….strangely enough, I never used them much ^^;;) Chances are your host parents will have a Japanese-English, English-Japanese dictionary, but it’s nice to have your own. It’s a good thing to have if you’re stuck. Though try not to rely on them too much. Whenever there was a word I didn’t understand, rather than rushing for my dictionary and interrupting the conversation, I’d simply ask the person to explain (in Japanese) what the word means. This way, I was also more likely to understand the essence of the word, rather than simply the "definition". After all, that’s how I learned English as a baby ^_-
For those of you who want a few key phrases but don’t have the time/money/desire to buy a dictionary or phrase book, I’ve made a little page of useful phrases here ( I warn you, though, some of them are just plain silly… oh well >: )=
When you first get there:
-Familiarize yourself with your host family. Find out their names. This is very important. Have them write their names down for you (sometimes you’ll know them before you leave). Finding out birthdays and the like is not a bad idea, either. You can get away with calling your host-parents "Otoo-san" and "Okaa-san", and your older host brothers and sisters "Nii-san" and "Nee-san", but if you have little brothers or sisters (this always helps your language a LOT. Try to make friends with lots of little kids ^v^) you’ll have to know their names, and it’s not a bad idea to know your host parents’ real names because that way, if someone asks you "who are you staying with?" you won’t have to say "I’m staying with ‘Dad’… ^^;"
-Familiarize yourself with your neighborhood. If you’re like me and are directionally-challenged, this step might take a while, but it’s an important one. Spend your first couple weeks (or however long it takes) running errands with your host-mom or dad. Go to the supermarket, go to the rice-shop, go to the coffee shop she goes to every day, go to the park… Basically, GO PLACES. If your host parents ask you "do you want to go to ___"? your answer should always be "yes." You want to go everywhere because everywhere is new to you at this point. It also shows them you are taking an interest in them, their lives, and in Japan. (If you hate that kind of thing, you only have to keep it up for a couple weeks before you start school anyway. It won’t kill you ^_-)
-Get to know your Rotary. I can’t say this one enough ^^; Your Rotary Club is there to HELP you. (This is why I encourage anyone who wants to be an exchange student to do it through Rotary.) Most of the members are well-off, intelligent, highly-educated, interesting, and own their own businesses. Just to list a few qualities of the Rotarians I got to know… One was a friend of a friend of Tsunku, a very famous and popular J-pop composer (he does most of Morning Musume’s songs), one owned several cats (I LOVE cats, so his house was my sanctuary ^v^), another was a politician, several were company presidents, another was into art, another was high up in education… Anyway, LOTS of people with LOTS of connections. If you tell them "I want to do ___" they will get to work and do the best they can to see that you get to do "___". I guess the idea is "knock and the door shall be opened unto you" ^-^. I don’t think I did enough knocking…would have been cool to meet Tsunku *__*…
-Speak Japanese as much as possible. Even if all you know is "hai", "konnichi wa" and "arigatogozaimasu", use those as much as possible. All Japanese people have taken at least 6 years of English in school and will want to practice on you. You should humor them a bit, but don’t get into the trap of the Japanese using you to learn English while you don’t learn anything. The more you speak Japanese, the more they will think "Ah, our gaijin-san is very serious, and loves our language, let us help him learn Japanese." Establish from the very start that you want to learn Japanese (unless you don’t…but believe me, you’ll have much more fun if you know the language ^^;)
-NEVER EVER begin a sentence with "Well, in AMERICA, we do…" This really pisses them off. It really pisses anyone off. If you ever have to compare your own country with theirs, do so in a neutral light (or not at all). It was very offensive to us, even, when our exchange students would say "Well, in GERMANY we…." or "Well, in JAPAN, we…" Just try to avoid comparing the countries all together unless your comparison concludes that Japan is better than wherever you came from ^_-
…more later…