I am going back to Japan

During this program, you will gain many new friends and even groups of people you will call your family. These are people who will be dear to you and who you will desire significantly to see again. These are not only the Japanese families you lived with or even the locals/students you met along the way. These people are also people among the participants. Because of this, I strongly recommend that you plan to stay for 1 - 2 weeks after the program has ended so that you can spend time after the program with the people that you have met. I did not do this myself, but I greatly regret not doing so after seeing all the fun the others who remained in Japan were having. Besides this, I often communicate with many participants, Japanese locals, and the Japanese families I lived with. Even two (2) months after the program ended.

Other than the people you meet, you will experience many different dishes. The food in Japan is fantastic. Even better is the fact that you get to experience home-cooked food.

The activities that were planned out for the program were great as well. I enjoyed everything that we did. We got to experience different musical instruments, arts, weapons, and dances. We even got to try them ourselves. Other activities were visiting middle school and university students, which were great experiences. In both cases, the students had planned different activities for us to do together.

You do not need to know Japanese to attend this program, though it would enhance the experience, of course. I knew some Japanese when I attended this program, but not nearly enough to have a decent conversation. Some other participants knew close to nothing. Still, all of us had a great time. With some families, English works out fine. When English or Japanese is not an option, translation apps work wonders. You can have some really enjoyable and engaging conversations through translation apps. It is by far the best option to use translation apps as opposed to not talking, at least. You can really tell how much the Japanese people value your attempt at communicating with them, no matter the method.

Whenever I tell people about this program, they say they would much rather travel to Japan by themselves the first time, and attend the program at a later time. They believe that they will get the best experience by planning their trip themselves and going at it alone. I had seven (7) weeks as a tourist in Japan before attending the program. Of course, it was great, but I can say for sure that World Campus Japan definitely would be a great first experience. I would recommend anyone who has not been in Japan yet to seek out this program.

This program is perfect for people who want to develop as a person as well. Firstly you have all the activities, for example, dancing. Something I personally am not too fond of. But I chose to try. I was there to experience new things, so of course, I had to try. And it went fine, and I had a great time; it was fun. Was my dancing perfect? No, it was not. Did the other participants dance perfectly? No, they did not. What about the dance instructors? I saw some of them make mistakes, so no. Still, it was a fantastic experience, and everyone had fun. Secondly, the food in Japan might be pretty different from what you are used to. But it really does not hurt to try it. Just make sure to communicate. If you are afraid of offending the people who made the food in case you did not like it, tell them beforehand that you might not like the food. There was only one dish in my case that I had trouble with, and that was Natto. Even so, I kept trying to eat it. My host families knew that I was not too fond of Natto, and they were completely fine with it. Lastly, you will meet a lot of people. Maybe you are not too social or forward, or maybe it is difficult for you to initiate conversations. Maybe you are shy or do not know what to talk about. I strongly urge you to try even if this is the case. People want to get to know you, but they might struggle with the same things as you. What I am getting at is that I really hope that if you attend this program, you push yourself and you try new things. It will only add positively to your and everyone else's experience.

After attending this program, there is no doubt that I will return to Japan. I will attend this program again.