NC86 wrote:
> > though it would be the height of the short term summer courses. And
> > also a little worrying. I can understand why it is possible to list 57
> > Americans on the website, and report 0 Americans to the APJLE, because
> > it is possible for all of the Americans to be short term students on
> > tourist visas. What I can't understand is how they can list China (PRC)
> > student numbers as 9, when the APJLE and Immigration Bureau figures
> > state clearly the exact number of student visa holders by nationality
> > for each and every school. Looking through the previous months, there
> > are also some discrepancies understating the numbers of some
> > nationalities when compared to the corresponding 3rd party audits.
>
> Sounds like it could be a strange experience going there. Not bad, just
> slightly surreal. At least the lack of English would force me to speak
> Japanese.

Provided the students in the higher classes can hold conversations.
Overall I don't think studying there would be a bad thing. You would
have structure, and the classes would be better for your Japanese than
staying in Australia or just travelling/bumming around. Plus you could
do worse, there is one "school" with 293 shugaku visa holders, all 293
from one province of China.

> If KAI tells me they don't have a winter course I think I'll go with
> this one. Yamasa would be the best but it's more expensive (even with
> the cheaper housing).

Kai would also simply pop you into one of the 2 year course classes.

Yamasa is going to be a little more expensive from April 2006 (first
tuition rise since 1999) because I'm going to shrink the average class
sizes and tighten 2 of the quotas for native languages. Only the 3-24
month academic programs are affected though. Extension course tuition
will remain as is.