Overall, I'd give them a 7/10. It wasn’t a bad experience, but it could’ve been better. They definitely have room to improve.

Flights and Financials: Booking your own flights offers more flexibility and may be more cost-effective. When I had a family emergency in Japan and needed to return home early, it was challenging to reach the EF America base to discuss changing my flight. Communication was difficult due to time zone differences, and responses addressed only some of my questions. I was quoted a higher price than my original roundtrip ticket for the return flight, so I arranged my own ticket. Additionally, receiving a refund for the canceled flight is proving to be very complicated, even with a cancellation protection fee. As well as continuing the conversation about a partial refund for my classes and homestay.

The staff at EF Tokyo were supportive, but they had limited ability to answer financial questions and referred back to the American team. There were also some billing errors with charges for services I did not sign up for, so it is important to check your payments carefully. Having dedicated financial support staff on-site would streamline the process. Feedback from other reviews suggests financial support is an area of much needed improvement at EF, especially in the case of refunds. I hope they can continue working with me to get a partial refund, I’m anxious about this process after reading the reviews. I will update this review when that process has commenced.

Classes: These are great classes. I have 100% learned a lot even in my short time here. If you stay for a few months, you’ll be having conversations in Japanese. I would definitely recommend learning some on your own before you come to the school. Using any app for a couple of minutes a day will better prepare you. The classes move fast. That being said, you can only miss 80%, so if you’re coming to meet people and see the country, you will not have a good grade and won’t get your certificate. You need to speak and read English to do this program 100%! They say the classes will be an 80/20 Japanese to English, but in reality, it was 95/5 Japanese to English. English is the only language they give directions and explanations in, if you can’t understand English you will struggle. That being said, It’s hard but really rewarding. In 2 weeks, I went from nothing to introducing myself, my entire family, and a lot of basic phrases. This is an amazing language school if you put the effort in.

Homestay: I stayed in a homestay with a roommate and two different families. The school’s policy is for host families to provide breakfast and dinner on weekdays and three meals on weekends. If you are not receiving this, you should request a change. It took some persistence to arrange a move, but it was accommodated. My first host family did not provide the expected meals, and I rarely saw my host mother, which did not meet my expectations for a family experience. If you’re not prepared to sleep on a futon, this will not be for you. I slept on a 2cm thick futon on wood floor for the first two weeks. This is apart of Japanese culture, but it’s not the most fun part. those with back issues, or sleep issues I don’t think this would work for you. My second family, the Irinami family, provided a much more positive and welcoming experience. The mother was kind and an excellent cook. They welcomed me into their family with open arms. I feel very blessed to have spent a week with them. If you get put in this family you are very blessed. Based on these differing experiences, it seems EF could continue to develop host family standards to ensure consistency for all participants. The investment in the program warrants attention to these details to help ensure a positive stay.

Trains: personally, I never want to see another train or bus again in my life. Some people love it, others hate it. The normal commute to school is an hour. For a lot of students, it’s even more. It’s very overwhelming. They don’t teach you how to navigate the trains or how to get to school. You wing it till you make it. I definitely think there could be a program with students who are experienced to help out the new students on the first day; these more experienced students could get activity credits or something in return. It would be extremely helpful. YOU WILL GET LOST… a lot. Just accept it, learn from it. It does get better. In total, there is 100% something more EF could and should be doing to teach students about the trains and how to get around this new country alone.

Activities: honestly, 4/10. Nene is very sweet and is definitely working hard to set up these activities, so I'm not dissing her hard work. I think there is a lot more that could be done, though. Timing-wise, I found it hard to attend anything. They have the activity once a month and at one time during the day. If they offered the same things more frequently and at a variety of times, I think a lot more students would be able to join. I also think that more staff and teachers joining in on these would create a much deeper bond between student and teacher, while also allowing more teachable moments. During my stay, I did an excursion to Kyoto. It was pretty good, 8/10. I’m pretty sure I overpaid, but it was a great trip, and I made some lifelong friends. They had a VERY packed itinerary, but I was able to go off with a few friends and do our own thing. It was super fun, and I 100% recommend going on an excursion trip if you can.

Day-to-day life: you have a lot of free time. If you struggle to make friends quickly, this will be difficult. The school does not give nearly enough information on exploring Shibuya. You are thrown into the fire as soon as you get there. I think the staff could give a list of activities to do around, and maybe a map with some staff-picked spots! Making the city a classroom, and the opportunity to hear and speak Japanese easier and less intimidating for students. I think this aspect is missing any staff support. There is way more the school can do to help you feel more confident while in this HUGE new city in your first few days.

Staff support/ school environment: the staff I worked most closely with throughout my family emergency and my experience as a whole was Micah. He was very helpful and understanding. I think he is very good at his job. The teachers were also very helpful when it came to class time. They did a good job, but like I've been saying throughout this whole review, they could be doing SO much more. Moving on, the environment of the school is very nice. They provide a great space for students to lounge, call families, hang out, and study. The building is very convenient, and there is a supermarket in the building for lunch! I believe there are also restaurants, but I never personally went to any of them except for McDonald's on the bottom floor.

Overall, I do not regret coming here. The friends and memories I made here are something I will forever treasure. That being said, there is room for EF as a company to grow, and I hope they continue to try to improve the work they do.

This summer, I embarked on my first-ever EF experience in Tokyo, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The program allowed me to immerse myself in the Japanese culture like never before, offering a perfect blend of education and adventure. From the moment I arrived, I knew I was in for something special.

The educational aspect was equally impressive. Over just three weeks, I was able to advance from A1.1 to A1.2 in my Japanese language skills, thanks to the supportive and engaging teachers. Their kindness, thoughtfulness, and sense of humor made learning enjoyable, and I was thrilled to stay connected with some of them even after the program ended. The variety of spin classes offered allowed me to tailor my learning experience to my interests, and the ease of switching classes if something wasn’t a good fit was a bonus.

My teenage daughter arrived in Tokyo and walked around FOR THREE HOURS lost and scared. We called the Tokyo school and spoke to staff, no one bothered to help her. This set the tone for the entire trip.

In my opinion, very expensive (I paid approximately $6000) and very disorganized. Also in my opinion, classes were sub par.
I paid six hundred dollars for a roundtrip airport transfer to Narita that was literally never used. For the return, this company was notified of an airport change approximately four weeks in advance and a limo still showed up to take the student to the wrong airport. In my opinion, every aspect of this program was disorganized.

I totally got the run around regarding a refund for the unused airport transfer. After emailing the customer service rep for assistance, I was advised to schedule a meeting with the "student experience coordinator." The "student experience coordinator" did not show up for the Zoom meeting and did not respond to my emails to reschedule. (I had sent several emails, previously, explaining this simple issue and no idea why a meeting was even necessary.)
This is a very simple issue: please refund me the $600 roundtrip airport transfer that was never used.

In my opinion, once this company has your money, they care about nothing else.

I am 16 years old and my trip with Ef Tokyo was my first trip abroad alone.This trip was my favorite vacation ever and I have made so many friends from Japan and other countries. I was only with Ef Tokyo for two weeks but I learned a decent amount of Japanese while I was there. While in Tokyo you have a lot of free time and you can go wherever you would like. You can go throughout the country independently which was something surprising but definitely something I enjoyed. I took trips to Akihabara, Kyoto, Harujuku, Shinjuku, and so many other places. My residence was 1 hour by train away from the school which is in the heart of Shibuya which is an awesome location. One thing I didn’t like about the school was the time of the classes because some days they were at 9 while others were at 18:00. I loved meeting new people while I was in Japan especially Japanese people because it gave me a new perspective of life in Japan. I made a Japanese friend that
took me too his home town’s festival. If you go to Ef Tokyo you will have so much fun and make so many friends no matter how long you go. I really recommend Tokyo even if you are like me and knew 0 Japanese when you arrived. I’ll be honest it is sometimes hard to get around without being able to speak Japanese but I could always rely on google translate so I’m the end it was okay. I also really enjoyed the activities the school provided. My favorite one was my trip to Kyoto where I bought a model katana and learned about Japan’s history. If you like the city or the country side Ef Tokyo is great because in 1 hour from the residence is the heart fi Tokyo and 1 hour the other way you can visit beaches and mountains. I am so glad I did Ef Tokyo even though I was super nervous in the beginning. The staff was great and everyone there is super nice I really do recommend visiting Ef Tokyo! Oh one more thing the food! I loved the food you can get such good food for so cheap. Japan is the most beautiful country I have visited and I hope everyone can experience Japan once in their lives!

I studied at EF Tokyo over the summer for three weeks. Compared to other language schools in Tokyo, EF is egregiously overpriced. For the price you pay for a month at EF, you could get 2-3 months at another school of equal or better quality.

Riisa-sensei, my teacher for two weeks, was fantastic. Some other teachers seemed inexperienced, but teaching quality for the most part was good. My class moved through material at an extremely slow pace, however, so don't come to EF if your goal is to learn as much Japanese as you can.

Activities were alright. Most of them are not free. You pay for them using "activity credits" that you purchase. These activities range from museum visits to weekend trips, and are usually quite pricey.

I stayed in the "EF Residence" in Tama-plaza. Please be aware that EF does not own this building -- it's a share-house with rooms that can be rented by anyone. The quality of the accommodation was quite poor. I stayed in a bunk bed room that only had one tiny desk and one dresser for both my roommate and I. When I arrived, my bed was dirty and had food scraps on it. Thankfully, I didn't spend much time in my room.

The best part of EF was the people I met -- I made great friends with like-minded people from all over the world, some of which I still keep in contact with. With the friends I made from EF, I went on a weekend trip to Kyoto and climbed Mt. Fuji. I will forever cherish the memories I made in Tokyo last summer.

Despite its shortcomings, EF Tokyo is a good way to get your first taste of Japan. However, I would look at other programs with better value is the cost is too high.

I have always been interested in Japan, both in the language and its culture. I discovered anime in elementary school and have been hooked ever since and I was able to take Japanese classes for four years at my highschool but I wanted to become fluent so I convinced my parents to let me study abraod in Japan in the summer of my Junior year. It was honestly the best summer of my life. I met so many people from all over the world who shared the same interest as me and I became so close with my roommate and a few other guys in the program and the four of us went around Tokyo together for the time we were there. The experience of being alone in a foreign country may be a bit scary and too much but it is honestly great once you get used to it. I went with knowledge on the language but my roommate and my other friends went with absolutely no knowledge, maybe a couple of words from anime but that's all and they were able to adapt just fine. This program also set me up with an extremely nice and welcoming family just outside of the city and I had an amazing experience there. The best part about Japan is the food, it was just amazing. Where I'm from, 7-11 is a cheap snack store that's usually always empty but in Japan, it is totally different. The 7-11s there have so much variety in their foods, they have boxed lunches that taste great and onigiri in so many different flavors and so many different types of ramen. I go to a 7-11 near my host family every morning to grab breakfast which usually consists of a bottled milk tea and one or two onigiris, usually salmon. I would often go to the Family Mart (another convenience store) for lunch at the EF campus. Restaurants in Japan are also so cool, there are conveyor belt sushis and it is super delicious and affordable. Japan also have amazing places filled with trendy fashion stores and sweets like Harajuku. It was amazingly crowded I literally got pushed around the street because the crowd was moving me forward. It was a very different but fun experience. Beware though, the trains during rush hour in the morning and in the evenings are crazy, I honestly was squished from all sides every morning when I go to class and every evening when I go home. This program is definitely worth it if you want to learn a language in a country you've never been to before.

I really wanted to study abroad and take the JLPT. I was told I would be placed in a class with other adults, I was not. I was told I would not be living far from the school, I was a 1hr and 20mins away. I was told I would be living with a Japanese family, I did not. I was told I would be able to take the JLPT and take prep courses for it, I wasn’t. The courses are fine I guess if you already know some japanese, don’t mind speed courses and are a college kid burning your school vacation. My teacher did not speak English well so answering her students questions was often difficult. Leaving many of us to change classes or be confused most of class. There are NO classes for adults at this location, only immature teens and young adults. So if you prefer to take classes with working professionals or atleast people 30 and older forget it. A lot of things weren’t explained to me upon signing up and I didn’t realize this until after a few weeks in so I wasn’t pleased with quite a few things. Not to mention once I was done with the program the administration and agents that signed me up seemed wash their hands of me and not respond to my questions.

EF and just Tokyo in general keep suprising me, I feel like I'm learning an extreme amount while I'm still able to keep up. the only complaint I have is ha the classes could use a break in between them cause 80 min x 2 is hard for your concentration level. Japan itself is wonderful and the people too, I would love to go again! All the friends I made are awesome and we allread have plans to meet up outside of Japan, If you want to learn japanese while having a great time. Absolutely go here!