Tokyo: Learning inside the classroom and even more outside

I really enjoyed my daily life in Tokyo with IES. In the mornings from Monday to Friday we had class from 8:45 to noon. Afterward, many of us explore different parts of Tokyo everyday. The freedom in the free time was the highlight of the trip. The staff were students who had participated in an IES Japan program previously and therefore they were really helpful with finding cool places. Day to day class activities included speaking, reading, and writing in Japanese. We would also have special assignments such as interviewing a Japanese person, or cooking with local Japanese students. Homework usually only took about one to two hours, with extra hours in preparation for the two tests. One of the highlights was how IES arranged a weekend homestay in a more rural area of Japan. The staff even looks carefully at the students' and the Japanese families' interests when matching up people for the homestay. Usually during the weekends people would plan mini-trips to a nearby city or we would participate in an IES field trip to a historical or culturally significant site a few hours from Tokyo. In addition to this, there were four optional small field trips within Tokyo and we were able to choose three to participate in. I personally enjoyed going to the Ghibli Museum and making food in Asakusa. A difficulty I encountered was trying to find the motivation to speak more Japanese when I was surrounded by English speakers. I know this sounds ironic, but it is very tempting to just speak your more convenient language and stick to those who can as well. There is not a language commitment requirement, although it was highly encouraged to speak as much Japanese daily as we could, and the classes we took were not with other Japanese students. IES did have a conversational Japanese language partner pairing though with students from Kanda University who were interested in improving their English. That made it easy to make close Japanese friends in only the span of 6 weeks. Many of us would meet up with our conversation partners, or go in a big group, after class. Another difficulty, if you've read anything about Tokyo, is the price of food and cost of living in general. IES does provide some coupons that you can use at two cafes in the Olympic center complex, but I could only eat so many sandwiches in a summer. The Olympic Center is a complex of a few buildings and some dorms (be warned, the dorm rooms are small). We stayed in the dorms and took classes in the buildings within the complex. Many diverse groups came to the Olympic Center, but I had to go out of my way to interact with them. The location of the Olympic Center itself is amazing. It's situated right next to the giant Yoyogi park, a 20 minute walk to Harajuku, and a 10 minute train commute to Shinjuku. There are also some nice restaurants and the indispensable convenient stores in the surrounding the area.