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This page is for all interns coming to Japan on the Learning and Teaching Languages (LTL) internship. It is intended for people who have already signed up for the internship and are planning to go to Japan soon.
This page should answer most questions you have about the LTL internship.
Visas
US citizens just need to show up in Japan and tell the customs officer where you are going to get a tourist visa very easily. No paperwork. People from other countries will need to research about possible paperwork for visas.
US citizens just need to show up in Japan and tell the customs officer where you are going to get a tourist visa very easily. No paperwork. People from other countries will need to research about possible paperwork for visas.
Scholarship Questions
As of 2015, anyone who is majoring within the College of Humanities at BYU is eligible for a $2000 scholarship. Anyone who has a minor within the College of Humanities is eligible for a $1000 scholarship. Apply online at: https://humplus-funding.byu.
What should I pack?
Check the packing list. It was written for LTLs a few years back. It should still be pretty current, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
I want to bring cool stuff home to my family. What should I buy in Japan?
Take a look at this document. It has some ideas of what to get for yourself and your loved ones.
Since it is not practical to set up a bank account in Japan, what should I do with the stipend I received?
Check out your hand “Keeping track of your Japanese finances” spreadsheet. It has instructions all over it. It seems a little overwhelming at first glance, but if you read the instructions, you’ll get the hang of it really quickly and it will make saving your money really easy.
JR Pass
Do not order a JR Pass right after you sign up for the internship. You can only order them up to 3 months before you use them, so if you order them now, they will be useless when you’re in Japan.
When the time comes, go to https://www.japan-rail-pass.
Once you have it, you actually are only receiving a voucher. You must exchange that voucher at a major train station before you can use it for unlimited rides. There is not an exchange office at every station. This is a common point of confusion among interns, so please don’t get upset with me when you have to pay for your train ride to a major station before you exchange your voucher.
Offices are listed here: http://www.japanrailpass.net/
Phone number list
Medical Emergency: 119
Fire Emergency: 119
Police Emergency: 110
Cameron Hilker 080-9397-0073
Dr. Watabe: 080-4147-6145 (cell phone in Japan)
Brother Dai Endo: 080-3537-1062 — Brother Endo is the main contact for the housing contracts and stuff, but please contact Dr. Watabe or me first if you are having problems with your homestay or apartment
Mikuni International College School Building: 025-775-7771
Sister Hosoya (細谷, property manager for Kyoto House): 090-9169-4214
Do I need a Cell Phone?
When I did the LTL internship in Sapporo in 2014, I did not use a cell phone, and I did not miss it. Some people like the extra feeling of security that comes with having a cell phone, but I don’t think most of you will need one. One thing you can do for free, however, is set up a Google Voice number while you’re still in the US (you can use it in Japan, but you have to make it in the US first). This enables you make unlimited free calls to any US numbers (cell or landline) and call Japanese cells and landlines for really cheap. You can make these calls from any smartphone (Android or iOS), tablet, or computer. Just go to voice.google.com and follow the instructions. You need wi-fi to make these calls, though.
Skype, LINE, Facebook, and probably a few dozen other programs also let you make video or voice calls for free or for minor fees. They all require an internet connection.
Wi-fi?
Some of the companies that sell JR passes (mentioned above) offer to rent you a pocket wi-fi device. It’s something you carry with you that connects to local cell towers and broadcasts a wi-fi signal you can connect to with your tablets, laptops, iPods, smartphones, or whatever. It is not cheap. All your apartments and classroom locations should have wi-fi already.
Apps for your trip to Japan
Some apps I recommend (available for both iOS and Android)
Travel Japan Wi-fi (free wi-fi in TONS of places around Japan) http://wi2.co.jp/tjw/english.
Maps.ME (lets you download maps so you have a working GPS without a wi-fi connection. Shows many landmarks and gives directions) http://maps.me/en/
I am going to travel around Japan. How do I find train schedules?
www.hyperdia.com/en/ is a great website that will help you find train schedules. It is extremely reliable. maps.google.com also has reliable maps, but its train schedules are not quite as customize-able or detailed as Hyperdia’s.
Accommodations During Travel
If you’re going to travel around Japan, you can stay with friends or family members, if you already know people in Japan, but my recommendation is to stay at least once at a hostel. They are fun, inexpensive accommodations. You usually get a bunk or “capsule” to sleep in, and a locker for your suitcase. Then you can hang out in the lobby and meet people from around the world, or just use the hostel as a place to sleep and spend the rest of your time traveling around. My favorite places to book hostels are www.hostels.com and www.hostelworld.com
If you’re looking for an extra cool experience, stay at some ryokan 旅館 or minshuku 民宿 which are Japanese-style inns. They’re really fun and help you really feel Japanese culture and hospitality. For a bit more money, they’ll give you home-cooked meals for breakfast and dinner. Worth trying at least once.
Some of them even have onsen (温泉)
ONSEN?
They can be surprising experiences at first (most of us aren’t used to being naked with a lot of other people), but I love them. I find them very relaxing. Take a chance and go to one. They’re inexpensive and worth experiencing at least once. 銭湯 (Sentou or bath houses) are also really nice. They aren’t naturally heated water (if they were, then they would be onsen), but they are really relaxing, too, and usually have a ton of different baths of varying temperatures and styles.
If you are coming to the Mikuni campus, we’ll make sure we get you to an onsen, since the town of Yuzawa is known for them.
So… we’re only teaching three hours a day…What else do I do in Japan?
The two most important things are making sure your lessons are prepared before class and improving your Japanese. Improving your Japanese should come from a combination of doing your homework (you will seriously, seriously regret not finishing it over the summer) and meeting and talking with Japanese people.
Lots of Japanese stores and places to visit are closed in the morning (except コンビニ, which are ubiquitous and open all the time), so I would recommend getting the studying done in the morning and doing your adventuring later in the day. If you do that, you’ll find yourself with lots of time to do what you want and you won’t have homework to do when you get back from Japan.
What can you do in the afternoons in Japan? Interact with people in Japanese. Shop (or just browse stores so you don’t spend all your money), visit shrines and temples, go out to eat (but make sure to keep track of how much money you spend), go to ward activities, get to know the YSAs in your area and hang out with them (good way to learn colloquial Japanese and make friends), go to arcades, check out Book-Off (a fun used books/manga/dvd/game store), and go hiking, biking, and to hot springs, temples, shrines, historical sites, and other cool places. Japan is full of fun stuff to do, but you’ve got to go look for it!
Should I bring omiyage (souvenirs) for my host family?
Absolutely yes. It doesn’t need to be big, but do bring some little things to give people during your stay in Japan. Perhaps it will be your home-stay family, the bishop of the ward you are visiting, or a new friend you meet who is particularly nice. Just bring some little gifts to give. People love to give and receive gifts. I like to bring chocolates from the US since most everyone likes chocolate. Other food items (such as Salt Lake City salt taffy) could also work, but you cannot bring fresh, non-packaged foods into Japan. Perhaps some other trinkets unique to Utah or your home state could work, too.
Just bringing something will show these people that you thought of them and can leave a very strong and good first impression.
I’m an LTL and I will need to eat; what is the situation?
If you are in a home-stay situation, you will need to work out specifics with your home-stay family for what meals you will eat with them and what you will be expected to make or take care of on your own. That may already have been arranged before you arrive.
If you are living in an apartment, you will get a larger stipend for food than those in home-stay situations. You will need to prepare your own meals or eat out. Use the budget mentioned above to help you plan accordingly.
On Mikuni campus we will be making dinners and lunches together with students and interns. You will still receive some stipend to use on travel and/or eating out.
Public transportation is not cheap; can I get a discount?
Most train stations and even buses offer cards/passes of some sort to give discounts to frequent riders. I know of Pasmo and Suica, but lots of cities and towns have their own versions for local transit, too. For example, I know Kyoto has a ￥500 pass for a whole day of unlimited bus rides. You can just get that pass from the bus drivers. Every town will have its own. In Sapporo, the bus system allows you to buy passes that will let you pay like 8,500 yen and get 10,000 yen worth of bus rides out of it. On Yuzawa’s bus, you can buy a kaisuuken 回数券 and pay 1000 yen to get 1200 yen worth of rides.
Check out http://www.japan-guide.
Where can I go for cool info about Japan?
japan-guide.com is one of my favorite sites. It has an incredible amount of information about everything you will need to know about living in Japan. It is written by foreigners in Japan for foreigners in Japan. It’s wonderful.
How can I charge all my electronics?
Japanese plugs look and work like American plugs, but they all only have 2 prongs instead of 3. You can get converters in Japan (3 prongs in, 2 prongs out) for about 3 dollars. Somewhere here in the US probably sells them, too. But you need to make sure that the prongs are the same width on the American converters. Most US sets have the two flat prongs at different widths. In Japan they are the same size. Most electronics (laptop/tablet/phone chargers) will allow different voltages to go in, but do be aware that Japan uses a different voltage than the US. That was a good question that I forgot to touch on, so I’m going to forward it to everyone.
I need to visit Sapporo. How do I go there?
http://www.jetstar.com/jp/en/
Daily Schedule
If you are anywhere but the Mikuni school as an LTL, your regular daily schedule will likely be:
Morning-5:30pm: you choose what to do. Homework, travel, hang out with new friends, go to onsen, hike, visit temples/shrines, shop, cook, whatever
5:30 – 6:20: teach a churchy class. Sometimes we read from the Book of Mormon (advanced students) or Preach My Gospel (slightly easier) or from Book of Mormon stories (much simpler, a picture-book version of Mikuni)
6:30 – 7:20: teach one class (reading/writing)
7:30 – 8:20: teach the other class (reading/writing)
8:20 – bedtime: more free time.
Class times may vary by city, but this is the most common schedule.
We have no projector where I am teaching. What should I do to help students see all the materials?
TeamViewer is a free screen-sharing app we use sometimes to help students see your presentations on their own devices (tablets, phones, and computers are all compatible).
Staying Longer?
Every year we hold an English Summer Camp for Japanese students. We would love to have you come up to Mikuni (or stay at Mikuni if you were there already) for an extra month or so. If you come, you’ll get to spend several weeks with Japanese middle and high school students, teach classes, play sports, hike, and do lots of fun stuff. Mikuni is so great in the summer because it doesn’t get near as hot as the rest of the country does, plus all the students are a ton of fun each year.
Unfortunately your visa is only 90 days long, so in order to do this you will need to leave Japan and then re-enter the country. You don’t even need to be outside Japan for 24 hours. Your tourist visa will start the 90-day countdown from the day you arrive in Japan, including that day. Before your 90 days are up, you should fly somewhere outside of Japan. The cheapest places that people go to most often are Korea and Taiwan. But last winter, two people took a trip to Thailand to get a warm break from the cold, snowy weather of the mountains of Japan. If you’re going to all the trouble of visiting another country, I recommend that you savor it. Spend a few days abroad. Enjoy the food and culture of a new place!
This flight will add an additional $250-350 to your cost, but your food and housing will still be covered at Mikuni for your extra month.