Study Abroad in Japan for High School Students

The whole program goes from July 3rd – July 29th, 2017.

The dates for travel around the country will be the last week of the trip—Sunday, July 23rd to Saturday, July 29.

The first payment is due Friday, February 17th. It is a non-refundable payment of the first 10% ($390). This first payment guarantees your spot in the program. While there is no hard and fast deadline for the application, it is best to apply early to guarantee your spot before all the spots fill up.

Total program cost for the program is $3900.

This covers the cost of all travel (including the JR Pass and the flights to and from Japan) as well as food, lodging, texts, and teachers for all four weeks of the program.

Payments can be made through check, credit/debit card, or PayPal to Mikuni International College.

New for 2017: Roundtrip airfare to and from Japan is included in the total price of the program. Mikuni International will book your flights. This is for flights originating in the US. If you are originating somewhere else, please contact us and we will make individual arrangements with you.

Sometimes students have traveling (airfare) benefits such as their parents’ mileage or employee benefits.  If this is the case, please feel free to contact us and we’ll work with you on individual arrangements.

A JR Pass is a joint offering of the six companies comprising the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is the most economical means of traveling around Japan. It provides unlimited train rides on JR trains (including bullet trains) for 7 days at a time. This is how each student will be traveling around Japan for a week at the end of the program.

New for 2017: The price of this pass is also included in the trip’s total price.

Students of any Japanese level are welcome. We are seeking motivated students who really want to improve their Japanese (or learn it from the beginning!) and learn to use it in real-life situations. Therefore, having a foundation of at least 2 years of high school Japanese could help you get ahead and speed up your progress.

Contact us if you have questions about your Japanese language circumstances

For US citizens, all you need to do is show up in Japan and tell the customs officer where you are going. In this way, you can get a tourist visa very easily. No endless paperwork, and no long application process.

All participants must have passports.

Students from other nations will need to check with their home country’s embassy for rules about visas in Japan, or look at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ list of countries with free visa exemptions.

Tourist visas last for a total of 90 days. The 90-day countdown will start from the day you arrive in Japan, including that day.

All food and lodging throughout your stay in Japan – both at Mikuni International College and during the travel week – are provided. Occasionally students may buy their own snacks, but all meals are covered.

The housing at the Mikuni campus is in lodges and apartments separated by gender. We plan to have Japanese and American students living together to promote cultural and language exchange.

During the week of travel we will stay in a Mikuni-owned house in Kyoto along with other travelers’ lodgings such as a capsule hotel and hostels.

Each year the classes have been slightly different with teachers varying from Japanese locals to Dr. Watabe from the Japanese department at Brigham Young University, and from BYU students to Americans who have lived in Japan.

For 2017’s summer program, we plan to add an American high school teacher of Japanese to our staff as well as a Japanese teacher to provide Japanese instruction and immersion to all students who come.

We also plan to have Japanese students at Mikuni at the same time to provide native speakers of Japanese with whom you can interact, play games, cook, live, and learn.

You will learn about life in Japan and the daily conversational skills necessary to navigate around the country for traveling, eating out, sharing interests, and much more. The program can be tailored to your interests, so please feel free to ask for certain things to be covered. Some years students want to learn more kanji and reading, while other years we have focused on conversation. What you learn is up to you and how much you study and ask questions while you’re here.

Each student should bring about $200 to exchange into Japanese yen upon arrival (or have your bank get yen for you) for your first day’s travels, spending money, and emergency fund. Any further money should be withdrawn from ATMs in Japan because you will receive a much better exchange rate through ATMs than you get at the airport.

Some students like to buy many things in Japan, and some just like to enjoy the sights and hardly spend any money. How much you want to spend is entirely up to you.

We have had parents and siblings join us on the travel portion of the trip in the past. Anyone who would like to accompany us on the travel portion of this study abroad program is welcome to do so. Contact us for more information, and let us know early so we can book hotels together.

If you think this program is worthwhile, or if you’ve had past students who enjoyed this program, please let your current students know about it. Contact us for flyers or other information that may help your students enjoy a relatively low-cost Japanese experience.

There are also potential opportunities for a high school teacher of Japanese to come to Japan and join the students on this program in 2017 and beyond, so please contact us (cameron@mikuniinternational.org) if you are interested in visiting Japan for a unique experience with your students and others like them.

Contact the Program Director, Cameron Hilker, at cameron@mikuniinternational.org.

If you would like flyers to post at your school, share with friends, or otherwise distribute, feel free to use the PDF located here.

We look forward to hearing from you!