Personal Development
I for one, developed my Japanese communication skills (listening, speaking, reading) from my everyday commutes and tasks. I visited so many cool towns and parks and campuses, it showed me that I do quite enjoy hiking or trips to see places like that. I learnt some more about what I value between seeing my family and enjoying life in another country, new friends vs old, I can now say that I grabbed this international exchange experience with both hands and saw what I could with it.
Academic Development
This experience gave me an idea of how academics outside of UQ are managed. I attended two campuses with different program students at them and lived at a third whilst also visiting a fourth for a symposium. I studied more Bioinformatics (my major) whilst receiving an introduction to Quantum Internet and computing which was a great experience for me. Luckily for me I found the workload less than my UQ studies - perhaps because the courses I have taken at UQ have been so rigorous or perhaps because each individual course is smaller (in content) whilst there were 7 classes to take. It was somewhat difficult to be enrolled in some courses at SFC (Shonan Fujisawa Campus) due to conflicting systems - but consistent communication and working hard allowed me to do this.
Professional Development
I have managed to volunteer time with university clubs, events and a national research group to experience the expectations and work ethic of Japanese groups, it was somewhat inspiring to see them working so hard so consistently. Several times in my stay I found difficulties with some of the paperwork and forms I was required to fill out. This lead to me first attempting to complete them on my own, then asking a friend to help me and finally if needed seeking help from a university or dormitory staff member.
Budget
Overall I must have spent around $15,000 AUD. This was split up by about $2000 in flights and ~$7000 in accommodation (dormitory was ~$4k), then I would guess 2000 or more on food, groceries ect and the rest on transport/ travel/ gifts/ experiences. When staying in a foreign country for the first time, you can't quite spend time as a tourist like most other people, because you live there - but you also must enjoy your time and experience what you can. So I would recommend finding experiences that you enjoy/ like the look of (say a snow trip) and calculate expected costs for the month, see if the trip fits roughly within that budget. Keep a track of monthly expenses (phone, accommodation) and weekly food costs - try to find a bus/ train pass if possible because that is likely how you will be travelling daily and making that as cheap as possible is a great way to save. Of course you could get a job (visa dependent), just decide on what you value most. A job as a language teacher might be great for your language skills, but do you want to spend your time going to shifts? A job as a research assistant might be a cool job but again, what is the time and commitment expectations.
The funding (NCP Grant) I received greatly benefitted my experience. As mentioned, I was able to volunteer my time with a couple groups over my time because I was not worried about not having enough money to comfortably enjoy my time. Without the funding I might have looked at finding a part time job to fill what might have been a gap - this might not have been a bad thing, but I much preferred to not be pressured into working in another country to get the most out of my experience. The funding helped with the flights, subsidized the dormitory fees (although cheap compared to Australia, it was still on the pricier side for the university dormitory prices), the funds also let me purchase the train pass I used to commute to university without worrying if I would make the most use out of that pass - it was something I needed and the funds helped me worry less about it. Purchasing bullet train tickets and experiencing the commute back from Kyoto to Tokyo for a morning class with all the other Japanese workers doing the same was an interesting experience in high speed rail.
Highlight
Hmmmm, commuting to SFC campus was always great. After a few stops the train is no longer busy, even in peak hour and Mt Fuji is visible from the train lines. I also really liked the road trip I had with other students. I met some of them while going on hikes around mountains/ the country side and was invited to join them on this car trip - it was great. I went to some super cool places like Karuizawa and Kusatsu Onsen and got to see the snow monkeys (and their onsen), experienced driving on ice as well as the Japanese road trip experience of stopping at combini's for snacks.
Advice/Top Tips
So heading to Japan which is picking up interest globally as a tourist destination, I would recommend avoiding tourist destinations and seeking similar experiences in other areas. Yes hiking Mt Fuji is unique, but the mountain looks better from the mountain ranges to the north west, not when you are standing on it. Kyoto is a very culturally important place, but Kurashiki's historical district also has the preserved white walled housing area (known as the venice of Japan). I didn't like crowds and as we aren't tourists, we don't have just 1 week to try to see everything. Find what you like and experience it from a local perspective if you can, of course ensuring to keep up the study whilst in a car trip or on the train!
