[saaxu]

Arikado, you live in California so I'm 100% sure that your college has a study abroad program for Japan if you attend a CSU or UC. If you're attending a community college then you'll have to wait until you transfer to a CSU or UC first. It's too late to apply for a year program now if you attend a UC (I don't know about CSU, it depends on the school) but you should still be able to apply for a semester abroad. I've already applied and have a pretty good chance of doing my graduate work abroad at the University of Tokyo (Osaka University and Tohoku University as backups) for a year starting in July 09.