[RealJames]

The very distinct impression I get from every single one of my students, who themselves are university students here in Japan, is that they were subjected to an incredibly difficult entrance exam for which they had to do more studying than for the entirety of their university life...

In other words, it's really really hard to get into them, but once you're in it's a walk in the park compared to western universities.

The difficulties of a students life increase steadily until they climax at the university entrance exam, and then it's like a free pass till graduation, and then they do training at whatever company they get hired by, and then life is difficult again. So there's a 4 year break during which they have more time to spend with friends and travel than at any other point in their lives.

These are my observations.