Learning Japanese in Japan..

[spicytuna]

Originally Posted by druk

I would say ~200,000-300,000 per 6 months. I will do more research on this, but removing the school tuition, 100k should be ok for living, even in tokyo, I think!

100,000 yen/month in Tokyo is pretty tight. I spent that amount over the course of 3 evenings last year.

Of course it's possible but it'll require some major discipline on your part and some careful planning. You won't have much of a social life either since everyone loves to go out.

Do you live in a country which participates in the working holiday program? If so, that might be a better alternative.

[newgaijin]

This should give you a basic idea of how much essential things cost:
Cost living in Tokyo - cost of living in Japan

To give you another perspective, Tokyo is one of the costliest cities to live in - definitely among top 10, as per wikipedia and youe monthly budget is ~1000 USD. So I'd think it's going to be tight. Even if you share apartment, rent and cost of traveling is quite high.

It may be a bit easier if you choose a different city in Japan.

[druk]

Do you live in a country which participates in the working holiday program? If so, that might be a better alternative.

Unfortunately I don't have that chance.

Thanks for the all the links and replies in this thread. They gave me some good options to consider.

Another question, do you think these programs have a better effect on a person with a beginner level or intermediate/advanced level in Japanese?