Kansai Gaidai University

The internet connections at Kansai Gaidai itself were surprisingly slow, but my host family had very fast broadband access. Textbooks are easy to acquire at Kansai Gaidai, since most of them consist of packets of material photocopied from other sources (probably violating copyright laws, but whatever). Homestays and dormitories are well-equipped with furnishings... the few apartments near campus were either exorbitantly expensive or gross, so few people chose that path. Getting money is easy, international ATMs are at every post office in Japan. Prepaid cellphones are available at reasonable rates, and for international communication Skype is the way to go. Health care/bank trips seemed to entail some confusion and bureaucratic wrangling with the university office, but if you absolutely need such services they are accessible.

If you move in, go buy most of your stuff to a dollar shop..crazy how many things you can find there. Also buy your furniture to a second hand shop, there is one in Hirakata. The quality of used items is really good in Japan. Otherwise there is an IKEA in Osaka too, but a bit far. Food at school cafeteria is pretty good and cheap. Also, in most big supermarkets, the food gets discounted heavily around 6-7 pm.. So if you can wait a little for your dinner, you will be able to eat lots of sushis every night hehe.

You can save a bit if you don't blow all you money on eating out. Shopping at the supermarket and eating at okonomiyaki ya san, or takoyaki ya san when hanging out with friends might save a bit too. When you travel, there is a lot of cheap accommodation around. A good thing to do is to pick a 'Lonely Planet' Guide and get your accommodation tips from there.

kansai gaidai will help you to open a bankaccount at the Sumotomobank and I would recommend to withdrawel money only from the Sumitomo banks! other banks is possibel, but they will charge you 1 us$!!!

Be mindful of the exchange rate. When I was there, the value of the yen shot up and the US Dollar lost like 20% of its value. So try to budget your money and make sure you have enough in case something like that happens to you.

There are quite a few cheap places to eat & ways to travel. International travel out of Japan is much cheaper than domestic flights; I went home to Hawaii for $300 US. The administration makes it easy to open a bank account, but getting money transferred from home can sometimes be a pain. Eat at the shokudo (cafeteria) on campus - It's much cheaper.