Kansai Gaidai University

The bars in Osaka. Bikkuri ramen right near the university. Hanging out in the foreign student lounge. Im sure you'll find places on your own.

The 2 main choices are host family or the dorms (a few people had apartments on their own). If you want to hang out with the other foreigners and party a lot and have a fun time the dorm is probably better cause there's always something going on and people to do stuff with. If you want a more intimate Japanese experience and don't want to go back to dorm life then the host family is better. The vast majority of people I know were happy with their host families.

The 100 yen shops are good. Bikkuri ramen is good. Buy a train pass. You can get a bicycle for under $100. Don't waste your money on anime and videogames are garbage like that (if you're an anime freak). Only buy the essentials and you'll be fine.

Overall a great university. Tons of fun. Easy classes. Japan is a really cool country. Meet new and interesting people. Try and visit Tokyo if you can. It's a bit expensive though, I never got to do that. Probably my only regret about the whole trip.

Japanese is a tough language, even in Japan. You need to be self-motivated and put a lot of effort into it. I didn't have a lot of motivation and I'm really lazy so I didn't really improve as much as I would have liked to. Kind of a shame but oh well.