While studying Japanese, one needs a nice place to rest, recharge and do homework. GenkiJACS provides accommodation as well. It is optional, but it made everything much easier for me. I picked a private apartment, because for six months study it was only 53,000 JPY per month and I needed my own space for work.

There are of course other options available and you can read about them on GenkiJACS website. From other schoolmates experience, I can say that homestay can be both good and bad. The website claims 40 mins from school on average, but you can end up an hour bus ride far as well. But of course you have the option to speak Japanese every day with the family. Note that host family is sometimes just one person.

Dorm is good for people who like to hangout with other foreigners and I would definitely pick it for shorter stay. I only know one person who stayed in shared apartment. The upside was that it was in the same building as the school. The downside - it was noisy, small and of course you have no say in who will live with you.

My apartment is quite small, but it has everything I need. It came with everything including TV, wi-fi, table, chair, bed, fridge, fully equipped kitchenette and also washing machine, hair dryer, iron and vacuum cleaner. It is a wooden floor type apartment with a bed and a tiny Japanese style bathroom. You can see the main room on the picture.

It is however not 5-10 mins walk from the school as the website claims, but rather a 40 mins brisk walk. There's also no direct bus nor subway and I ended up buying a bike. It takes me about 15 minutes to reach the school with it. At first it looked like a nuisance, but in the end I am glad I was forced to buy the bike. Fukuoka is very bicycle friendly.

The location itself is very nice though. Quiet at night but has plenty of bars, restaurants and services nearby. It's only about 2 mins from subway and bus station. There's a konbini (7/11) at the bus stop and a post office and a big gym are also nearby. A bit further, but still just 10 mins walk is a 24h supermarket with better prices than the konbini.

Because I like running, I am quite happy with the 2km distance to the great runners friendly park Ohori koen.

I met the agent who takes are of the apartment when I came to Fukuoka and in about 10 minutes I was already living in my new home. He also takes care of all the bills and I must say I am very happy in this place now.

When I first read throught the whole GenkiJACS page, I really liked two things: The instant estimate that was quite close to the final price and the chat with GenkiJACS representative. I had all the information I needed before I even asked them for the final price.

I wanted to go to Fukuoka because it seemed like a nice city. It has a small beach and the weather is nice, if you don't mind a short rainy period and hot summer. Fukuoka's rainy period looks like Central European spring, but it's a bit warmer. And since I spent 4 years in Malaysia, hot&humid is what I am used to as well. The city is just the right size to have everything and not feel crowded at the same time.
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People are a bit friendlier here and not as busy as in other Japanese big cities. There are also a lot of families with young children. If you've only visited Tokyo or Osaka with a trip to Kyoto, you will be very surprised.

The school is located in a nice district, close to the centre. If you arrive at the school during a lesson, it will feel quiet. Which happened to me when I went to take the orientation test. But during the breaks, you realize how busy the school actually is...

At the entrance there's a shoe rack and you have to change to slippers. Just by looking at the number of shoes gives you a good idea how many students study there. The receptionists are very friendly and if you came for the first time, they will help you get around.

GenkiJACS has a big lounge and it's gonna be the first room you'll see. You can eat there and socialize with the other students. Since you can't eat in classrooms, so this room gets full during lunch break :) It's easy to start conversation with other students, because most of them have similar interests... And they all study Japanese :)

The classrooms are small, designed for a maximum of 6 students. It happened to me that we had 7 students in the classroom, but some of the original classmates left after a few weeks and our class has only 4 people now. It's an ideal number where everyone gets time to speak. And it was actually fine to have more people in the class in the beginning, because there wasn't much talking. I've become a good friend with my classmates in the first few days and it always felt sad when classmates finished their studies and left...

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It's been now ten weeks since I joined the school. It's the first half of my study with GenkiJACS and I am going to resume studying after a three weeks holiday that I really need right now :) But I can say that afte 10 weeks studying Japanese I am able to communicate with locals when I initiate the conversation and it feels great!