00:00 John Daub: Welcome to Akita Prefecture. This is Kosaka, and we are inside of a school. This is the Akita Inaka School. I've been wanting to come here for a very long time because this is a kind of a new school with an interesting concept. We're going to be talking with some of the teachers and the founder of this school about what it's all about. What does it mean to study Japanese here in Japan? If you've ever thought about studying Japanese language, even in your own country, I think you're going to get some really good pointers from this live stream as well as learn about the way that they teach Japanese, which is different. It's a little bit unique. And it might be something you're very excited to learn about if you want to learn Japanese. This is the Akita Inaka School. Welcome everybody.

01:18 John Daub: Introduce yourselves, everybody.

01:19 Yuji: Hi, I'm Yuji, Japanese language teacher. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu (nice to meet you).

01:24 Dom: I'm Dom, co-founder of the school.

01:27 Sayaka: I'm Sayaka. Nice to meet you.

01:31 John Daub: Sayaka's a teacher. I'm John. I'm not a teacher. I used to be a teacher, but I'm not anymore of English to kids.

01:42 John Daub: Okay, so this is the classroom and an example of it. You can see here and on the board, they're teaching adjectives already. Benri (convenient) and Fubenri (inconvenient). So they do learn Japanese in this school. How many students do you typically have at the Akita Inaka School?

02:05 Dom: The limit is 24 students because of accommodation. Typically it's around 20 people per course, depending. The summer is ichiban (the best) and winter.

02:23 John Daub: Why Akita though? A lot of people have asked me, why not build this school in Tokyo because it's so close to where everybody comes into Japan? Why build it here in the countryside?

02:37 Dom: Because if you look out the window, there's not a lot out there. That's one of the reasons. We've been in many cities in Japan. We were about to open a school in Fukuoka and Osaka. But when we came here, the people, all the nature and stuff, that's enough to just stay here. Cities, different experience, totally different. Some people like cities, some don't. But this is like more real Japan.

03:17 John Daub: And Sayaka also moved here from Tokyo. Sayaka, why did you move here?

03:24 Sayaka: Yes, I've been traveling around Japan and looking at different language schools. I help people choose the right language school for them. Like if you want to study to go to university, then I can show you a good school for that. This school is great if you want to be part of the community and learn about the culture and learn Japanese in a practical way, more focused on conversation. When I first came here, I was like, wow, I need to move here because the people are so nice and the beautiful nature. The mountains and rivers and rice fields, which are snow right now.

04:11 John Daub: That was really interesting to me, the concept that you have. It's not like a traditional school. It's actually about the experience. This is right outside of the classroom window. I see a whole lot of the opposite of Tokyo. This is the view from Akita Inaka School. Those are all sakura (cherry blossom) trees in the spring. In the winter, it would typically be a lot more snow than this. Last week was way more.

04:55 John Daub: So the concept of the Akita Inaka School is very unique, I guess, because when I think of a Japanese school, I think of a classroom situation where a teacher is just teaching the language and the students are repeating. And that's not what this is. So Yuji, how would you teach Japanese here? What's different about it?

05:22 Yuji: We always concentrate using Japanese. Of course, we always explain the grammar, the meaning. But we concentrate how to use, like, the conversation. So we always use practice, a lot of conversation, talking. After a class, they can use with local people.

06:08 John Daub: Let's go over to your classroom, Yuji. Yuji's classroom is right next door to this one. The point was that Kosaka is such a small little town that people are super friendly here. We just had lunch at a shop in the center of the town. And the restaurant master, the restaurant chef comes out and starts to talk to us. That never really happens in Tokyo, not the same way. And Yuji actually got some free croquette, right? He gave you free food. So we went in there and after we paid the bill and we were leaving, he said, do you like croquette? And Yuji's like, yes. Then all of a sudden, this bag of croquette appeared. I think that's sort of the vibe that you get when you come to a small town.

07:10 John Daub: If you were to compare Tokyo, studying in Tokyo compared to out in the countryside, that I think is the Japan that a lot of people are looking for. Because when you're learning a language, you really want to be immersed in the area, in the culture. And I think for Tokyo, you are in Japan, but you're not really immersed into the culture because you don't have the same kind of connection to the people around you. When you come out to the countryside, as someone who's lived in the countryside the first seven years in Japan, I'm glad that I did because I have a stronger connection to Japan because I wasn't living in the city. The city, people don't really talk to you that much. But in the countryside, you'll have old people and they'll just start talking to you in Japanese. And they keep talking to you and then they give you food. And then all of a sudden, you've lost three hours of your life.

08:20 Yuji: Even I moved here from Hokkaido. So actually, I came before I came to Akita, temporary for one month. So attractive place. The people are so nice, food nice. And also the nature. In Sapporo, much too busy for me. So I'm comfortable to work, to study, to teach Japanese. So I decided to move here.

09:04 John Daub: And now you have a very relaxed life here in Akita. I mean, I know it's a lot slower than Tokyo. When I came here, I feel more relaxed. I like to be out here in nature. And I think that may be another reason why you could learn quicker because you are a lot more relaxed. The days seem to go a little bit slower here. And practice is the best way to learn. So being able to practice with the locals. And you have a lot of time and they have time to really talk with you. And like neighbors come to the share house and give everyone food. That would never happen in Tokyo where my neighbor comes and gives me food. That used to happen when I lived in Fukushima in a little town called Iwaki. I would have my neighbors come and they were worried about me. I was an unmarried foreigner living in Japan. And I would get food like almost every night.

10:23 John Daub: So if a student is coming here, what do you recommend as a time wise? This is a kind of a commitment. It's not like somebody who wants a one week intensive study course.

10:40 Dom: We came up with four weeks because four weeks is the best time to get immersed in the culture. If it's less than four weeks, it's very difficult to get that connection with local people. But many people can learn and not get four weeks. We are planning to get another course three weeks once. But for now, only four weeks and two weeks once. Longer is better, of course. But longer is difficult for almost everyone to stay longer. I think a month is a good time.

11:27 John Daub: And I think if you're trying to learn Japanese, you can do that at home and self study. But if you do come to Japan, I've been living here for 23 years and I'm still not that great at Japanese. But if you want to really learn the language, you have to immerse yourself. And it takes time. But what I've noticed is that the connections that you have with the people get stronger and stronger the longer that you're here. So if you're every day getting fed by this oba-chan (granny) by the end of the month, like people are crying, hugging each other. And they still send letters. We have a LINE group and everyone's still sending messages. That's the kind of connection if I were to come to Japan as a tourist, I would be looking for that. I want to be so connected that when I leave, I'm like leaving a part of me behind. And the people are going to remember me. That's how I felt when I went to Aogashima and Ogasawara. The longer you stay, the harder it is to leave. But that also brings you back. So I'm sure you have people that have come back here.

12:35 Dom: Even like just four months after the first course, we had students coming back. And students still wanting to come back to another course. Even they can't wait to come back. It's like a second home. I miss my Japanese grandma.

12:54 John Daub: Yuji, so I'm going to talk about the learning here because Yuji, you're a teacher, right? Yuji is the teacher of the teachers, the king teacher here. Do you have a simple lesson that you could teach? Something you could take away in Japanese right now?

13:20 Yuji: The one with the most important sentence. Kekkon shite imasu ka? (Are you married?)

13:36 John Daub: Sayaka-san, kekkon shite imasu ka? (Are you married?) Yuji-sensei, kekkon shite imasu ka? (Are you married?)

14:00 Yuji: No, I'm not married.

14:11 John Daub: Wow, this is useful. So all of the oba-chan, you can go around Kosaka and say, kekkon shite imasu ka? (Are you married?) And they're going to be so happy thinking that you're interested in them. They're going to make so many friends by asking that. So everybody say it together with Yuji here. Kekkon shite imasu ka? (Are you married?) Gomennasai (I'm sorry). I'm taken.

14:51 John Daub: I like that lesson though because it's kind of useful that I can use right now and it's fun. So I think that's kind of different from other Japanese schools. I never went to a Japanese school actually. I studied by books and then going out to Mister Donut and talking to oba-chan. I would study vocabulary and then I would spend two hours at Mister Donut and always in the inaka (countryside), people would come and talk to me. That's kind of what we do here. We first in the morning have lessons that you can use after school. And also like we usually do activities after school. So if we go to a festival, for example, we learn about the meaning behind the festival and so you get to experience a lot better. Not just, oh, it looks nice. But you actually get to understand. And teachers all go with students. So teachers are not leaving after the class. They just being part of the student's life. So they spend 24 hours with students going to festivals, cooking stuff and going everywhere. So it's much more fun, I guess.

16:26 John Daub: Let's see if we can get to 300 likes and we're going to go to the next classroom. So this is what would be the classroom that you'd be for Yuji's class. Once again, click the thumbs up button if you like this content because I think it's pretty interesting to learn about what it's like to go to a Japanese school, at least here. There's like barbell dumbbells down here. So these are the bad students, the dumbbells here. All right, we got our 300 likes. Move on to the next one. So right now, are there any students here?

17:10 Dom: No. No students. It's just Yuji's komu school students because he's also teacher for komu school. He runs a juku (cram school) for like teaching Japanese to local Japanese kids. So yes, we have local kids coming here.

17:40 John Daub: Dom, I wanted to ask you though, like a lot of the students that we're gonna, I have some questions that you've asked me on Patreon, but when we get to Dom's office, I wanna ask a little bit about some of the questions that you might have. So we'll do a question and answer. Following this live stream, we're gonna be driving around Kosaka cause I wanna show off this little teeny town that has so much personality here in Akita. It's North Akita, right? So we're gonna get in a car and drive around. So right after this, around 3:05 PM Japan time, in about 30 minutes or so, we're gonna be in a car driving around. So you're not gonna wanna miss that live stream. Let's take a look at some of these pictures here. So there's no students here because of the pandemic. But I think through these photos that you have on the wall here in the common area, you can get an idea of what the experience is like going to the Akita Inaka School.

18:38 Dom: The first one last year, summer. Photos from the summer course. We had a sports day with the locals. They were so strong. We actually lost to the locals. These guys look kind of not so young, and you lost. Mary's farming. See, we have very strong students, but we still lost some. Look at this team lost to the locals, average age 70.

19:34 John Daub: Wow, so it looks like a lot of people are having fun. Wow, hey, that's a kiri tambo (mist paddy field). That's part of Akita. Oh, I love a kiri tambo. And this is oba-chan that people will meet here. She's so cool. She might look like an authoritative person, one of these people who does all the spanking, but she's got a heart of gold. A lot of energy. Yeah, we have local festivals. This is just like in front of the supermarket and also in front of the share house. With local festivals, you get to experience it together with the locals, not just watching from the side. You can participate. That's the main difference, I guess. In big city, you can mostly watch the festival, while in here, you're preparing everything from the beginning. Then you stay after, and then you go for dinner and drinking with the locals. So it's totally different experience. Here's a school from a drone shot. Oh, that's pretty beautiful. So this could be your home for a month. So where do the students live? If you do stay here for a month to learn Japanese.

20:52 Dom: Share houses.

21:19 John Daub: Can we take a look at one of them later on?

21:22 Dom: Yes. They are in the stage of being empty, but yes, we can check even the house that usually we are staying, but next year students will also be staying, because we renovating, keep renovating the houses.

21:40 John Daub: I want to ask you a little bit about this school. We're going to look at some more of the pictures here, but I look at this picture, and again, this was here in this building. This is an old renovated school, right? This was abandoned in Kosaka that had no tenant for a long time. And the team here came in and set up this as a place to teach visitors, people coming to Japan, Japanese. And I thought that's a great idea. This picture here is of the old school, which was put out of commission in 1981. So this is what this school looked like in 1981. And they built this school. So actually the building that they're in right now is not very old, is it? Comparatively, it's 1981, 1982. So it's about 40 years old, this building, which is relatively young for a school. And '70, it got renovated again. Like the toilets are brand new. Downstairs is brand new, but the classroom, they kept the same to have the nice feeling of a wonderful place.

23:05 Dom: They didn't want to abandon the school, maybe. They have connection with this school, especially the locals. So they were hoping they can use this school as something like we came here. They were so happy that someone wants to use the school and bring students, especially from overseas and keep using as it was before, especially the classrooms that even in new schools, you don't use blackboards anymore. But the sound and the feeling for teachers is so nice.

24:04 John Daub: Yuji, do you like chalk or whiteboards?

24:06 Yuji: Yes. I find it difficult to write. But I get used to it. Writing and feeling nice and so nice even for students. Chalk is better for kanji, for Japanese. Better to make a nice stroke using the chalk better than the normal whiteboard ink one. You need high quality chalk.

24:43 John Daub: So I think we're starting to build a picture here of what it would be like to stay here. So there's 24 students that can study here at one particular time. Do they all 24 come at the same time? Or do people coming and going all the time?

24:57 Dom: They need to come at the same time because we are under... We need a small group to keep it like the community feel. Too many people is not good. It's difficult to go to places also and the quality of teaching is not good if there is many people. So we keep the number down as much as we can. And we split them into language level as well. So it's not 24 in one room. Yes, but unfortunately when they coming, what they were telling us or doing the test, it's a bit different than reality. So we do it again and split them again.

26:11 John Daub: So 24 students are here studying and all of them are at different levels and they all study for the same length of time? Are they all here for a month?

26:20 Dom: Yes. That's the only option they have. But many students want to stay longer, but we can organize accommodations. We can ask them to stay longer, but we don't teach for more than four weeks at the moment. Other schools, they often come and go and you just keep saying bye to people, but this school, you are together with the same 24 people and it makes such a nice family community feel and people make such good friends. They still keep in contact from the first course.

26:51 John Daub: What if you don't like one of the people? What happens if there's one person who you don't like and you have to stick with them?

27:00 Dom: We have something for them. It's in the office.

27:18 John Daub: Oh, the autumn is beautiful. It's actually way better than on the photos. But students can fly drones in inaka (countryside), which is totally opposite than in big cities where they cannot. So if someone wants to fly drone, they are welcome. They do have our website, Ryan. And I put a link in the description. So if you're interested in learning Japanese here at the Akita Inaka School, there's a link in the description, so you can go and check it out. And I think your Instagram page is the most active. We'll put that link in there too.

28:50 Dom: We also had a family from within Japan come as a private course. They're so cute. Like a family got to study Japanese together. It was really nice. They were here for three weeks. They're coming back next month.

29:24 John Daub: Do they have to speak Japanese the whole time? Do you have to speak only Japanese in class?

29:33 Yuji: In class? Yes. Well, in English, sometimes I explain in English, but almost I explain in Japanese. And the students also speak only Japanese. So I try, but sometimes it's a little bit difficult, so I explain in English. After the class, the students sometimes speak English between them. But wherever they go, they need to use Japanese. So even if they're in a group, like English-speaking people, they still use Japanese, which is very nice and different from typical after classes, going out with friends in Tokyo, where you just switch to English and stay in English.

30:23 John Daub: That's a problem because if you're learning in Tokyo, there's so many other foreigners and so many distractions. You end up going back to your native language and making friends in your little foreign community, where you're not making friends with the locals. And I found that this is so true with English teachers. They come and they meet other JET or other English teachers in the area, and then they form a group and a friendship, and they stay really closed and don't really immerse themselves in the Japanese community. And after 10 years, they don't speak Japanese at all.

31:01 John Daub: Is there an age limit for being at the Akita Inaka School? Can somebody who's retired come here and study Japanese?

31:07 Dom: Of course they can, no limits. And in fact, we have more and more people, 40, 50 plus, they coming. The oldest was 69 years old student from Australia.

31:21 John Daub: So if you're a retiree and you're thinking about coming and moving to Japan, if you're trying to learn Japanese and learn the culture and you're not sure if you want to do it, you can come here and study, learn for a month about if this is the place that you really want to live in and retire in, then you also have the connections here to possibly even retire here in Kosaka if you really make a lot of friends. The point is, though, that when you come to Japan as a tourist and you come here and you live in Japan, it's totally different. It's not this fantasy land that everything is perfect anymore. It's actually like you start to see the underbelly of Japan and its complexities and that it is not always perfect.

32:29 Dom: For the online one, we have a variety of classes like singing classes, speaking classes, totally different way of studying. And like Maki is enjoying a lot of stuff. She likes the song, so she's teaching some students who are interested in manga, in anime, and this kind of stuff. So it's a bit different than normal teaching. Like learning in a fun way using lyrics from songs. And if you enjoy what you learn, you get to learn more and keep going as well.

33:54 John Daub: So we're walking over now to Dom's office. This is the headquarters, the brain trust. So just the second floor here is the Akita Inaka School, right? The first floor is the printing company. And also first floor there's like a where locals can come from. So I want to take some of your questions now. I've gotten a chance really to give you an overview of the school. If there's something that I missed, leave a comment below. And if you have any questions, just comment in the video below.

35:03 John Daub: I've noticed that it's just the way that they teach Japanese is different than a school that you would learn in Tokyo or somewhere else. Whereas I think it's more studying by a textbook. You do have textbooks here, right?

35:16 Dom: Yes and no. We do have them, but teachers are picking up from different textbook stuff. We found out textbooks are for the long-term studying, and they are more based for JLPT stuff. They are not designed for four-week studying and focusing on conversation. That's why we don't have specific textbook, but the teachers do use different textbooks, and they create own program as well.

36:21 John Daub: Learning by textbook, it never really helped me. But what Yuji was telling me when we were driving actually at the restaurant was that you will learn lessons about an activity that you're about to do. For example, if you're going to a festival, then you would learn some words that were associated with the history of the festival or ordering food at a food stand. And you would learn practical Japanese that you can use right away. And I thought that that was really interesting because in a textbook, you're given lessons on situations that might not be applicable to your life.

37:54 Dom: Our co-founder, which is Angela from internationale.me. She's the co-founder. And because she's been traveling a lot, the countryside in Japan, she also found that this place is very unique and very nice. So together with her, we decided to open this school. She's coming from time to time.

39:21 Dom: I was born and raised in New Zealand, similar to Angela. But yes, my mom is Japanese, so I can speak Japanese as well. I'm from New Zealand. But now I moved to Akita because it's lovely.

40:09 John Daub: Let's see if we get the 500 likes in here. And I'm going to press down on some really big questions here. So I know, like, studying in Japan has different price points, too. Is it expensive to study at your school and in general, comparatively?

40:41 Dom: Well, it's a hard question to say what is expensive, what is not. Because for every person that the answer will be different. But in terms of what you gain the experience, I think it's not expensive at all. Because we've been traveling in Japan before many times, spending money on hotels, other stuff. And after coming to and living in inaka (countryside), we can say that all that money is spent before in the places we've been. But the experience that we've seen was totally nothing comparing to the experience we got here. Same for students. So you need to have different approach on looking at the price and comparing. Because it's hard also to compare our school to other schools where people are going for different reasons and they getting something else out of it. The question is what you're looking for and what you want to get out of the experience.

42:07 John Daub: Comparatively, I think that the prices may be a little bit more than other schools. But I think what you get out of it is a lot more. Because you're actually living here out in the countryside, making local connections and supporting a local market here. Kosaka, I don't think was a growing town, was it? It was kind of shrinking. That's why the school was abandoned. So I just think this is such a great thing because more towns around Japan, with the population shrinking, the economies are as well. So coming here and living in Kosaka, it just does so much. It gives so much energy to the residents here. And what I've seen through the pictures, I think the reason why the oba-chan come and talk is just because it's just so fun and unique. And they want people here. And that makes that relationship so strong that you see in the pictures. So when you do pricing Japanese schools and you're thinking whether or not if it's worth it or not, I always think about the experience that you're going to have and the cost performance. And if you read the reviews of the school, I didn't see anything negative.

43:30 Dom: Basically, for pricing, people are forgetting when they're comparing the basic price, cost of living, for example, in Tokyo, cost of buying food, cost of accommodation and transport, which is like almost zero in inaka (countryside). So this is another thing that you need to make good calculation if you really want to compare. But then if you start comparing that much, probably you are not looking for what we are offering. You are more focused like book-based studying and after the class having...

44:12 John Daub: You pay for the experience that you want. And I think if you're coming out here, you get what you pay for, for sure, and a lot more. Because everybody that has left a review, just the connection that people have made with the people here. This is the thing that is most touching to me.

44:23 Sayaka: This is the letter from our German student to one of the town... Christoffer. This is from Christoffer. To the shop owner that he was visiting. Tawaguchi-san and Kumagai-san. Happy New Year. The restaurant is such a special place. The gyoza is delicious. The meal is very easy to drink and the conversations are lovely. The time was so fun. After corona, I'm sure to come back. Please have a good year. Even though it's cold. Please take care of yourself.

45:19 John Daub: Wow, that's a really beautiful letter. And we have more like this.

45:22 Sayaka: Too many maybe to show but this is another one example of the youngest, our youngest student, John. Minasama (everyone). I hope you all... You are all well and other courses have been successful. Every day I think... Back to the summer course, remember all the happy memories I made. Thanks to all your hard work. Have a great New Year. Enclosed is a lino print I made of Kosaka. I hope you like it.

46:16 John Daub: That's Kosaka, a typical town in Akita, but it's a little special. And we're gonna get a chance to drive around in 15 minutes. We're gonna leave or so and drive around the town of Kosaka because very much part of this school is the town itself. So Dom said that we might get a chance to look into one of the share houses. So it's not a hotel, it's a share house that students will live in. You're all living, all 24 people living in the same share house?

46:58 Dom: No. The girls living in a different house, girls house, guys living in a guy's house, yes. And everyone has either own room. They can share rooms, but mostly everyone has own room.

47:23 John Daub: Share houses is the way to go because you can also do homework together and you can talk together. The cooking and the locals are coming and this is the best part. Local students are coming and joining, so actually nobody wants to stay in a hotel. I can see the locals coming every day, knocking on the door and bringing food, and sake. Coming over, you make one friend. That friend tells everybody else and then everybody's coming to the share house where all of the students are to drink probably too much. And you never have to buy a drink either probably because they buy the cheap stuff too. The hard stuff with personality.

48:16 John Daub: So thanks so much for introducing this school to us, guys. So you ready to take a little break and drive around here? So we're going to get in a car and take a look. I want to take a look and see if you had any questions too about the Akita Inaka School for the next minute or so. I'll take your questions. So we have another live stream starting in about 20 minutes and we're going to get in a car.

49:11 Sayaka: What is your favorite class? My favorite class? You have to be specific. I would say physical education. Interacting with the locals. And also the way how Yuji is kind of genius person. He trains other teachers and the way how he teach is totally... It's difficult to explain if you don't experience.

50:35 Yuji: Best part. What they like most. Actually always... We concentrate conversation, but also like if students make their own conversation. In a typical school, students learn from just textbook and they just follow the conversation, they say conversation, but it's not really conversation because just say following the script. So, of course, I teach them the kind of script, but after learning script, students can make own story, the own experience they can talk about. So we always... I always focus on this teaching this.

51:28 John Daub: I got one last question for Yuji. What is success to you? How do you know if a student has succeeded? What would be... So if a student studies for one month, what do they learn in one month? And how do you gauge success?

51:52 Yuji: Success. But maybe that question would be more to student than the teacher because for the teacher, it's hard. Everyone has different goals. So every students do a bit different. One is better in speaking, another one is doing progress in writing. So there is no like fixed things that everyone will get this when they finish the course. It's up to everyone goals and the way what they want to do. Because just coming to school and sitting in the class will not teach you anything. So you need to be active, especially after the classes and interact. So everyone will get different outcomes. Usually, I feel the good result in the graduation ceremony because the way I joined the graduation ceremony, local people join also the graduation ceremony. And they said, oh, so much difference, the competing at the beginning and the last graduation ceremony. At the beginning, students actually... They didn't speak much. So but the last means around the graduation ceremony, they can speak to even to local people. In graduation ceremonies, students always do their own speech.

53:45 Dom: It is hard for people to find a job here in the countryside if a student wants to stay in Japan. Not hard but there is a limit of jobs available in the countryside. Yeah so the recent trend is more and more remote workers can work anywhere so if you have that you can work remotely. But you need a visa too. We cannot accept them because student visa is for students studying minimum six months. Our course is four weeks and so and it's more complex paperwork. So students visas are for the long term usually one or two years people coming to Japan and staying studying and maybe working a bit. So for our school it's only tourist visas or people who got visas already.

55:00 John Daub: Good questions everybody. If your aim is to get a job they like an introduction to different schools where they help you do that and they help you like write resume or get help and doing job interviews and stuff like that. So somebody is interested, they fall in love with Kosaka and they want to stay you can find you can talk about that when you're here. Making connections people probably the best way for you to open the door into that. Even for English teachers when they come first to Japan and they meet people they don't need experience they don't need license they don't need to be native to find English teaching job.

56:07 Dom: Accommodation options so when you go to the guest house are people speaking in english or do they just keep speaking in japanese at the shared house it depends on the students some speak english some speak japanese uh usually they are from different countries so and the beginner is trying to use english and the one with a bit higher japanese they use japanese obviously once the local is come they can't speak english. The best the top student who speaks the most japanese ends up doing all the speaking. For sleeping basically there is no like time that they have nothing to do and staying half a day in the share house. Almost immediately an activity. Do they teach kendo in school do you teach other like cultural stuff yes we do teach every course is different for example last winter we bring the teachers from the link is in the description by the way so if you want to see all the information every course we're trying to teach something new um and also depends on the interest of people so yes there is many options actually too many to even list them.

58:00 John Daub: We can do that in the next live stream. But if you do have something that you want to ask about learning Japanese in Japan, definitely write it in the comments in this video. And they'll be looking at it and answering your questions. I think it's a really useful resource. And I got to be honest with you, I got lots of questions too. That's one of the reasons why I came here, to kind of figure this all out and see if this is the right place for you. I do think that you have to be the kind of student who has time to learn Japanese. That's why you come to a place like Akita to immerse yourself out in the countryside. This is the Japan that you're looking for. This is the Japan that you kind of have in your mind that you don't find when you come here as a tourist. You're coming here and you basically become a resident of Kosaka, studying here for a month with a residence here. You have a place where your family can send you your mail. You have friends here. You have teachers that are going to be teaching about life in Japan. So I think that that for a lot of people, depending on what kind of person you are and what you're looking for in Japan, this could be the right option for you. And I think that this video hopefully has introduced you as thoroughly as I can think of about the experience that you would have here. And if you have more questions, you can contact the Akita Inaka School or leave a comment below. All right, thanks guys. I'm actually going to get to the car. I didn't think this live stream would be this long. All right, thanks everybody. I'll see you in 10 minutes in the driving through Kosaka. We're going to be going into town next.