High School Study Abroad in Fukuoka, Japan

The classes are good for beginners. The teachers were very friendly and helpful, and the family at my homestay was very welcoming and kind. The students at the school were primarily adults, at least during my program, so it was a little bit harder to make friends and find stuff to do after classes. It was coordinated well and communications were usually responded to quickly. Overall I enjoyed my program and the opportunity to experience life in Japan.

I'm grateful to have gone to Japan through Greenheart Travel. Here is my honest opinion on my experience. Overall, it was great. My flights to and from went smoothly, aside from my broken laptop :( , and my host family's home was, honestly, bigger and more comofortable than mine in the US. My schoolteachers were very understanding of me and the other students, and pushed us to practice Japanese in a variety of ways. They occasionally scolded us for speaking in English while in between classes! My experience was faithfly immersive, and I got to learn a lot about the Japanese way of life along with their historical culture. This was done through organized field trips, or outinfs with my host family. I enjoyed my time there, and received reasonable communications from the language school of events and schedule changes. However, Greenheart Travel's communication itself disappointed me. While I was preparing for my trip to Japan, the program manager seemingly changed between 2 or 3 different people at different times. There were times when I didn't know who my main point of contact was because of the confusion, and it was very scary for me because I had never been abroad, and had no idea what kind of information I needed to provide along the way, or who I would ask my questions too. I was grateful that Greenheart had the ability to provide scholarships for students like me, especially because I was paying for the program myself, but aside from that have limited good experiences with the agency. My program handbook mentioned that I was supposed to have at least one video call with my host family before I left to get to know them before departing, but this never happened. Instead, I wasn't even given any information about them until less than a week before my departure. I'm glad to have had this experience, but have now ascertained that I'm unlikely to travel with Greenheart again until they build a more reliable team. It was the people I met while abroad that truly made my experience so wonderful, and I hope that Greenheart can give future students a better experience!