I'm going to Japan in August/September(haven't decided yet). I'm going to be studying at Kobe University for a year, as the year abroad of my degree (Business Studies and Japanese). The prospect of studing business studies in Japanese in classes of Japanese people has me a little nervous. Still, I'm really looking forward to going back to Japan. I was there for a few months a couple of years ago, and I really loved it there. I've never been to Kansai, which is part of the reason I chose it, and also because I think that being in Kobe and beside Kyoto and Osaka, there should be a lot to keep me occupied during the year. Has anyone here spent time in Kobe? Will I regret not just choosing Tokyo?
If anybody's studied at Kobe University, any info about that would be greatly appreciated too.
As I mentioned, the year in Kobe will be the 3rd year of my degree, so I find it odd that I have to do proper Business Studies classes in Japanese. We had a lot of choices of universities, and apparently all the choices that aren't Kobe just make people do Japanese language classes, but at Kobe University you do Japanese language classes and Business Studies classes. I know this is undoubtedly a question I should ask someone in my University,and I will, but does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing? My Japanese isn't awful, but it's nowhere near "taking University business studies lectures" standard. Am I doomed to fail? The nice thing about it is that there was no mention of this before we made our choices and it was all set in stone.
Anyway, aside from that. Any information about Kobe would be appreciated. Is it a nice place to live? Is it hard to get around? Nightlife? Quality of restaurants?Friendly people?(I'm aware I'm asking for a generalisation, but common consensus seems to be that Tokyo and Osaka people are usually quite different, would Kobe people in general be more like Osaka people?) I've heard there are a lot of gaijin there, is being a gaijin less of a novelty act than it is in other parts of Japan(I'm not sure which answer I'd prefer here, heh)?