My school and some advice on studying in Japan

On request, here's a post about the school I am attending and my thoughts about it.

The name of the school is Japanese Language Institute of Sapporo, in Japanese 札幌国際日本語学院　（Sapporo kokusai nihongo gakuin), it's located close to the Maruyama park in the west of Sapporo, a few subway stops from the most central parts.
The school fee is 646,800 yen per year, which is about the same for all Japanese language schools in Japan, some are slightly cheaper and some are slightly more expensive.

There are 4 classes per day (Mon-Friday), 45 minutes each with short breaks in between. I start school at 1 o'clock in the afternoon and finish at 4.25, there are also morning classes for those who have studied a bit longer.

The pros:

The teachers are good. Of course, some are worse and some are better, but in general, they hold a good standard.

The books we use are good, a bit too much of the polite language and too little of how you actually communicate usually with friends and others of your same age, but that's the way it is at all language schools in Japan I've heard. After all, it also is very important to be polite in Japan, and you will start learning how to speak to friends as well after a couple of months. It will be a bit frustrating in the beginning though.

The cons:

When you sign the contract and accept the school's rules, it says everything you need for the course is included in the school fee, no extra purchases will be necessary. It's not entirely true. While the text/exercise book and kanji book is included, the grammar book is not, you'll have to buy it. In the first 10-15 chapters or so, the grammar is not that complicated, so you can manage with just the explanation that the teacher gives during the lessons. After that, the tempo gets a bit higher and the grammar a bit more tricky, and for me it's impossible to see how to follow without a book giving grammatical explanations in English.
The book's not that expensive though (around 2000 yen if i remember correctly), just I don't like signing a contract where it says everything's included in the school fee, but it's not.

When I started the course, the class consisted of 12-14 students, now as more people have joined, there's 20-22 students and the classroom is packed. Quite many in a small class room, a little bit tiring, but quite alright.

Finally, no soap or hand towels at the toilet at school. Sure, they want to save money, but at least soap? Even the public toilets here usually have soap.

These are no big issues to me however. I came here to learn Japanese and it's going well so far and I'm having a good time. That's what matters.

If you're from Sweden and thinking of attending the same school, one thing worth mentioning is that it really is becoming a lot of Swedes here now. When I started, we were 8 Swedes, now there's about 10-12 Swedes. Might even be the second biggest group after the Chinese students. While I don't mind Swedish people, it will be negative for your learning if you only hang out with other Swedish people after school and speak Swedish everyday.
But all that is completely up to you of course. The school provides you with good conditions for learning Japanese properly, but if you don't use the language regularly outside of school, it will take a lot longer time to learn and will be easier to forget. Your brain will not start thinking in the Japanese language.

So my advice is, go out to the bar, have a few beers and forget that you can hardly speak Japanese. Meet some Japanese people, make friends and use those few words that you have learned. Another good idea is to meet a Japanese girl/boyfriend.

If you're a shy person that feels very worried about trying to speak in a language you just started learning and tends to take the safe alternatives, like speaking those languages you already know, I would say the best thing is to specifically search for a school where there's no one who speaks your language. The smaller towns in Japan probably have less western students and the Asian students usually don't speak English well, and certainly not Swedish..

Useful links for searching language schools in Japan.
http://www.aikgroup.co.jp/j-school/index.htm
http://www.nisshinkyo.org/ (Click top left corner for English language).