It wasn't cheap and mostly took all my savings, getting me to fly back to the US and start a new life in northern california with virtually no money, but somehow I took the financial risk, and it was worth it. I stayed with a very nice host family in Hakodate on the south tip Hokkaido, and went to school most days to study Japanese all morning and generally do a fun cultural activity in the afternoon. I stayed with a host family, the Takahashi, who nicely took care of me, and thankfully were quite fluent in English as my Japanese was very limited when I arrived there. A few pictures of my host family:
that was my first rotating sushi plates restaurant. where I was ble to invite my family to thank them for their hospitality
the beach was used to dry out nori (japanese seaweed)
they're not screwing around :)
I was running inside that cardboard tube :)
Tokyo Tower, which didn't fit in my camera at all :)
Zojo-ji, seen from Tokyo Tower