The Language and Culture Program uses the facilities in Aoi Hall on Yamasa's Okazaki campus, and the facilities of the Kurashi-no-gakkou, a non-profit sister school of the Institute located nearby (about 3 minutes walk). Yamasa's indoor tennis court etc is co-located at Kurashi-no-gakkou. We also use destinations in Okazaki City, Toyota City, Nara, Kyoto, Tokyo and Matsumoto City and many other locations as part of the learning environment.

Language Class Component:

Aoi Hall will host the classes, using the CALL laboratories and the Distance Learning Theater on the ground floor, and classrooms on the second floor. All classrooms and laboratories have air-conditioning, internet access and sound insulation. During classroom instruction, the maximum number of students per class is 8 students, and the teaching team is usually 4 instructors. Interactive whiteboards and advanced teaching aids are in use. The CALL laboratories use good quality PC's and headphones, interactive whiteboards, and each individual work station has partitions so that you cannot be distracted by lateral movements. In the CALL laboratories, there are never more than 5 students in the same lab. All instructors are specialist teachers of Japanese as a Foreign Language, and a minimum of 3 years teaching experience. Most have degrees at Masters level or above, and all have taught at universities outside Japan prior to joining Yamasa's faculty.

Close to your classrooms there is the rest area on the ground floor (includes vending machines, piano, recreation space), the student bar (Zig Zag) and student cafe (Kitsutsuki - "Woodpecker") and the radio station. A short walk away (2 minutes) between the Aichi Center campus and the Kurashi-no-gakkou campus is the recreation room (table-tennis etc) and Sports Square, which includes our indoor tennis court and other facilities.

Catered lunch component:

Each day you will be able to continue practising your Japanese during lunch, where you will be joined by Yamasa instructors. This provides you with extra conversation practise and the opportunity to ask extra questions you may have about Japan, the language and the culture. The student:teacher ratio during lunch does not exceed 4:1, and is usually less. With the exception of rest days and field trips, lunch each day will usually be in the Kurumi cafe restaurant, a new cafe that incorporates an early 20th century kura and overlooks the Japanese garden, or at our new facilities in Fuji Hall. All of the food is organically grown and most is locally sourced. Specially dietary requirements (food allergies, halal, kosher, lacto/ovo/lacto-ovo vegetarian, vegan etc) can be catered for - please mention this on your application form.

Culture Class component:

Japanese Cooking & Cuisine in Kurashi-no-gakkou

Kurashi-no-gakkou will host most of these classes, making good use of the excellent teaching facilities available. The base of the campus is a Taisho period Japanese style mansion renovated to provide classes space including the tatami mat rooms used for classes such as Kitsuke (kimono), Ikebana (Ohana) and Shoudo (calligraphy), the dance studio (Kabuki), and very modern studio kitchen (Japanese Cooking classes, Japanese sake appreciation). The complex includes a Japanese tea house, however we frequently use the tea house at Okazaki Castle for the tea ceremony. Similarly we will also use off-campus locations for learning, such as a ryokan in Gion (in Kyoto), 800 year old temples such as Tenonji, and several World Heritage sites.

Afternoon classes will usually end at Kurashi-no-gakkou campus. If you wish to return the Aichi Center campus (3 minutes) you can do so, the computer laboratories and reading rooms are available. If at the end of each day you would prefer to return to your accommodations or head off to do some exploring, please note that JR Okazaki station is only a 2 minute walk from Kurashi-no-gakkou, and apart from the trains this is where the new bus center is located.

The Program staff are also able to provide or organize: