Staying in japan for a year!?

[jns4chat]

will potentially be going to the International University of Kagoshima for a school year as an exchange student. please try to answer as many of the questions below or tell me more about the university and the vicinity. thanks!

questions:
- cost of living (detailed monthly breakdown pls!)
- things to do, places to go to, food to eat...
- places i absolutely have to visit (within japan)
- when does school start and end in japan? and when do we get breaks in between?
- can i get a cellphone? how much will it cost?
- if i make calls to taiwan, US, and the philippines, how much would they cost? is it better to call by cellphone, public phone, or skype?
- can exchange students apply for parttime jobs? how many hours can i work per week and how much is the hourly wage?

please add anything else that would help! thanks a million!!!

PS. i'm ready to try anything as long as it's not too extreme. btw, will i learn japanese in another accent if i pick it up in kagoshima? finally, how's the transportation in kagoshima? thanks!

[markystar]

i don't know specifics about kagoshima's standard or living or any of that.

but they have a famous dialect called satsuma-ben. (satsuma is the old name of that area). it's a quite difficult dialect. that area was kind of cut off from the feudal government in Edo, so the traditional says that samurai intentionally made their dialect difficult to confuse the officials in Edo. they were also said to have the craziest, manliest samurai in all of japan.

i suggest you read up on Saigo Takamori, he was from Kagoshima and is a kind of national hero of sorts...