The Summer 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). We also use destinations in Okazaki City and Kyoto as part of the learning environment.

Okazaki Castle, location of the tea ceremony class

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. 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 have degrees at Masters level or above, as well as a minimum of 3 years teaching experience.

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.

Culture Class component:

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 home 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 intend to 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.

With the exception of rest days and field trips, lunch each day will be in the Kurumi ("walnut") cafe, which serves meals using only organically grown methods. You will have the chance to eat lunch each day with your teachers, providing you with extra language practise and the opportunity to ask extra questions you may have about Japan, the language and the culture.

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 homestay, hotel, 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 is also able to provide or organize: