I dunno.
Airplane?
Hydroplane?
Motorboat?
Mother-fucking boat?
Dolphin?
Get Scotty to beam you over?
Get shot out of a cannon?
Breaststroke?
Backstroke?
Butterfly?
Amphibious Winnebago?
Hmm... I got here because I joined the military...
My advice would be to get a part-time job, something where you can get good tip money like pizza delivery or lawn care. If you put the money aside instead of blowing it on little stuff, you'd be surprised how fast you can earn money for that airplane ticket. Seems like you've got a six month to one year time frame, which is plenty. As far as your stay here, hopefully you've got a friend with a house you can stay at for a short time. The hotels aren't terribly cheap (they're nice though).
Yeah I got there the almost the same way, so I can't really suggest anything Hope didn't. You should be able to scrape together the money in your time frame.
Can't really suggest anything not already mentioned to do or see as well. So I'm actually fairly useless, feel free to ignore me at your leisure.
Nah, I try not to ignore people. Part of the reason the world makes me sad.
As for my activities in Japan, I kinda wanna do some sort of program. Including, but not limited to Japanese language-courses. That was kinda what I was hoping to get input on, but as it turned out, I've gotten lots of other useful advice instead.
Program? Like in Japan? Or just Japanese related?
Because if you are going to Japan make sure you understand japanese.
And why not Kendo for the hell of it? Just don't swing the shinai around like a retard. And lets see... I suppose going to the Disney in JP would be fun too, but most of all go to Hokaido and eat some Shabu-Shabu/Sukiyaki, paired with a good glass of Beer. Yup...
Is shabu-shabu a dish? I thought it just meant "Sauce sauce" or something^^
Anyways, I was thinking along the lines of a summer-study program. You live with either a hostfamily or in a dormitory, take part in a few classes, and explore Japan.