To make the story short, my studies are usually (always) solo style. At some point in my language learning the fact that I have put so much time on reading and intellectual study will pay off but right now I am missing the other part of language learning that has nothing to do with how smart or hard working you can be. I need to start interacting with Japanese people in Japanese in a friendly environment.

I was wondering what are some immersion options? WWOOFing, volunteering work, homestay programs, language classes, church <!> (am I that desperate?) and that sort of thing come to mind. Do you have any experience with this?

My reasoning:
My experience teaching English here in Japan has been great but it hasn't helped my Japanese much, the kind of interaction I have with my co-workers just doesn't work in my favor, I am supposed to use English during class and they don't seem to be so thrilled about teaching me Japanese either, they are busy and of course I am busy too.

How good is your Japanese? The answer will kind of change depending on that. Here's a couple ideas though:

1) Make friends who are Japanese (especially people who can't speak English). Go and hang out with these friends.

2) Make friends who are not Japanese but have really good Japanese. Go and hang out with these friends. It's likely that they will invite one of their Japanese friends who you can then talk to.

3) Move into a "guest house" (ゲストハウス／宿舎). I'm living in a guest house in Tokyo. Half the residents are foreigners and half are Japanese. Maybe about 1/3 of the people commonly hang out in the living room area, so there is a lot of opportunity to speak Japanese.

4) Take classes or go to school for something you're interested in. This could be cooking, gardening, Japanese, whatever. Try to make friends with your classmates.

5) Try to get a hobby where you interact with other people. Maybe take up bouldering? There are lots of opportunities to talk to people if you go to a bouldering gym. (At least in America. I haven't been bouldering yet in Japan.)

I think partner's suggestions are all really good.

Are there other teachers at your school besides the English teachers that you can talk with? Generally it seems like there will be a default language when two people get together with different native languages, and usually that will be the language that's the easiest to communicate in. So often (depends on your level and the teachers' level of course) conversations with English teachers default to English. (Also, in my experience the English teachers really wanted to speak with me in English.) But if you can find other teachers who don't speak English well, you might have a better chance at having Japanese conversations with them. Or, maybe you could find a non-English teacher who is interested in English and have some kind of language exchange where you can both help each other. When I was teaching in Japan, I had a Japanese teacher I got together with once a week during on of our free periods and he helped me with Japanese and I helped him with English.

I don't know you so this is pure speculation. If I happen to be wrong then just ignore it. I'll offer a few tips at the end.

One thing you might consider pondering about before considering anything else is yourself. You're in Japan...and you're complaining about not having immersion or knowing how to meet people. You might look at yourself to see if maybe part of the issue is introversion. A large number of people coming to Japan tend to be introverted for a few reasons, so its not surprising. But it seems absolutely absurd to me that someone would say they don't get enough immersion and what should they do..while being in Japan. IF you know or realize you are introverted, then try and fake being extroverted. There are books and info out there on it, but realizing it is the first step to working around/with it.

Go to some bars (even if you don't drink you can still chat with people). Go to clubs. Get a mixi account and find people with common stuff and message them telling them you have stuff in common, you are learning Japanese and want someone to chat with on Skype. Go to Izakayas, sometimes if groups get drunk and going, its easy as hell to sit down with them and talk. This is the extroversion thing, go up and say hi. You're a foreigner, you're unique, and you speak Japanese.

The start to finding people to talk to more is.....talking to people. In Japan of all places, you can't expect people to reach out and talk to you in Japanese , everyone is scared because they fear the situations where they don't understand or you don't understand and stuff gets awkward. This is never more so clear than at enkais/nomikais where teachers get drunk and suddenly you have everyone talking to you at some point in the night.

what part of japan are you in? are you in a public school as an ALT? i haven't lived in japan for more than a week or so, so i can't do much more than agree that what others have suggested.
personally, my best immersion experience was when i was in south africa on foreign exchange. i wanted to learn zulu, but everyone spoke english at the university, although i asked those who spoke zulu to help me or make small talk any chance i got. i met a woman who was raised in an orphanage in rural kwa-zulu natal. they welcomed me to volunteer there, along with said woman, during spring break. she was the only person who spoke much english. the kids were delighted to teach me any and every word and drill me. the other exchange students stuck together and went to johannesburg to check out museums and take tours and whatnot on break. i think zulu is easier than japanese, but you have one advantage: when you leave japan you can read japanese books/manga, meet japanese people, eat japanese food, watch japanese tv/movies. i've only met one zulu person since i left SA.
There are many people in the US (especially in the cities) who don't speak much English at all because they don't need to. you have to go out of your way to learn a language if you don't need it to survive. 頑張って。

If I were you I would join an outdoor club. Japan has incredibly beautiful mountains and lots of almost magical landscapes. If you are hiking every weekend you will get to talk a lot and possibly also make good friends. Almost all universities have one or more outdoor clubs. You might also have a look here http://www.jac.or.jp/
Otherwise you might just join a club related to some activity that you already like or that you would like to try. Or even better join more than one club.

Great ideas, I need to start checking out local clubs to see what's available, maybe there's something.

I know it's ridiculous to ask for immersion while being in Japan but it's a million times different to come to Japan to study Japanese & travel than coming to work in Eikawa. When I get to the office (I work at a juku) everyone is at their desks "working diligently", no one is really talking to anyone, soon after that I have to get on with my lessons and by the time I am finished everyone else is working in their classrooms so all that's left for me is to go back home (~9 PM). All the other suggestions are valid though.

What I would really like to experience is something like a homestay / language exchange. Wouldn't be easier to get on something like that since I am already in Japan, even if just for a couple of weeks.

I think I'll reiterate my suggestion to move.

A guest house/dormitory like the one I'm staying at is really nice. Or, you could try to find a family who is renting out a room in their house. Although, I don't know how easy it would be to find something like that.

What skills do you have to offer from a volunteering point of view? Sporting ability, chatting to old people, etc. I have a friend whose Japanese Dad volunteers to teach disabled kids to swim. He loves swimming and is an elementary school teacher so it is a perfect fit for him.

Well, the point of this thread is to hear what options exist.

As for myself, I kinda live in the goonies so moving is not an option.

turvy Wrote:As for myself, I kinda live in the goonies so moving is not an option.

When I'm telling you to move, I don't mean to move to a better area of Japan, but to change your residence to one where you get more interaction with Japanese people. Is there something preventing you from doing this?

partner55083777 Wrote:When I'm telling you to move, I don't mean to move to a better area of Japan, but to change your residence to one where you get more interaction with Japanese people. Is there something preventing you from doing this?

If he lives in the middle of nowhere, then guest houses and dorms most likely do not exist. Its simply houses and apartments.

@partner55083777 Unfortunately, yes. My apartment is provided by the company and renouncing to it would probably cause some trouble around here. Your idea is spot on but I need to find something else.

vix86 Wrote:You're in Japan...and you're complaining about not having immersion or knowing how to meet people.

Wow! You are so right on the spot with this. I've noticed that my introversion had been an issue a while back, but I also noticed that my "involvement", my initiative to dive into the learning process in my own life, the extroversion process "objective observation" had been neglected. The only way I could escape the endless turmoil was to set aside my pains, my current worries, my current issues, etc, and stand up and begin taking the first steps to learning Japanese.
Because I was pretty good at picking up commands on a computer, I began using my computer to learn Japanese, but I still had very little immersion or exposure to the Japanese language until I started watching Japanese anime, and reading manga. Once I finally got the hiragana and katakana down, I was reading much of the Japanese language in manga, the signs and boards in Japanese anime. So you can see, overcoming our greatest weaknesses can be done by leveraging our greatest strengths in the lesser known areas where we need to learn. Even now I'm still studying away, learning the kanji, vocabulary and sentence structures. Lots of great examples already beginning to pop up such as Japanese websites that I visit, changing my facebook page into Japanese interface, etc.
It can be done, though not by the habits, and instincts we are comfortable with, but by stepping outside of what we know, USING what we know as a tool to do so. So, what's the opposite of what you DO know or have done? Ever tried it? Why not? Step into YOUR unknown, that's where YOUR learning takes place.