When you go abroad, needless to say, you must have a valid passport issued by the government of your home country. The process for receiving a passport may take a long time. It is recommended that you apply for a passport from your government as soon as possible to ensure that you can leave your country as scheduled.

Once you have obtained your passport you need to go to the Japanese Embassy or Consulate in your country and apply for a VISA. The documents you will need to take with you when applying for your Student VISA are as follows;

   1. Copy of Certificate of Admission to Hiroshima University. (Issued about three months before arrival)
   2. Certificate of Eligibility (Issued about one month before arrival)
   3. Passport photo
   4. Your passport

Please ensure that you apply for a "Student" VISA. It is a very complicated process to get your status changed and in some cases is not possible.

If you are in need of regular medication or wish to bring medicine with you to Japan, you will need to obtain a doctors certificate for that medication and bring it with you. When you get to the customs barriers there is a special check point for those with medication, marked in English, which you will have to go through. (Be aware that this applies to some medications which will be "over the counter" medications in your home country, such as Asthma sprays.) If in doubt get your doctor to write you a certificate.

Japanese medications do not tend to be prescribed in as high dosages as their equivalents in many other countries. You will commonly be supplied with about 3 days worth of antibiotics and will have to return to the doctor to get more. Doctors are however prone to subscribe various types of medicines at the same time. For example, if you go to the hospital for a deep cut in your hand you are likely to receive four different kinds of medicine. One to prevent infection, one to prevent swelling, one to kill the pain and finally one for your stomach to deal with the other three.

If you commonly fall ill with illnesses such as tonsillitis, which is commonly treated with Penicillin, it may be wise to talk to your doctor about this before you come to Japan and if possible bring supplies with you.

That said, medicine in Japan is of a very high standard with generally the same facilities and standards of physicians of other countries. Japanese medicine fuses Western and Eastern techniques for a whole body approach to healing If however, you need to go to a hospital or clinic it is better that you as Japanese people knowledgeable of the area what hospital or clinic is best to go to as the level of care can differ between hospitals. But in general care is good, the Japanese still hold the world record for longevity.

For the female participants to the program who are using oral contraceptives (the Pill) it is advisable to bring a year's supply from your own country. Only a few years ago, the low-dose pill was finally allowed by Japanese medical authorities, and still the use is not as wide-spread as in many Western countries. As a result, you may find it difficult to find the same pill you are using in Japan.

International students participating in the HUSA program are required to join the National Health Insurance System by the regulation of Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The monthly fee is approximately 2,000 yen. Students who join this system are entitled to a 70% discount on all medical and dental fees.

Minor ailments can be treated at the University Health Service Centre on campus. The University Health Service Centre provides basic health care as well as psychiatric consultation and psychological counseling. The University Health Service Centre is open 9:00-11:30 and 13:00-15:00 weekdays.

Hiroshima University aims to maintain and promote the health of students, both university and K-12, children, teachers, patients using the university hospital and their families, and other parties associated with the university. We are announcing the start of a Campus No-Smoking Policy from January 2020, with the goal of attaining a smoke-free environment and to send non-smoking students out into the world.

The main aim of international students in Japan is, of course, to pursue knowledge and undertake research. Accordingly, most of your time will be spent on your university campus. It is in your best interests to try to associate with professors and fellow students, and to participate actively in academic meetings, seminars and activities so that you may make many friends and acquaintances to make your stay in Japan fulfilling. Hiroshima University holds many events and has various facilities to make student life more comfortable and worthwhile. In order to enjoy your stay and study in Japan, it is important to adapt to the new circumstances in Japan as soon as possible by getting familiar with the Japanese language, manner and customs, climate and food and by understanding Japan and the Japanese people.

Situated near the center of the Temperate Zone, the Japanese islands generally have a mild climate. The changing of the seasons is clearly marked. In summer (June, July, August) it is hot and humid because of monsoons from the southeast. In winter (December, January, February) it is rather cold due to the seasonal wind from the northwest. As the Japanese islands lie along a north-south line and their topographical features vary greatly, their climate also changes greatly depending upon the locality. The following graphs show the monthly average temperature and humidity in different parts of Japan.

Hiroshima has a relatively mild climate, due to it's positioning on the Seto Inland Sea. Saijo is situated in the mountains and experiences distinct seasonal changes.

Summer

Expect temperatures between 25-38 degrees. Summer is a very humid time of the year in Saijo.

Autumn      

Temperatures ranging from 15-25 degrees with blue sunny skies.

Winter        

Temperatures ranging from –10 – 10 degrees. There is often a cold wind at this time of year and  snow falls in the area.

Spring        

Temperatures ranging from 10-25 degrees with blue sunny skies.

Japan also has a fifth season - "The rainy season". For most of the month of June and into July, Japan experiences "the big wet". It rains almost constantly (or it seems that way) until one day it stops, the sun comes out and the humidity rises to saturation point.

The traditional Japanese diet consists of boiled rice as a staple food and fish, meat, vegetables, etc as subsidiary foods. Seasoning is plain and conservative. Although various foods from Chinese to European are available, the cheapest is this traditional form of food. When it comes to international foods you will often find that the Japanese have "Japanized" the food and it may not be quite what you had anticipated. Fresh fruits and vegetables are available and vary from relatively cheap (for the Asian type vegetables) to mortgaging the house (for some of the harder to get western items). Beef is expensive, chicken, pork and fish are cheap. It is difficult to obtain low calorie packaged foods and drinks. Packaged foods are labeled in accordance with international standards.

Japan is blessed with a good quality water supply, which is safe to drink and is supplied by sanitary water supply facilities. However, in larger cities the water may smell and taste a bit of chemicals.

East of the Fuji River (in Shizuoka Prefecture) the electrical voltage is 100 at 50 hertz, and in the west 100 at 60 hertz. Therefore, when using electrical appliances you must do so with care.

In particular, if one does not speak the language, Japanese society might look very similar to any other developed nation. Many shops are similar to what one finds at home. If one looks closer there are however differences: One will notice that all public phones work and most of them have telephone books. One hardly sees any graffiti, and public places, whereever one goes are clean and well kept. In most places, even late at night, it is safe to walk on city-streets and one rarely will see police. Despite what newspapers of recent years write, Japan is still an amazingly safe country. Still, do not be fooled into thinking that Japanese people are all very well mannered people. What keeps this densely populated country clean and in order is to a high extent that people still regard public spaces as a common space. Deviant behavior is reported immediately, and before one knows it, police officers are everywhere.

Also one might be used to the concept of individual responsibility for ones's deeds, but in Japan responsibility is often shared. This means that others will have responsibility for your behavior. To be more concrete, if a HUSA student is found to be involved in criminal activities, HUSA staff will be held responsible. As a guest in Japan, HUSA students should make sure that they adapt to the rules and customs that the host society has. If student does engage in something socially unacceptable, Japanese will not tell the student directly, but report it to the police or to the university. And they will come and ask you what has happened. As a rule, students should refrain from conspicuous behavior in public places. (Drunkenness, loud noise, indecent dressing etc.), what you may regard as innocent fun, others may regard as intolerable behavior.

Student should have respect for their hosts and remember that they are regarded as a representative of their university and country. From this, students will understand that the HUSA program applies zero tolerance towards deviant behavior. All cases where police is involved will lead to immediate termination of the students' stay, the scholarship will be revoked and a report will be made to the student's university detailing their behavior. In other cases, depending on the severity of it, HUSA reserves the right to take appropriate action.