Can anyone speak to the social atmosphere at the University of Tokyo? I was selected UTokyo for my exchange as it seemed silly to pick any of the other schools, solely off of the prestige of the school. Now that I have a few days left to make up my mind, I’m really having second thoughts.
Firstly, all the posts I see talk about how academically rigorous and serious the atmosphere is at Todai. I understand why that would be so due to how hard it can be to get into the university, but I am unsure if that is the type of environment that I’m looking for regarding my time abroad. I was hoping that the 6 months I spend abroad would be more for me to become more independent and have some personal growth as opposed to academic growth.
Looking at the numbers, I also see that Todai’s ratio in terms of sex is almost 1-to-4, female-to-male. Coming from a US university where there are actually more women than men, is this going to be weird? I’ve always made better friends with women (mostly platonic) compared to men, so I’m really worried that I’ll have a hard time meeting/fitting in with the student body. I know that I will most likely end up in a gaijin bubble with the other international kids, but I was hoping to meet a lot of local students and make friends from the region.
Are my worries over blown? Am I better off getting a dorm at my home university and sticking it out here? Or are all of my assumptions way off base and I’m looking at things incorrectly?
by ina_waka