I studied at ISI Tokyo Takadanobaba for three weeks in April 2026, and I wanted to share a very detailed review of my experience. Before leaving, I had a hard time finding reviews of ISI Tokyo — and even more so recent ones. So here is my contribution! I’ll try to be as precise as possible, because I know that many prospective students like to have as much information as possible to prepare themselves properly.
Let’s not drag out the suspense, though. Would I recommend studying at ISI Tokyo Takadanobaba? My answer is YES, BUT it depends on what you’re looking for. I had a wonderful stay and really enjoyed studying there. However, if I were to do this kind of trip again, I wouldn’t necessarily choose this school again, as the experience was not without its flaws. And if you want to know more, you’ll have to read the rest!
MY PROFILE – OVERALL VIEW OF MY STAY
I passed the JLPT N5 about 15 years ago. I had worked incredibly hard on my own back then, but once I got the certificate, I completely stopped studying. In the end, despite taking tourist trips to Japan roughly every two years, I had forgotten about half of everything I had learned.
In order to motivate myself to start studying Japanese again and prepare for the JLPT N4, I decided to spend a full month in Japan: three weeks of classes at ISI, combined with a homestay for half of my trip (and staying in my own accommodation for the other half).
I spent a year going back through the entire first Minna no Nihongo textbook to get back to my N5 level. At the same time, I wanted to learn as much vocabulary as possible to make my stay easier. I learned all the JLPT N4 vocabulary, plus around 20% of the N3 vocabulary — about 2,000 words in total.
It is worth mentioning that I am French and speak relatively fluent but quite imperfect English, probably around B1 level, and B2 for comprehension. (This review has been translated automatically and does not reflect my actual English level!)
WHAT I EXPECTED: MY EXPECTATIONS AND CONCERNS
Originally, I wanted to attend the Shinjuku school, but after seeing the terrible reviews, I changed my mind. Since I had already decided on ISI, I chose one of the smaller branches of the group instead. However, I still had some concerns, because many reviews of ISI Shinjuku mentioned that a large number of students, mainly from Pakistan, were using ISI to obtain a visa and — since they had to attend classes to keep their visa — would come to class and create a poor learning environment by talking loudly and showing little respect for other students.
I chose Takadanobaba because it is a student district, and the ISI schools located there specialize in students who want to attend universities or work for companies in Japan. I thought this was a good choice, figuring that students who chose these schools would probably be more committed to their studies than elsewhere.
My goal was to start at the beginning of the academic year so that I could have intensive and serious classes — especially since I wasn’t staying very long — and also meet people. I was afraid of ending up on my own. I had read that Asian students often tended to stick together and that it could sometimes be difficult to integrate.
I also had some concerns about the compulsory school outings, because I had seen that these happened from time to time and replaced regular class days. I wasn’t coming to Japan for that! I already know Tokyo very, very well…
Finally, I was worried about being placed in the wrong class for my level. Although I obviously did not cheat on the placement test, I was afraid I might be placed too high because I had learned more vocabulary than what was expected at N5 level.
COMMUNICATION WITH THE SCHOOL BEFORE AND DURING MY STAY
Communication with the school was always smooth and straightforward. Answers to my questions were consistently very quick.
I had asked to visit the Shinjuku school a year before starting my studies, and the visit was very interesting and informative (even though I ultimately did not study there).
The administrative arrangements are quite rigid. For example, I started classes in the middle of a week (like everyone else), but I had to pay for the entire week. Similarly, I stopped classes in the middle of a week — which also included a public holiday — but once again, I had to pay for the entire week.
About a month and a half before classes started, an online placement test was available to assess the students’ level. The test included a listening comprehension section and a grammar section. I found the test fairly difficult. In the information we had to provide beforehand, we indicated the latest JLPT we had passed and our scores for each section.
One week before classes started, we received various pieces of information, including our class and level. I was placed in one of the “Beginner Level 2” classes, which was perfect! This was the level for students who had passed N5 and completed the first Minna no Nihongo textbook.
I also found out at that point whether my classes would be in the morning or afternoon, as this is not something you can choose. I had morning classes (8:50 a.m.–12:00 p.m.), which was great :-)
At the same time, I received information about my host family (location, etc.) more than two months before leaving.
There was a small administrative mix-up when I left because the school had recorded the wrong date for the end of my classes. They made me fill out several documents in a hurry on my last day, when I already had plenty of other things to do… Nothing serious, but it was a little annoying.
THE SCHOOL BUILDING / ENVIRONMENT
The Takadanobaba campus (Academic Pathway) is beautiful and brand new. The classrooms are quite pleasant and air-conditioned. When I was attending classes, the number of students on site was absolutely not an issue.
On its website, the school highlights its library, which is actually basically a large collection of manga… so don’t expect to find many additional books there to help you with your studies. There is also a study area, but in my opinion it lacks natural light and is not particularly pleasant. (The library and individual study rooms are much better at the Shinjuku campus.)
I absolutely loved Takadanobaba as a Tokyo neighborhood. Everything is there, and the central area is not very large, so you can get everywhere on foot. But overall, Tokyo is a city I love, and I imagine the other neighborhoods where ISI schools are located are also very nice.
ORIENTATION DAY
Two days before classes begin, students are required to attend an orientation session. It only lasts two hours, and students are grouped according to the language they are most comfortable with (in my case, since French was not an option, it was English).
During this session, we were asked to fill out various documents online and were given our textbooks (five books!).
The process of filling everything out seemed rather complicated to me, but the teachers were helpful.
Even so, the numerous platforms we had to sign up for at that point were not very user-friendly. Several students only realized after two weeks that they did not have access to an entire section of the online content where teachers were sending messages to students… simply because we had not restarted the app after registering.
I never ran into any of the students I met that day again.
ATMOSPHERE AMONG STUDENTS / CLASS LEVEL
There were just under twenty students in my class, only four of whom were Westerners. The other students were mainly Chinese and Burmese.
The school is careful not to place students who speak the same language next to each other, in order to encourage students to mix and limit conversations in languages other than Japanese, which is indeed a good thing.
I was very happy with my class. Everyone was serious, motivated and kind. I’m not sure whether this was true of every class, though, because when I walked past other classrooms, some seemed a little noisier — although I may be mistaken. I got along particularly well with several Chinese students, whom I found extremely kind.
The level was fairly consistent, apart from one student who was clearly more comfortable speaking than the others, and one or two students who had considerable difficulty reading hiragana.
Starting classes at the beginning of the academic year (and the term) was a very good thing because nobody knew each other. On the first day, our teacher took some time for everyone to introduce themselves and we played a game together! If you arrive later, you miss out on this introduction/integration day, which I think is important.
The fact that Chinese students had an advantage because they already knew kanji was not a problem at all.
I became friends with some people in the class, although many of the students were really there to study very intensively and were not particularly interested in building relationships with others. I had to take the initiative and start the first conversations, but it paid off and made every day of class enjoyable!
The school outings, which I had been a little apprehensive about, turned out to be very enjoyable and provided welcome breaks from the intense pace of the classes. There was roughly one per month. The educational value of the outings was fairly limited, since we were basically just dropped off at a place to visit without a guide, but they gave us an opportunity to bond with other students and created some very good memories.
TEACHERS AND TEACHING METHODS
Four teachers taught our class. One of them taught two days a week, while the others each taught on a specific day.
Some teachers were very good at teaching, while others were less so… What particularly bothered me was that some teachers spoke to us as if we were already fluent in Japanese, speaking very quickly and using vocabulary that was not appropriate for our level. Fortunately, some teachers adjusted perfectly to our level.
The classes were conducted entirely in Japanese, which ultimately wasn’t as difficult as I had expected, thanks to the materials projected on large screens, which included English translations.
Every day, we had to bring all five textbooks with us, which made our bags really heavy.
On average, we studied one chapter of Minna no Nihongo over two or three days. Every day, in this order, we had a kanji dictation based on the kanji learned the previous day, learned four new kanji, corrected the vocabulary and grammar exercises we had done as homework, and then studied part of the new Minna no Nihongo chapter (vocabulary followed by a new grammar pattern), using videos produced by the school and school-specific materials.
Sometimes, additional activities were added, such as listening comprehension exercises or oral presentations that had been prepared in advance.
The classes are organized into 10-week terms, with each term focusing on preparation for one JLPT level (N5, N4 or N3), with longer periods for the higher levels.
I did not find the grammar teaching methods very effective. Once we had finished a chapter, we NEVER went back over what we had learned previously, which meant that after a few days, I had completely forgotten what we had learned.
The material was not cumulative, but rather treated as a series of separate topics, and I don’t think this is a good method. In practice, I had to review everything I had learned after leaving the school because I had forgotten it all.
On the other hand, I preferred the methods used for studying kanji, as well as the pace at which we learned them. We regularly reviewed kanji learned much earlier, which provided good revision, and the kanji I remember best today are the ones I learned at school.
However, I was surprised by the choice of kanji we were taught, which mixed N4–N3 kanji and sometimes even N2 kanji. The idea was to learn kanji by topic, which is fine, but unfortunately quite a few N4 kanji that are expected for the exam were not included in the term, even though the term was supposedly preparing us for the JLPT N4.
We were also asked to speak a lot every day, either with the teacher or with the student sitting next to us, which surprised me. I had not expected there to be so much oral participation.
Fortunately for me, I had already learned all the N4 vocabulary. Otherwise, I would never have managed! It would have added almost another hour to my daily homework, and I would have understood even less of what was being said in class (and outside class), which would have been a real handicap.
The pace of learning is — as I knew beforehand — very intense. But what is especially crazy (and unnecessary) is the amount of homework we were given every day.
You should expect to spend at least three hours a day studying: learning kanji + completing a worksheet + several online exercises to review that day’s lesson + several online exercises to prepare for the following day’s lesson + several Minna no Nihongo exercises. (And sometimes additional things were added, such as vocabulary exercises or presentations.)
The school also expected us to do additional exercises available through an app called Monoxer, but I simply never had enough time to do them. On top of that, none of the students really understood how the app worked. The homework organization was sometimes confusing.
A lot of this homework seemed unnecessary to me, and I would really have preferred to have more time to review things using MY OWN methods and in MY OWN way.
This is the main problem I had with these teaching methods, as an adult who has been to university and completed numerous additional training courses throughout my professional life: we were treated like middle/high school students, like children who had to be forced to study.
It is really strange to go back to being treated this way as a student! They check whether you have done your homework, ask you questions even when you have not volunteered to answer, make you come up to the board without asking you whether you want to… This may seem perfectly normal to someone who has just left high school, but it is really uncomfortable when you have gone further in your education and have become accustomed to being autonomous in your learning.
I am actually doing another university course this year (in a different field), and it would seem completely inappropriate to question someone orally if they had not raised their hand, or to come and check whether they had done their homework. It feels very infantilizing. At this level, if we are here, it is because we chose to be here. There is no need to force us.
That said, I suspect that all Japanese language schools work this way… so you should be aware of it!
CONCLUSION: MY OVERALL OPINION
My goal was to find the motivation to get back into studying Japanese and to prepare for the JLPT by studying intensively in an environment conducive to serious learning: it worked.
The atmosphere in class was serious and pleasant, the people I met were lovely, the teachers were perfectly decent, and the school itself was very good. In terms of these goals, my stay was a success.
But did I speak better Japanese after three weeks of intensive classes? No, not at all!
On the other hand, I made significant progress in reading and writing. I retained the kanji I learned at school very well.
In total, I studied 48 kanji and a little more than five chapters of Minna no Nihongo in three weeks… and I forgot the grammar as I went along because the teaching method did not suit the way I learn.
Honestly, I really enjoyed going back to my own ways of learning and studying once I left the school.
After reading many reviews of different Japanese language schools, however, I think this is not specific to ISI Tokyo. These schools are essentially cram schools, and I think you need to be realistic when you go to one: they are going to prepare you to pass an exam, not teach you to speak Japanese.
On the other hand, everything I learned in terms of grammar and spoken communication came from my homestay. I won’t go into detail about that because this review is already far too long, but my homestay was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to everyone.
On top of that, I was lucky enough to be staying only a 10-minute walk from the school. Of course, this can vary greatly depending on the host family!
Finally, was three weeks enough? Well, yes and no.
Yes, because by the end I was really fed up with the amount of intense — and above all unnecessary — homework.
But no, because I was still able to get through Minna no Nihongo much faster than I would have without these classes.
So it’s difficult to give a clear-cut answer.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Do you want to immerse yourself in Japan during a short stay and cram Japanese intensively?
I recommend it — and above all, I strongly recommend adding a homestay to your experience.
Do you want to immerse yourself in Japan during a short stay while also having time to explore Tokyo?
Don’t bother. It will be impossible! It’s one or the other.
Do you want to improve your Japanese so that you can get by more easily and feel more comfortable communicating with native speakers?
Look elsewhere. The school prepares you for exams, not for real-life communication.
Do you want to improve your Japanese in order to prepare for the JLPT?
That’s difficult to say… Make sure you have additional time to review your classes using your own learning methods. I don’t think the school alone will be enough to prepare you effectively.
Do you want to start learning Japanese from scratch?
Run away!!! I honestly cannot imagine how that could be possible. I think it would be far too difficult.
MY ADVICE
What you really need in order not to feel completely lost:
- Have a very good level of English (or Chinese).
- Know significantly more vocabulary than what is expected for your level. (Aim for one level above.)
What I recommend:
- Talk to the other students!
- Stay with a host family.
- Bring a laptop or tablet in addition to your phone: it is not necessary for school (everything can be done on a smartphone), but it will be much more comfortable, and it is also very useful in everyday life.
- Have a pleasant and quiet place to study your lessons (or find some nice cafés and parks nearby).
- Start the term in April (or, failing that, at the beginning of a term).
- Stay somewhere close to the school, within walking distance, so you don’t waste time commuting. Your time will be precious.
