Plan a Gap Year Abroad in Japan

CIEE's Gap Year Abroad offers high school graduates an incredible opportunity to go abroad and immerse themselves in the Japanese language, culture, and environment.

Japan is a study in contrasts between the old and the new, and Tokyo ranks among the world's most energetic and fascinating cities. In addition to being the economic and political heart of Japan, Tokyo balances its present-day modernity with its traditional past. This provides a landscape that may allow one to see a kimono-clad woman talking on a cell phone, an old man selling baked yams from his homemade cart to a group of "salarymen" on a crowded business district and a 200-year old portable shrine being carried through the streets, all on a single day.

Today's metropolis, sprawling on the western shores of Tokyo Bay, began life as a humble fishing village called Edo (mouth of the estuary). While Kyoto was still officially the capital, in 1590 the ruling Shogun established his center of power in Edo. The town developed quickly into one of the largest cities in the world. Destroyed twice in the 20th century, first by an earthquake and later by Allied bombings, Tokyo has risen again to become the modern metropolis that it is today.

As the financial nerve center of Japan, Tokyo has long set the pace for the rest of Asia. It is the reigning capital of Asian pop art, fads and trends. Yet Tokyo is nothing more than a series of small towns and neighborhoods clustered together, each with its own atmosphere, narrow, winding streets, mom-and-pop shops, fruit stands and stores. It is one of the world's safest cities, with the lowest theft rate of any large city on the planet.

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