For sure, thanks for asking.
I went to a language school in Shinjuku, Tokyo for a little under 3 months. We covered almost all of N5. Can’t lie though, I paid a pretty penny for it. My invoice for tuition was 211,700 円 and after wiring the money I paid 1,451.21 USD plus fees. This did not include boarding, food, etc. which should be another 2,000 in USD if you want to be comfortable in a city like Tokyo. Things come up. You want to participate in outings with friends. You’ll want to buy things to take home.
It is definitely an experience I cherish and don’t regret though. I caught the ‘bug’ for being in Japan after my first two trips ever to Japan in 2023, I had to find out if I could personally be ok living there. Side note, had an interest in Japanese culture since childhood and even wanted to major in Japanese during university but that didn’t work out–Japan related endeavors worked out better at this point in my life though.
Language school is definitely the way to go to learn Japanese at a fast paced in a structured environment. I self studied after returning to the US fall 2024 and missed the accountability of having to answer to a teacher, working alongside classmates (trying to one up them in a friendly kind of way) and having things graded.
However, I got the sense that language schools are geared towards prepping you for the JLPT unless otherwise mentioned. This makes sense imo as their sponsoring a lot of visas for their students and it probably looks better from a bureaucratic point of view.
After coming back from Japan, I was exposed to other ways Japanese folks say things during my self studying. Also, there’s a good amount of writing during language school that I stopped once I came back home.
Another the thing to consider is your interactions with classmates. I had really special memories and friendships with my classmates but have also seen they’re not so friendly sides. This was between other classmates and sometimes staff too.
I was older than a lot of them so I didn’t judge them too much. We paid a lot to be out here and a lot of us were meeting people from other countries for the first time. Back in the US, my friendships are diverse but during language school I definitely felt I was US centric and uninformed about elsewhere.
I know it’s a lengthy post, I hope you find some useful bits in here! I’ll say there are cheaper alternatives too. You can look in other cities but they probably won’t be that much cheaper. You can definitely do language school online or classes in your home country for cheaper. You could also book a decently length-ed trip to Japan and do your best immersing yourself firsthand.