hehe yeah good work lex mate. the only reason i went on the program was that i got a scholarship which paid for the whole program cos i woudnt have been able to afford it probably. so that was cool
my japanese is much better than if i hadnt gone of course but it's just a matter of practising, hearing and using as much as you can. practical japanese is pretty different from the japanese you'e required to learn for the HSC though. good luck though
oh and i went to Ijuin, which is in Kagoshima prefecture. anyone looking for it would find it on the southern peninsula of Kyushu. as part of the exchange program i went with the other exchange students to Nagasaki for a peace gathering on the anniversary of the atomic bomb. it was a great experience cos it gives you better understanding of what happened that you can't learn in textbooks or videos.
and for the school trip we went to Osaka, Kyoto. lots of temples, universal studios and lots of people compared to Kagoshima