I totally disagree with Angelo. I don’t know when he last visited NYC, but Manhattan is one of the safest cities I’ve been to in the past few years, even at night. My college-aged daughter has been traveling around to major cities on her own, including San Francisco, Chicago, Tucson, and Philadelphia, and she’d agree that Manhattan is by far the best place to be. I also don’t think Angelo is familiar with modern Japanese society in major cities with its crush of people and flashy advertising all around you. I think you’d love Manhattan.

Check out Hostelling International USA. They have a hostel in the upper west side of Manhattan that I hear is pretty good. My daughter had a great stay in their Chicago hostel.

http://www.hiusa.org/

They also have locations in many other major cities.

Be sure to make your travel arrangements on the basis that major snow storms can cause major delays. You should look into getting travel insurance that includes coverage for trip interruption. Hostelling International memberships include travel insurance, I see.

Personally, I’d save San Francisco for when it’s warmer. While NYC will also be cold and miserable, the sights are at least packed closer together and you can always duck into buildings. And then there’s the New Year’s celebration in Times Square to consider. Los Angeles is too spread out to see much without having a car or taking a guided bus tour.

Wouldn’t your International Student Advisor be able to suggest other things to do besides a job or taking a trip?

NY is an expensive city and it is dangerous if you get lost or go to the wrong places. I’d say got o Washington D.C. There are a bunch of museums and american national monuments. I think that would leave you with a better sense of american history or american pride, rather than NYC or Las Vegas, that are really just social based cities with a degredated social bias. I’ve been to both places, and D.C. would be better for you, give you a lesson on your schol break, and cost less. Also coming form oregon, NYC or Vegas would be too much of a culture shock to handle. D.c. is very clean by the capitol and there are plenty of cops. Also around the holidays in NYC the crime rate rises. Chrismas in the capitol is the way to go!

Spent most of my life in Oregon, (Portland, Oregon City, and Gresham) but now live in Arizona by choice.

Going to Las Vegas could be more expensive than returning to Japan.

Don’t know what your likes or interests are, so it is hard to say what is best for you. If you lived in Arizona, you could take a guided mule ride down into the Grand Canyon, or a boat ride down the Colorado River into the Grand Canyon.

As far as excitement in the Northwest, not too much. You could take the ferry ride over to Vancouver B.C., and visit the Butchart Gardens if you are into that sort of thing.

Good luck on finding something to do during winter break.

DE

I’d say go to New York during the winter break. I think a ticket will be around $300 roundtrip. You’ll see snow there. I always like going to the east coast during the winter.