I worked abroad in Japan for three months and I knew a couple of foreign students at my university and I think the most important thing, which will probably happen on its own anyway, is to make friends. If you befriend locals, you will experience the trip probably better than you could ever on your own.

After a couple of weeks in Japan I knew all my colleagues pretty well, and they were so nice to me! They took me out to various places to eat, on the weekends they asked if I'm busy and we planned trips (even a little bit further away). And I got the same vibe from the foreign students: the time I saw them having the most fun on pictures was always when they were with others, instead of sitting in their apartment and waiting for the time to be over. See this as a maybe once in a lifetime chance! When you're back and you settled with a girlfriend, maybe a house and later family, something like this will be almost impossible.

So in short: make the most out of it and use every day, in best case with new made friends who either share your experience of locals!