Certification

So I have decided to get TEFL certification for those of you who do not know that is Teach English as a Foreign Language Certification. I am doing this in hopes that it will assist me in getting into the JET program. There is only one drawback... It is a real pain in the ass! I am attempting to finish it with in the next several weeks to meet the application deadline but it is taking longer than I had expected. I hope that I can mussle through it soon and finish ahead of schedule treating it like a band aid that I am ripping off quickly as oppose to pulling it off lowly and painfully.

few questions

School has started back and I have decided to get TEFL Certification in the next month so I can stack my deck a little before I apply for JET in September. has anyone out there done this? is it easy? It sounds to me like a hoop that you have to jump through to get better odds of acceptance. I really hope that I am not just trowing away my cash and I get some insight from it. Oh ya, for those of you who live or have lived in Japan, how long did it take to get use to speaking Japanese or at leaste comfortable with normal every day tasks such as getting food, and how much Japanese training did you have before you went?