Use of 間 to talk about a span of time (and connection to the verb)

Question

My question is rather specific, but I have wondered about it since it would actually drastically change the meaning of what I'm trying to say.

Is 間 directly connected to the verb?

As this question sounds odd, I'll try to specify it with an example:

「三ヵ月間、日本に行きます。」
(I hope the sentence is actually grammatically correct whoops.)

If I use the sentence like this, does it mean

a) "I will go to Japan for three months."
b) "I will go to Japan and the process of going there will take me three months (but I'm not specifying how long I will actually stay there)."
c) It could mean both of the sentences above and depends on the context.?

Thanks for the help!
C

Answer 1

三ヵ月間、日本に行きます。

is grammatically correct, and will be understood as...

a) "I will go to Japan for three months."
or "I will go to Japan and stay there for three months."

I don't think it can be interpreted as b.

---

To say b) "I will go to Japan and the process of going there will take me three months", you could probably say something like...

３か月かけて、日本に行きます。

Answer 2

I would choose the C option : It heavily depends on the context.

The sentence you wrote can probably have both meaning at the same time and only a context clarification can tell which one you meant to say. However, without the context, I think most people would understand it as "I'm going to Japan for three months". If I were to say "I'm going to Japan and it will be in three month from now", I would say 「三ヵ月後に日本に行きます」, so the 後 clearly shows it is not the duration of the visit but the time left before you go to Japan.

I'm not really sure for this one so I hope getting some feedback from other people ^^