Hi everyone! I know there are many posts like this on this sub but not many seems to be directed specifically to Osaka, in the area I’m looking at moving to and with the specific lifestyle I intend on living.
I’m currently working full time in the US to save up enough money to go to a language school in Osaka next year in October, and am trying to determine what a realistic amount of money would be needed to live off of comfortably. I want to have enough saved up to cover the first year and a half in it’s entirety. I expect to have about 35k USD saved. Although I plan to have enough for my language school course, I intend on getting a part time job sometime around the 6-9 month mark as I’m going for further studies in Japan afterward and will need to save for that.
I’m planning on going to J International School, which will be 1,160,000 yen for the whole course. The school is located in Nishi ward so I’m hoping to get an apartment there or around there as I plan on biking to school everyday to cut costs on transportation. Looking at apartments on [homes.jp](https://homes.jp) in Nishi ward, a nicer apartment seems to be around 70-80k yen – is that accurate? For food, I’m not really sure what to expect spending as I’ve never lived on my own, but I do plan on mostly cooking at home rather than eating out to save money, and it seems like utilities aren’t too expensive in Japan.
If everything I’ve researched is right, then I believe that would be enough to get by, but what I’m wondering is: 1. are those estimates correct and realistic? and 2. are there any unexpected/hidden things that students have to pay for that nobody really talks about?