Hello everyone. I hope you’re all having a good day. I’m moving to Japan in a few and I need to know where to stay. I have a whole 5yr plan so bear with me. I’m going to do the classic gaijin route by teaching English first (now don’t roast me) and then I’m thinking of going into a few careers with my degrees, perhaps marketing. I don’t know, I’ll see when I’m on the ground which will get my plan in proper motion.
Anyway, I’m trying to determine where I live. I’m doing a lot of research but there’s no better opinion than from those who live there. I want to be immersed in Japanese culture as deeply as possible, I hope I’m a good swimmer. I don’t want to be around too many fellow gaijins for learning reasons so Okinawa and the big cities are out, perhaps even the countryside. I was looking at Saitama but that seems a little bit too close to Tokyo for comfort. I’m v scared of natural disasters/extreme weather/huge bugs, we don’t have many where I’m from. I’m also frugal so a nice low cost of living is my dream, Fukuoka, Sapporo and Miyagi seem to tickle the internet’s fancy. I’m a bit young and quite the social butterfly so perhaps this post is all in vain but I think I can manage. If anyone has a suggestion that I can research more into, you’d be a brick! Thank you for reading this long.
Edit: I don’t mind extreme weather if it’s not too hot, I can deal with cold \*fingers crossed\* so the deep North ain’t off the list.
TL,DR: Where should a frugal gaijin who wants to be immersed heavily into Japanese language and culture live?
1 comment
Depending on which company gives you a job, you’re going to be limited as to what choices you have. Honestly, Aeon might be your best chance of where you get to go.
Sendai, Miyagi has a good reputation for being a good middle ground for a city which isn’t too big, but not too parochial.
In terms of being cosmopolitan, Tokyo really is just all there is, once you get outside of it, everything is much more *Japan* and you can be very isolated. If you’re part of a UK commonwealth country, and have a license, you can get paperwork to be able to drive in Japan prior to arriving. I’d suggest you do that if you’re going to head out of any major cities.
Saitama really is not the countryside, half of it is more or less part of Tokyo, and the rest are towns on highways serving Tokyo.
Gunma is beautiful and probably a much better choice than Saitama.