So I’m moving to japan in the next 2 or 3 years and figured it’s not too early to start making plans. I do have a few questions/ideas and would like to hear y’alls thoughts. We are planning to live as close as possible to tokyo without being affected by the high costs. Chiba, Saitama and Hachioji are top of the list of possibilities. Niigata as well.
First question is, can I bring a travel trailer with me and legally haul it around? I know that style of camping isn’t the norm, usually people buy motorhomes, but those are way too expensive and dont have nearly any features I want in one so my thought is just bring one, a 20 ft trailer so nothing to huge.
Second question is about moving household items. What’s the best way to bring a lot of stuff for not a lot of money? The first thing that comes to mind is renting a shipping container, if that’s a thing. How did you go about this? I have some pretty big items such as furniture and a bunch of appliances.
I’m also looking for recommendations on builders for having a custom house built. Do designers and builders work hand in hand or would I have to find 2 different companies? Nothing fancy but we definitely don’t want to buy used and most of what I have been finding doesn’t suit what we are looking for. We also plan of buying land first since most homes that are new usually dont have a lot of it, talking about have wooded areas, fields, yard, ect. I’ve been looking around on Suumo but I’ve found pretty much nothing with much land, if any, especially since we want new. Any recommendations for another website to use? I do know of few english sites but those seemed geared to investment properties.
We budgeted about $100k for the move and expenses as well for an apartment while our house gets built, should that be enough? That money does include a vehicle as well, so that will eat up a lot. Thanks all!
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2 comments
>First question is, can I bring a travel trailer with me and legally haul it around?
You would need to make sure it is street legal in Japan before you’d be allowed to use it on the roads here. The process I’d imagine would be very similar to importing a car or other vehicle. There are camping trailers available for sale here, a cursory googling found these guys for example: [https://www.autocamper.jp/campingcar-kind/trailer/](https://www.autocamper.jp/campingcar-kind/trailer/) It may be cheaper to buy a trailer here than going through the process of importing and registering your current one. You also require a towing license for anything weighing more than 750kg.
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>Second question is about moving household items […] The first thing that comes to mind is renting a shipping container
Shipping containers are indeed useful. Reach out to moving companies near you that offer international moves. They should have plenty of information available for you regarding costs and transit times.
And on what visa do you plan to live here on? Don’t count on buying land/house for several years unless you’ve got the cash for a hefty down payment (odds are against you to receive a loan before you’ve shown longevity here)