Hi!
I’m moving to Tokyo this fall with the working holiday visa and want to find Japanese roommates to live with during the stay. This is mainly to immerse myself in the culture while learning the language.
I’ll have an ok Japanese level before moving, N2, so roommates that talk little to no English is okay.
Any tips/websites on where to find roommates like this?
And what significant cultural differences when it comes to living together should I be mindful of?
​
EDIT:The main reason is to immerse more in the culture, and avoid ending up in a english speaking “foreigner” bubble of friends.
3 comments
Your best bet is to find a sharehouse if interaction with natives is what you’re after.
Living with a roommate is *very* rare here, and living with a complete stranger is basically not going to happen.
Live in a sharehouse, it’s honestly not that hard to find that out really. You can also do homestays but those tend to be for shorter periods of time.
Borderless House basically segregates rooms into having half Japanese and half foreigners, so you’ll get what you’re asking for easily, though they do have a check up process to ensure you’re okay, and has an age limit of 35 I believe.
I also agree with the Sharehouse situation. Like the other person mentioned you have places like Borderless or Social Apartments that offer more social sharehousing. Since these places are meant to be more social then in theory everyone should be social. However there are cheaper options out there. Just like with roommates elsewhere your experience will vary. Some people will be social and some people will keep to themselves. You can ask about who is living there and how social everyone is.
Also don’t be afraid of “foreigners”. My husband looks like a foreigner, but is half Japanese and fluent in Japanese. When he briefly stayed in a sharehouse he was speaking Japanese with European roommates because their Japanese was better than English. Also seen people at language exchange events who insist on only befriending or only talking to the Japanese people and most of the Japanese people can tell how awkward it is. If you’re only going to be in Japan for a year or if you’re using that year to build up your language skills to get a job then you definitely want to prioritize making friends you can speak Japanese with.