Hi,
so I used to live in Japan (about 6 years, 4 of which in Kyoto and the rest in a few shorter stints in various places in Tokyo) and met my girlfriend there. We’ve lived together in Europe for the past 5 years, but now she has a really nice job lined up in Saitama and it looks like we’ll be moving back.
The thing is, we both know nothing about Saitama. Barely ever really stepped foot inside. She’s from Shonan and went to uni in Kyoto, I’ve lived in Tokyo in a few places but all on the western and southern side (Nakano, Koenji, Unoki). Her job is in Shintoshin and I’m going to be working from home, so it feels like the obvious choice is to move to Saitama, enjoy the cheaper rents and be close to her work.
What I’m worried about is – we’re both in our early 30s, kids are a long ways off, we have no pre-existing social circle in the area, we both don’t really like to drive, so we don’t want to be stuck in some bed town that’s basically defined by pumping a few thousand salarymen into Ueno in the morning and back again in the evening… can anyone recommend the more charming, livelier, maybe a bit more younger-couples-and-students skewing areas in Saitama? With non-aeon-mall walkable shops / shotengai, a couple nice non-franchise cafés and izakayas, maybe even some hipstery vinyl stores or bookshops or a few active live houses and such. Like Kichijoji, Jiyuugaoka, Shimokitazawa, Koenji, that kind of thing. We’re not commuting to Tokyo so doesn’t really matter if the connections to Ueno / Ikebukuro aren’t super direct and breezy. It’s more about finding a nice neighborhood, chances to get to know people, ideally having some relaxed dining / drinking options nearby. Any pointers would be appreciated.
5 comments
>met my **girlfriend** there. We’ve lived together in Europe for the past 5 years, but now she has a really nice job lined up in Saitama and it looks like **we’ll be moving back**.
Are you getting married before you make this move? If you’re not the whole plan is dead in the water, because there’s no “boyfriend of a Japanese national visa”.
>I’m going to be working from home
Unless you’re married, this also will not work. There’s no visa class for remote work. You’ll either need to be married, or doing WFH for a *Japanese* company for this to be a viable option.
Saitama is a bedroom community. I don’t remember the exact figure, but some insane percentage of Saitama’s population leaves the prefecture to work in Tokyo daily. Most of the prefecture is suburban and/or rural with lots of families — and old people, blue collar industries (ie: shipping, scrap metal), and farms. There’s a pocket with pretty mountains; that’s the most redeeming part of Saitama.
Unless you live in Kawaguchi or Omiya, you will probably want a car; everything in Saitama is spread out and public transport to nearby stations is usually a bus that comes once an hour (or less, depending on the area). Outside of these areas, it’s chain stores and Aeon Towns as far as the eye can see.
If it was me, I’d live in Ikebukuro or nearby; it’s only ~25 mins to Omiya.
But yeah — this is all moot unless you two are getting married, since you can’t work your remote job without your own visa, and only a handful of visas allow this. There’s no “unmarried partner” visa.
When I lived in Warabi City, the smallest city in Japan, I would often go to the Urawa station for the restaurants and bars and to the prefectural library. That is where I would live if I worked in Shintoshin. It has a combination of sophistication and friendliness that comes from being a small but conveniently located government center with affordable housing.
I live in saitama.
Kawagoe is a nice place I think. There’s lots of shop and easy access to many places.
Don’t move to Iruma or Tokorozawa if you don’t like aircraft noise. They fly all the time here and it’s super annoying.
Ikebukuro and do the reverse commute. Saikyo will be less awful if you’re going north in the morning and south at night. Prices will be much higher though.
There’s a reason it’s called dasaitama…