Hi, I am moving to Japan around next month as foreign worker (Technical Lead – Software Engineering). My employer’s office is located in Minato, Tokyo. I have the freedom to go to the office once per week (Not strictly – I can go twice per month too) and my employer say I can literally work from anywhere in Japan, as long as I am able to travel to Tokyo for some major meeting.
For my style of living, I don’t fancy clubbing, and go to bar occasionally for light drinking (to establish some relationship/networking for career purpose). My favourite would be food and dessert, hiking, camping and some natural exploration for photography. I travelled to Kansai area before Covid(Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Gifu, Takayama and love all of them).
With the condition above, I guess the main attraction for me in Tokyo will be cafe and restaurant, and not the other aspect of it, like clubbing, luxury boutiques ,etc.
I have two plans in mind, it may be naive so I need some opinions from you guys.
* Stay nearby Tokyo to visit nice restaurant and bar in the weekdays, and explore Japan through Shinkansen and driving in the weekend. I don’t have to stay 9-6 actually, as long as I can get the job done on time. My main concern with this method will be the high rental around Tokyo, 120,000 yen monthly
* I opt for monthly stay through Airbnb in different prefecture, and travel to Tokyo with Shinkansen one night to have a short stay, before the office meeting. The advantage will be cheaper rent, 80,000 yen monthly rental in Kyoto, for example. But I have to consider the expensive travel with Shinkansen and short stay in Tokyo
As I am still single and visit Japan alone, I just need a basic studio without room – a basic kitchen and bathroom, a bed, a table for work and washing machine to wash and dry my clothes.
For budget wise, I am comfortable with 300,000 – 350,000 yen monthly expenses, including everything like accommodation, foods, transport, phone internet bill. Of course, if I can enjoy Japan with lower budget, I will be glad.
If you were in my situation, what will be your approach? Thanks for the help.
6 comments
>I opt for monthly stay through Airbnb in different prefecture, and travel to Tokyo with Shinkansen one night to have a short stay, before the office meeting.
This method won’t save you nearly as much as you think it will. The shinkansen isn’t a particularly cheap way of traveling. You’re likely to burn any rent savings in transport costs.
To use your Kyoto example: You save on rent at 80,000/mo. But you’re commuting to Tokyo twice a month on the shinkansen, at 14,000 yen ***one way***. So by “saving” 40,000 yen on rent, you’re actually spending 56,000 yen on transit. And that doesn’t even factor in a hotel in Tokyo.
Generally the same sort of math will apply wherever you live. If you’re within easy reach of a shinkansen line, you’re not going to save enough in rent to offset the travel costs. The places where the rent is truly cheap aren’t within reach of the shinkansen, so you’re looking at a significantly longer travel time for your trips to Tokyo.
The one caveat here is if your company is paying for your trips. If they’re paying for your trips to/from Tokyo you absolutely *can* save money by living elsewhere.
Hmm, living near/in Nagoya might be a compromise. You wouldn’t be to far of a train ride to Tokyo, osaka, kyoto, kobe. You would be near Gifu which has lots of places for hiking and photography etc.
Don’t you have to register as a resident in a city where you move in? I thought your 2nd plan, renting Airbnb one month at a time, would hit that issue. On your gaijin card you need to have your current address registered if I’m not mistaken. But I don’t know your exact arrangement with your employer
have you asked your employer yet if there’s some kind of compensation for commute costs? even if they don’t pay all of it they may give you money for a chunk of it. also as unintuitive as it sounds (depending what country you’re from) you should check plane tickets instead of train tickets. planes are much much cheaper than shinkansen and usually faster too, depending on how close to the airport you are. *personally* I wouldn’t wanna fly that much per month but it is an option.
I don’t think the Airbnb plan is good.
– Airbnbs are incredibly overpriced in Japan, partially due to legality issues. They usually cost 2-3x the market rate of a place. So you’d get crappy places and bad value. I wouldn’t recommend ever staying in an Airbnb in Japan unless you absolutely have to.
– There will be many cases where you need to be physically present at the address on your residence card when doing anything official and receiving mail/packages. You can’t change your place of residence every month. I can already imagine how this would be a huge pain.
Rent a place somewhere near Tokyo with easy access to the center and your office and travel from there. Sounds like a much better plan.
No offense with your profession you won’t have much time for these activities. Expect working overtime and not seeing much daylight with basically no vactions other than the national ones.