Hello my fellow Japan living peoples!
Many of you live in big cities like Tokyo but many of you also live in inaka places(even in Tokyo!), so I’m curious which one people prefer! How is life as a foreigner in those places? Have you lived in both? Which one do you prefer?
I’ve also noticed that most foreigners in Japan are from cities, which would skew the preference toward city loving people. However, there are countryfolk like myself here and city people wanting to escape the hustle and bustle.
Personally, I prefer the inaka despite the lack of infrastructure and resources. My lovely Kei car takes me everywhere and constant vegetables from the neighbors is lovely. Very few people here speak English but they are patient with me and encourage my Japanese learning. The attendant at our one gas station hides the receipt and says the cost as slowly and clearly as he can so I can practice numbers. In response I give him as exact change as I can. Living across the street from a rice field really seals the deal. It’s bright green plant and frog season in the rice fields!
43 comments
It’s great until they start burning garbage. Then it takes 2 years of roundabout negotiations to get them to stop.
Live right next to Tokyo in a bedroom community and I hate it. I work remotely and I could move anywhere but the wife doesn’t care for it. The color green does not exist out of my room’s window and I hate it.
I’d go inaka all the way.
I moved from Tokyo to a small but beautiful, artsy city in Iwate. I miss the hustle and bustle of the city but the place where I live is so beautiful. I can see the mountains walking to work… there is no wasted time for commute. There is no nightlife except for the usual izakayas….but there are still multiple bars and cafes around to enjoy. Finding a community is hard tho… I feel like that’s where it all boils down to.
I live in the inaka, so inaka we don’t have a single train. Love it here. People are super friendly, food’s great, scenery’s beautiful, cost of living is super low, and I speak Japanese so I don’t have a problem with the lack of English. If anything, I like it because it made my Japanese improve way faster than it would have otherwise lol.
Only problem is the lack of public transport – coupled with me not having a car, it makes it quite a hassle to go anywhere else if I want to
People will likely prefer what they’ve chosen. Confirmation bias and all that.
I’d say it depends on what life stage you are or how does that change your lifestyle.
In my 20s I preferred the big cities where you have tons of opportunities to have fun, maybe you don’t even spend too much time at home. But once I had family, I preferred to prioritize having a larger house, quiet surroundings up to a point that being close to whatever seemed fun 10 years before became an annoyance.
Now I prefer something in between, sort of the best of both worlds. Rural enough to be able to afford a decent house and see enough green out of my window, but still with good access to a big city, if needed.
I lived in western Tokyo for years before moving to semi-inaka.
The lack of infrastructure only affects very small towns, once you reach a certain size (I’d roughly guess 5-10k) you will have everything available, including a general hospital that will cover 99% of your healthcare needs.
Bigger cities do not add new infrastructures, you just get more duplicates.
Inaka does have some drawbacks if your wife hates insects and a massive praying mantis decides to establish camp on the door handle while she is shopping for groceries and you are at work.
Mini frogs will also soon invade your garden if you have one and depending on your location, you may encounter entire armies of frogs migrating at night when it’s raining, forcing you to take a long detour under the pouring rain.
I’m an ALT that was placed in Inaka but I often visit my girlfriend who was placed in a city near Tokyo. I really like how clean/modern the city feels and how convenient it is to have a train station, taxis, and buses. In the Inaka place I live, there are a lot of old abandoned houses and the population has been falling so stuff is less maintained. There are also a lot of bugs which I hate and I don’t have a car so I really have to plan out trips to work out the bus schedule. My Japanese isn’t great either and there are very few English speakers here so I feel quite isolated at times.
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However, overall I still prefer the Inaka, at least for now. The people actually say hello here when I walk by them, and I find are more willing to interact with me in general. Also, my rent is about 3x cheaper than my girlfriend’s for a house that might be 3x bigger than her apartment. The nature around me is something I’ve never experienced before and besides the bugs, it hasn’t gotten old yet. There’s a lot of freshly made food for cheap which exists in the city too but I feel is harder to find.
I’ve been thinking about this as well recently, but I think I prefer the middle ground. We live in west Tokyo and it’s barely a city. Lots of greens and parks, not a lot of people outside, met some friendly locals, cheap*er* rent. The malls aren’t so bad either. Spacious restaurants and all that. On the other hand, if we need something from the city, express trains bring us to Shinjuku/Shibuya in less than an hour.
I don’t think it’s a Japan thing for me tho. I also prefer this kind of setup in my home country as well.
I loved inaka life until I developed several chronic illnesses and needed to be closer to Drs, have groceries delivered etc. While I have fond memories of life in the mountains, I can find things to enjoy in the city too. Pros and cons everywhere.
I have lived for 4 years in inaka before I moved to Tokyo. It is not super inaka since the accessibility to supermarket/restos/gym is quite easy with bicyle.
Now that I have a driver’s license and been driving for a while now here in Japan, I would choose to live in inaka again only if I can have the same pay and the same job.
I miss how easy and simple life was back then.
I would love to live in the inaka, preferably somewhere where I can see the mountains from my window. I never cared for the city life. Alas, jobs are in the cities. And unfortunately, my industry does not have remote work options =(
Suburban. I still live in a big city, but it’s far enough away from the downtown area to be pretty peaceful. All of the convenience of urban living with less of the fuss.
Live in the inaka – would much prefer to live in Tokyo or another large city. I really love Sendai, actually.
The inaka is lovely and beautiful n’all that and getting vegetables from your neighbours is nice but honestly, the novelty wears off very very quickly when you actually just have to live a ‘normal’ life. The choice of doctors is very restricted, for example. We have one pediatrician, one eye doctor, only one OBGYN department so you have to wait for hours sometimes just to see the doctor. If it’s a good doctor then fine, but what if he’s a crap doctor? Can’t get a second opinion unless you drive an hour to the next town. Want to see a movie? Nope, no cinema. Missed your train? Too bad it’s 2 hours until the next one! We’re reforming a house right now and we had to drive 3 hours just to go to a kitchen showroom to get a feel of some kitchens and bathrooms. Want to eat somewhere that isn’t Gusto/Cocos? It’s a shame the family owned restaurants closed down years ago.
We live here in the inaka permanently due to my husband’s business which is successful and allows us to live comfortably. Don’t get me wrong, the people are friendly and accepting here, I have my own little hobbies and it’s nice cruising along from day to day but, it is frustratingly inconvenient and it’s only going to get worse as more and more people move away from towns like this.
I dig city. Not downtown city. Rural life is like where I came from. Change is good sometimes
While I love the convenience and having lots of friends close by and our new house I’d honestly rather life inaka adjacent again. Having a 3 car garage with a big vegetable garden and chickens was vastly superior to beinçg able to stand between my house and the neighbors and touch both at the same time…
There are pros and cons.
If I had a driver’s license and could speak better Japanese I would likely live in the countryside.
That being said, all my close friends and then some all live in the city.
So, lot of factors. I suppose maybe if I retire I’d likely move out of the city.
Here’s the thing about Japan specifically(but like a lot of other demographic issues Japan is more “leading the way” rather than unique), a LOT of rural areas are rapidly aging and in many cases literally falling apart. Obviously not all of them, but a lot of them. They are also going in a vicious cycle of population decline leading to public services decline leading to more population decline cycles. Schools have to combine classes, daycare is basically unavailable etc.
If you can avoid those communities, and somehow predict the future and move to a community where that won’t happen then yeah, countryside life is great. But I don’t think it’s easy to predict any of that.
I live in Tokyo and I hate it here.
I like living riiiiiight on the edge of both. I can enjoy city things, then drive away to escape them. My area is just rural enough to be quiet and beautifully surrounded by green mountains and forest, but not so rural that the train station close by takes any longer than 30 min between trains. I do have a little car too, and use it more often, but it’s nice to have options. I wouldn’t want to live much more rurally than this.
I’m always torn on that.
I grew up in the countryside back home, but have spent 20 years of my adult life living in Japanese cities.
I do long for the open spaces, quiet, laid back lifestyle, nature and all that nice stuff that goes with country living. Whenever I go on a trip through rural areas here the idea of throwing it all away and buying a house out there is always in the back of my mind.
BUT I never follow through on that because I also know that I would probably go crazy if I lived in one of those picturesque little villages.
I’m not a nightlife guy or anything like that, but I do like the conveniences of city life and having lots of options available to me.
Also I like being surrounded by an ocean of random human beings who I don’t know and have some autonomy in choosing whether to socialize with them or not on my own. In the countryside it feels like a move to a community that you don’t know is a real toss of the dice. Get neighbors who you get along with and you’ll be fine. Get neighbors that you can’t get on with and there will be little escape from them.
Also I do like living in cities big enough to have foreign communities with some sort of social life in them. While I do enjoy spending time with Japanese friends, I also find being able to have regular chats over coffee or lunch with my fellow gaijin friends who have some shared experiences and outlooks on life here is sometimes key to maintaining my sanity…..
I have lived in both and for me it mostly depended on my salary. When my salary was bad living in super Inaka was a better choice because I could afford a better quality of life. I lived in the city with the same salary and it was a terrible experience. I couldn’t afford much so I couldn’t do much. I now have a much better salary and live in the suburbs of Tokyo in a pseudo Inaka. But I can now afford to take trips to Tokyo and do things in the city at my pleasure. The wife and I are looking to move closer to the city. Mostly for my kids so they have more opportunities.
I lived in the semi-Inaka for 3 years before moving closer to Tokyo and realized that my Inaka dream was too idealized. The convenience, access to better medical facilities, abundance of hobby and dining options etc is more important to me (even as a homebody) than I thought it was.
I’ve lived in central Tokyo for 15 years, my wife born and bred here. She won’t even seriously consider leaving the area unless we absolutely had to.
While there is some attraction to a slower, less expensive life outside of this area, for us the tradeoffs aren’t worth it.
I haven’t needed a car in over 15 years, despite being a hardcore gearhead before moving to Japan. My wife never got a license as it wasn’t needed.
I can walk to my gym in under 10m, my office in under 40. Several large hospitals are nearby. Three large train stations are within n 15-20 minutes walk.
The convenience is worth the downsides for us.
I’m not sure about the “most foreigners in Japan are from cities” statement. I can’t think of many people that I’ve encountered in my life who are actually from cities (as in grew up in one ). If you mean that most foreigners live in cities or have lived in cities at some point, yes, that’s where the jobs are. It’s why the inaka population keeps dropping.
For right now, I’m splitting the difference with the green suburban life halfway between Shibuya and Yokohama. I have a gorgeous canal full of sakura trees in front of my house, which connects into river about 250m away. The river has small farms and fields mixed in with the houses, so I get to see lots of things growing.
It’s much nicer than full countryside living – I do not miss the forty minute walk to the bus stop we had in Ireland and I don’t need to worry too much if something happens to me as I have decent access to hospitals, clinics, and support networks.
I’m happy to consider the suburbs of a smaller city like Fukuoka or Nagano, if I go fully remote and/or settle down with someone. But I love not needing a car on a daily basis and being able to easily pick one up from a Times 24 if needed.
I work from home (so no commute) and I greatly prefer the Inaka. I can see the sky and loads of trees when I look out of my windows, my house is way bigger than I could ever afford in Tokyo, theres a big park right across the street. That being said, if I ever had to commute daily again, I’d probably move closer to the office (so most likely the city) to cut down on time wasted on the train.
Sapporo is the best of both worlds. Why don’t you try living there?
I grew up in a pretty small village (~3000 population), and lived a while in London before coming to Tokyo, and what I’ve come to realise is that I like both extremes.
If I’m living somewhere urban, I want *density*. Built-up, busy, convenient, full of options for food and entertainment and shopping and socialising, great transport links, high rises on the skylines. Tokyo is perfect for me on this front – I miss the variety of London, but the sheer convenience of Tokyo is hard to beat. If I live somewhere rural, though, I want to be *remote*. Big sprawling garden, no overlooking neighbours – hell, no neighbours for quite a stretch around would be ideal. The kind of backwoods remoteness where you catch a glint of light while sitting out on your deck and wonder who could possibly be driving up your road at this hour.
I get the arguments for “best of both words” suburbs or smaller cities, especially for people with kids (which I think totally upends the equation), but it doesn’t work for me – I just see all the things I disliked about living in a small town creeping in, while the convenience and variety of the city centre disappears. The real advantages I see in rural life (privacy, silence, being surrounded by nature, having tons of space for things like growing fruit/vegetables, building outdoor amenities, or keeping large pets) don’t kick in until you get *very* rural.
Ideal world, I guess I’d probably have both a nice apartment in the city centre and a weekend place out on the coast somewhere remote, or halfway up a mountain. Better keep buying those lottery tickets 🙂
Moved to a middle ground last week. Feels inaka, but the closer you get to the station the more city-like it feels, and can get to Tokyo center pretty easily. I like having the best of both worlds, but I feel really observed when I walk around😂
100% city. I like to visit the inaka, but after a few days my brain starts to eat itself.
Mid 30s with 3 kids, lived in the city in my 20s then moved to the Inaka after getting married. I have great memories in my 20s from living in the city, but now with a family it’s defo better living in the Inaka. Save more money, land isn’t 50:50 in accordance to house price and can drive anywhere stress free since the roads are nice and wide. Only downside is I have put on a shit load of weight since moving out from the city .
something to keep in mind is that there’s gradations of inaka (which the japanese signify with “ド田舎”)
I live in Otaru right now, which can feel pretty inaka depending on the area, but is still only 40 min from Sapporo. So that ameliorates a lot of those negatives re: doctor choice/services that another person mentioned. On the flipside, we don’t get the “true” rural experience with lots of open land and nature, but it’s a good compromise imo
Its hard to tell. Its all about preferences. If you can get yourself some land and grow up vegetables to live on, or if you can work from home for a fair salary, countryside could be a good option.
If I had to work for somebodys land, I would never choose countryside. If I could remote work for a fair salary I would still go to a small-medium city. Right now I live in Kobe which is perfect for me, medium city, but it has the hassles of a big city, everyone here only thinks about money and time and everything is fast paced for a middle sized city.
Probably somewhere around gunma, sizuoka, central kyuushu would have the good part of countryside and the commodities of a city close enough.
Been searching high and low for the best of both worlds. Ie: 1-2hours from a major city. Commuting is something we all have to do, so may as well make the most of it. Finally found a spot on the outskirts of a smaller city and a 2 hour commute to a major city, surrounded by forest.
I prefer live in the city.
For I like to goto museam, library, science Museum, art gallary. In Tokyo I can see the Paris, England, American, Greece, China … exhibition all around year. That’s not a common thing in other cities.
I live in the semi-inaka of tokyo(somewhere with an hourish commute to work and a reasonably major center much closer). I get to enjoy many of the facets of more inaka life, including plenty of greenery and places to go for a walk, while still having much of the convenience of the city. The eating out isn’t as good as where I used to live (a few minutes from the yamanote line), and the commute is long(but working remotely mostly) but to me everything else is better, without the inconvenience of the real inaka(long drives to the supermarket etc).
I grew up surrounded by nature and am a nature lover. But I much prefer the city here, having lived in various towns/cities. The countryside of Japan sounds nice in theory, but there’s something kind of depressing after a while about the abandoned houses and elderly people everywhere, and maybe it’s just me but I find that the young/young-ish people who do stick around in the small towns are a mixed bag, to put it nicely. Of course there are nice areas just outside major cities that have some greenery without the rural decline, which are fine.
Prefer to live in big cities especially with or nearby international airport. Currently living in Tokyo.
Prices may be more expensive but the amount of time to commute to airport for international travels is much better. Then, I needed to take 3 hours express train just to reach the nearest international airport and it was just excruciating. Need to plan ahead everything and extra hours or might be even days to just reach from 1 country to another.
Need to take at least 2 international trips annually to go to my and SO’s home countries. 15 hours flying time one way is already making me feel worn out imagine that plus extra trip to reach the airport. Never again living in Inaka.
Bonus points convenient stores are actually convenient in cities.
Semi-rural i.e. smaller cities. People might get triggered by this, but Tokyo is like the Disney version of Japanese culture. Oceans of cash spent on everything, pristine presentation, but it’s not real. You won’t get real local culture in a megacity.
People who obsess over Tokyo as if it’s the whole of Japan are basically carrying a neon sign announcing they’re boring, to me.
I live in sub-urban tokyo, near the border with Saitama. I have ~35 mins traveling time to city center, but having a peaceful and green neighborhood. Living across Supermarket, drugstore, and kombini, also having small restaurant, barber, bakery, domino pizza, and 100yen store nearby.
I’m very happy with my choice! 👏
Define rural.
I grew up south of Brisbane. Thought it was a big city all my life. Now I’m living in central Chiba and I’d say it’s about the same as where I grew up. However, I’m always told I live in the inaka.
I drive out to Ibaraki and my wife will comment how it’s such country side, yet we just passed a convenience store and an Aeon.
My countryside is like out past Roma. I have no idea what that equates to in Japan though.
The city I live in now is just over 200 000 people. I wouldn’t say it’s the countryside, or the city more the burbs. There’s everything I need but not the millions of people compared to Tokyo.
I had only lived in cities before moving to Japan, and after living in the city here too I moved to the countryside. First actual house and first time living any far from a city. I can’t have enough of it even after 12 years. Not giving a shot is great.
Urban or Rural Life depends on personality. If you like the slow quiet life you go rural. If you like the fast exciting life you go urban.