My review of the Japanese countryside.

24 comments

1. Difficult to get around without a car, good luck finding foreign food, few dating options.

2. Hmm, we were in the middle of nowhere the other day, my son got burned at the restaurant, they had no medication, nothing useful apart from ice, and the closest drugstore was maybe 10 or 20kms away… So I don’t think I’d like to live in such a place…

3. I love it in the countryside, when I go to Osaka for a few days I start getting tired of all the people cause I’m spoiled by the life here. I use the train because I can’t drive and it is true that you should definitely have a friend with a car, I can’t even get to a decent restaurant without it.

   The train lines are okay but there are some stations where I have an hour between! I can sit on a train 97% of the time, it’s almost never crowded to a level like in the city. I’m from a part of America that has no mountains so I have this weird complex over how lovely they are. The staring? yeah sometimes you feel like you might be the only Foreigner in town. But after several years I’ve learned to ignore it.

   There’s a big lack of English but it really helps you learn Japanese because people will speak Japanese at you, crossing their fingers that you understand. They don’t switch to English on a dime when you ask them to repeat themselves. It can make the bank and post office and doctor visits quite stressful though.

4. My wife is from the smaller Amami islands, it’s nice and quiet and the beaches are nice, but the staring does increase tenfold but they all want to know why I came here, jobs are scarce I’d say the local family mart had like 8 people working there at one time

5. I would love living in the countryside, though not in the middle of nowhere…a small town would be nice. I just need an hospital, just in case and a few shops and restaurants. My wife lived in a small town in Nagano for a few years for work and I used to go there every weekend. It was so good, I so miss that time but my wife has only memories of being bored so it’s hard to convince her to move somewhere like that… Well, now that my job will require going to the office, I guess I have no choice anyway…

6. I used those trains that had passengers that quietly disliked folks using Suica/pasmo because there were no machines at the train stop. The train conductor had to manually check your card and it would hold up the train. Basically we had to use paper tickets or everyone had to wait because of us.

7. This can pretty much be said for any city/country comparison.

8. The biggest issue with the inaka is loneliness I’ve found. If you’re fluent in Japanese this may be less of an issue.

   If you like fresh vegetables, predictability, the cleanest air, no subway, driving, space etc then the inaka may be for you.

   If you like eating out, concerts, dating, buzz, meeting other people, especially non-Japanese, not worrying about a car, then maybe not.

9. Yep, moved to the countryside from Tokyo now life’s much better 🙂

10. I moved from Tokyo to the Inaka and actually found that it was easier to make foreign/globally minded Japanese friends. Of course there’s fewer of them, but when you meet one, it feels more special and if there’s any connection you both make more of an effort. In Tokyo I was making a bunch of superficial connections but people weren’t really motivated to take it to the next level. I hope to never have to live in a big city again.

11. >>rather than a ‘get out of Japan’ stare

    I wonder how the hell people can tell which stare is “get out of Japan” stare, other than making shits up in their own head?

    There are literally millions of foreigners traveling and living in Japan. Do Japanese people really spend all of their day staring at all of those foreigners?

12. You haven’t mentioned any bugs, and that makes me think you are just spewing propaganda to us so we move out to the inaka so YOU get to have cheaper apartments in the city!!

13. Hum…

    Wildlife…

    Beware of the fracking wildlife…

14. IIT people who dont like living in city hyping living in the inaka
    Just move, no one cares
    Why do things always have to be so polarized
    You dont like the city go away who is stopping you?

    I wish i could live x, i wish i could do z
    Just do it.

    Me? Myself I love the sweaty Tokyo, can also appreciate the countryside but its just not for me.

    Bye, have fun

15. Your 6 points. Probably same as country side anywhere in the world

16. I’ll take that punch of salt mate. I am lucky enough to have that 田舎 lifestyle.

    The other pro is the free food, most of my community are farmers, so come summertime they will pop round to my factory for a coffee and bring fruits, vegetables, green tea, honey. 猪 meat. All fresh from that morning.

    See some pretty stellar wildlife too, there is this paper wasp nest just under the awning of my place, little fuckers keep flying into my customers cars that I’m working on, so this big ass スズメバチ rolls up and starts eating their eggs. Decimates them all in a few hours.

    Other benefit is no police around well, rarely and no speed cameras, so I can drive fast as fuck and nobody cares.

17. > 2. More staring, but it’s a kind of ‘what the hell is that?’ stare

    This is something I find really interesting. I think you get the worst stares in like mid-level inaka. Out in rural Hokkaido where I lived, the only foreigners were the local ALTs and farm laborers. If people saw a foreigner they didn’t know, they tended to assume it was an ALT from a neighboring town, or maybe a farm laborer depending on your race (I was a brown ALT who’d get mistaken for a farm laborer). You were assumed to be a long term resident who spoke at least passable Japanese, so no one bat an eye.

    It was in the mid-size inaka where it was small enough to not get foreign tourists, but large enough that people didn’t necessarily know or interact with their local ALTs and farm laborers that I got the most stares

18. From my experience living in a rural village:

    Good:!Gardening space, free vegetables for trade from neighbors, people care if something happens to you (I couldn’t walk for a few days and so many came to my aid in that time)

    Bad: Bugs! Nothings open late, things are closed on random days, you’ll get bored sometimes, and you can’t really drink anywhere but home since everything is so far away

19. Agree on all of your likes. I love living in the countryside (been here for about 6 years).

    It’s true that there aren’t that many jobs here. Or more like there aren’t many jobs that uses/requires *English* for native English speakers who would like a job using English. *And* that’s good paying. If you’re lucky enough, you might be able to find jobs like a direct-hire ALT or working in a BOE if you’re fine with teaching. Or work in a tourist association (which I do). Still there are jobs even for foreigners if you aren’t picky and are fluent enough in Japanese. Either way the pay can still be incredibly lower compared to the salaries in Tokyo. Though one pros of inaka life is that you can still somewhat survive with these lower salaries because COL is low here.

    Depending how deep of an inaka you live in, sure, your luxuries may be limited. But it won’t be much of an issue if you have a car and am willing to do a monthly trip to the big city. Having a car will certainly make your inaka life better though.

    Also, if you don’t like bugs then countryside life might not be for you. I didn’t like bugs too but I’ve gotten used to most of them, except for stink bugs. Those guys are annoying as hell.

20. Just last week we happened to visit countryside relatives for the first time in 11 years. Except for a substantial number of closed shops and businesses—COVID-19 and aging of the population meant that concerns that shut down generally were not replaced with anything else—everything was exactly the same as when we went last time. I think I’d have been bored staying more than a week. Meanwhile, our quiet neighborhood here in Tokyo changes continually: a common mealtime topic after anyone takes a walk is which shops have opened or closed, which homes or buildings have been demolished or newly built and which little festival, concert, or other event’s taking place.

    Except for in-season, locally grown fruits and vegetables, all the food we saw seemed slightly more expensive than at the places we patronize in Tokyo.

21. i love the countryside.

22. Apparently it’s way cheaper and easier to get a house out in the inaka.
    I’ve tried building a home in Nara and I shit you not, they literally denied me since I don’t have PR visa.

23. Incredible ugly buildings everywhere.

    You can be in the most picturesque area possible. There will be some ramshackle sheds masquerading as housing next to a wreckers yard with not even a fence to hide the view.
    Repeat this scene every 2-3km..

    I know building is temporary but it doesn’t need to look like a shanty town..

    There are some exceptions like some seaside villages. But I come from a country where buildings of 100+ years is the norm it’s jarring.

24. Thanks very much for sharing the detailed review! I give this review five thumbs up!