Monthly costs of good lifestyle in Tokyo????

[gobbledonk]

BTW, I hear they're looking for train drivers in Sydney?

 

Trust me, Roppongi, Sydney has problems that go waaaay beyond militant train drivers. Great place to visit, but f*ck living there for a joke !

 

(Sorry, TB : despite spending my teens and twenties in the Harbour City, I was thrilled to get out of the place.)

[Belem]

So is Perth the best city to live in OZ. Also, I hear English teaching in Japan pays $3,000 US/mo.

[Guest]

The Numbers, numerous variables involved here mate:

 

I assume you're alone, so no GF to boost household income and share expenses.

 

You want to live in a 40,000 yen shoebox in the sticks or downtown in a decent place for 90-120,000 yen?

 

You planning on teaching private classes to boost income?

 

Will you be happy with a riceball stuffed with an octopus leg for lunch (200 yen) or prefer a meal at a restaurant for 1000-1500 yen?

 

So much depends on your lifetsyle.

 

On 300,000 yen a month you certainly wouldn't be living the high life and as a starting teacher that's all you realistically could expect, unless you got lucky.

 

If I was set up in Thailand with a decent job, apartment, beach, golf nearby, etc., logic says to stick with what you've got but change is the spice of life.

[gobbledonk]

So is Perth the best city to live in OZ. Also, I hear English teaching in Japan pays $3,000 US/mo.

 

Hi Belem,

 

We covered the whole 'English teaching in Japan' in another thread about a week or two ago - the consensus was that you can live on the money on offer, but its not much in local terms.

 

Thats a little like asking if Bangkok / Jakarta / Tokyo is the 'best' place to live in Asia ! It depends on your priorities - if you want a career, chances are that you will have to stay on the East Coast, but Perth does have a great reputation as a beautiful city, and it IS closer to SEA than the rest of us. The downside is that its extremely isolated, and that tends to breed a certain amount of antagonism toward outsiders, particularly we know-it-alls from the Eastern states. Most Aussies look at the cost of a holiday in WA and decide that its cheaper to go to Asia - depending on your point of view, that could be a plus ::

 

I am told that many well-off Indonesians favour Perth, whether as a holiday destination or for their kids' education, and I'm sure that planeloads of Perth residents must head straight for Asia at every opportunity.

[Guest]

Belem said:

So is Perth the best city to live in OZ. Also, I hear English teaching in Japan pays $3,000 US/mo.

 

It pays quite well, but the cost of living and the need to find your own accomodation means that there is not a great opportunity to save. Here in Korea, however, is a different story. The wages are a little less, but you get accomodation and the cost of living is way cheaper. Picking up privates means your expendable income is higher in the long run. All you have to put up with then is a complete lack of groovy culture, a bunch of ignorant cunts and winters that would worry a siberian.

 

Cheers

 

PS

[Guest]

I live in PERTH and I get the f*** out of here every three months as it is the most boring sh** **** on Earth... but I only have four more months to go.

 

This week it has been 42C during the day and 28C overnight !!! Today the electricity company told everyone including commercial bodies to turn off the air con as they didn't have enough power......what a f****** management cock up!!! Even the uni turned off the air con and now a huge row has broken out over this.

 

Thanks to all especially UAL and Roppongi for all the really useful info. I had reckoned on about 300,000 as a bare mimimum. Reading the other thread inspired the post.

 

Finding a job before an apartment is a must, and yeah the key money thing I had already been warned about. That sucks.....

 

See you all soon in Shinjuku or wherever.

 

Uniformguy

[the_numbers]

Roppongi : thanks for the information, and UniformGuy good luck with your transition - hope you find a princess with a nicely starched uniform in a heartbeat --- :hubba: If not you can always find an image club to tide you over, right?

 

I was not going to teach - my job was in research, actually. I never have taught - nor had I thought of it. Probably the wrong disposition a bit too 'jai rawn' as the Thai people call it. Do I need to be getting outside work with the salary I am offered. I've been offered 380K yen per month. with some benefits and perks. Free JR pass, incentives, etcetera.

 

For housing frankly I was thinking of a Tokyo closet near Meguro perhaps, and alot of fast food and sets to keep the blood sugar up. Nothing fancy except on b-days or something special. Only a pause here and there for the occasional weekend of sanuk. No ladyfriends. I would be bringing over. However, it is giving up the good life here, I suppose.

 

 

the_numbers

[gobbledonk]

All you have to put up with then is a complete lack of groovy culture, a bunch of ignorant cunts and winters that would worry a siberian.

 

Fuck that, PS - I'm staying right here in boring old Farangland, where little Johnny reams my paypacket every fortnight and the temp rarely gets below 25 deg C !

 

Hong Kong has always seemed attractive, with its low taxes, but I'm not sure how long I'd last in a pressure-cooker environment like that. Kuala Lumpur ? Maybe - I must get over there and take a look at the place.

[gobbledonk]

I live in PERTH and I get the f*** out of here every three months as it is the most boring sh** **** on Earth... but I only have four more months to go.

 

Hi UG,

 

If you want real, *sustained* boredom, come out to regional Oz : you'll appreciate what you have in Perth, believe me. I used to feel much the same way about Brissie as you do re Perth, but almost 12 months up here in the tropics gives one a different perspective. I could, literally, fire an assault rifle straight down the main street of this 'city' on a Sunday without fear of hitting anyone.

 

Lets face it, compared to Asian cities, most of Oz is pretty damn boring. Good for raising kids, fruit and vegetables, but not much fun for the rest of us.

[kamui]

A few years ago I lived on 300.000-350.000 Yen, depending on the monthly exchange rate, in Tokyo/Ikebukuro.

With this money I had a decent live style including lunch with my colleagues in a restaurants every day (see menu setto above).

 

I stayed in an apato (western style with aircon) 24 sqm for 75.000 Yen (plus Keymoney 75.000 Yen (non refundable) plus two month deposit). What I didn't knew in the beginning: I had a 1 year lease, because intended to stay only for 12 month, but then I stayed 6 month longer and for renewing the contract my landlord expected 75.000 Yen keymoney a second time, which he took from my deposit.

 

Luckily my commuting time was only 20 min. and I didn't need to go at 8 am, since at this time the subways are completely over crowed and I only needed around 30 min. to Shinjuku eg.

 

Important note:

Consumption is an important part of the Japanese livestyle, therefore it is really hard to avoid to spending money. Being short of money in Tokyo might be much less fun than in other capitals.

 

- As long as you don't socialize mainly with (Japanese) students you'll almost never meet (Japanese) friends at home. This means, every time you are going to meet friends you'll need to spend money for drinks, restaurant, bar, cinema eg.

- All last trains are between 12 and 1 am. Therefore many private parties end around 11 - 11:30 pm, because most people need to change trains to go home. If you like clubbing you'll need a lot of cab money. Depending on where you live this might be as expensive as the whole evening.

- Concert's (rock or classic), cinema, eg. are expensive as well.

- Add to the usual cost of living special expenses for foreign food from Europe or the US which is quite expensive (Kinokuniya is the best shop for this in Tokyo). For example I bought my favorite full grain bread in a German bakery which was 2 1/2 times of the German price. European and American wine, good cheese (not Japanese industrial fakes) add to the list as well.

- Depending on your body measure bring all clothes with you. I am an average guy, but I had trouble to find shirts, shoes, a jacket. It took three weeks to find a sports jacket until I found one in XXL (in Germany L )

- If you like sports add the costs for a Gym like "Tipness" as well, or depending where you will stay go to the Tokyo Taiikukan (Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium) in Sendagaya which is big, cheap and good.

- A mobil phone is an absolute necessity, for example to find the exact place of an appointment - Shinjuku station has a few dozens exits, same same with other places. Until recently no Western phone worked in Japan, but I have heard that the new Motorola quad band phones can be used is Japan.

- If you like Internet you need a home phone line too, since there are not many Internet cafes in Tokyo, compared to BKK or other SE Asian cities. A few years ago you needed to buy the line for ca. 60.000 Yen (correct me if I am wrong), but there was second hand market and I don't know if you need to pay as much today. Fax was very important for me. For parties, for to visit a gallery eg. I always contacted the people and asked to fax me a map and road description. Without this it is nearly impossible to find a place as long you are not able to read a detailed map in Japanese.

- If you are looking for your own apartment you'll need furniture. If you don't want to buy the whole stuff new, there are many second hand shops and you can find many things through other Gajin, especially when someone is doing a "Sayonara sale" when leaving the country.

 

The only thing which was surprisingly cheap was health insurance, but this was maybe due to the fact I was paid through a foreign institute and I didn't need to pay tax as well.

 

I don't know how the current Tokyo crew (Roppongi et al) is handling the Japanese language. Living in Japan without speaking the language halfes the fun, since most younger and older Japanse don't speak ANY English. IMHO it is impossible to learn Japanese language without taking classes. Anyhow I never met anyone who taught Japanese himself and had a fair command of the language. Therfore I would start taking lessons as soon as possible.

 

You'll need a bank account. Very cheap and with ATMs in every Japanese village is the postal bank. If you need an international account City Bank is good, because it has branches in bigger Japanese cities and you don't need to pay a transfer fee, which is as far as I know around 3.000 Yen.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Maybe, hopefully I will be able to go to Japan in summer - even it is rain season.