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Monthly costs of good lifestyle in Tokyo????


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There are some really valid points made in this thread particularly kamui?s who shared some everyday nuances that those who live here experience. Having met you UG, I know that clothes will be an issue. You may have a tough time, you are just too tall. Personally, I do not buy many clothes in Japan because not only is it difficult for me to get proper sizing but also I find the cost is twice of what I pay in NYC! I go back to the States at least twice yearly and on each trip I spend one day clothing shopping. Also, items I always find myself bringing back include underwear, certain foods (pasta, snacks, tomato paste, cereals), and clothing softener. It?s not that those do not exist here ? they do, but it really can be a hassle looking for the favorite brand and annoying to pay three times the expected cost. I think you are fortunate that there are a few of us on the board who can point out where to shop so that if you make a wish list we can provide answers? ?UAL, where can I get wine, bleach, towels and toothpaste??

 

The issue about cabs is valid even if you do not consider yourself a taxi taker. You may find yourself out after the trains have shut down. Or sometimes the weather is too crappy to walk to/from the station ? especially in rainy season or when the monsoons hit. And inevitably you will be with a Japanese girl and as nonchalant about taking the subway these girls are they also are pretty quick to hop a taxi. That is why I listed the prices above. The mobile phone is a must and if you really want to communicate with the opposite sex become adept at using email on your keitai. Monthly mobile phone bills are in the 5,000 yen range, don?t know if we covered that.

 

As far as the language barrier, it has not intimidated me and my Japanese is shit. But everyone is different and it can be overwhelming. My suggestion to anyone moving here regarding navigation is to (on day fucking one) go to a bookstore and get the English version of The Tokyo City Atlas. It has every street in every neighborhood. It also includes rail maps. Quite honestly, I have never seen such detailed and useful maps as I have in Japan. This book is no exception. This is needed in Tokyo. I don?t care if you are Marco Polo, this city is just too fucking big. Each neighborhood is like a city unto itself. I carry the Atlas in my bag at all times (it?s compact ? 118 pages, 15 x 21 cm and costs about 2,000 yen) and reference it daily. You also need to get used to the address structure. In short, for example, the address 3-11-5 Shibuya means the 3rd zone of Shibuya, the 11th quadrant within this zone (generally a square city block) and then the 5th building. The other items I would obtain at the get-go are an English JR map and an English subway map. Any stationmaster can provide it free of charge. Also do not be shy about learning the Tokyu, Seibu, Keio, Odakyu and other local rail lines. They are often faster, cheaper, and more convenient than the JR and subway. Just not as English friendly.

 

A bright note is that tipping does not exist here except, ironically, in some high-end (Western type) restaurants. Ironically, those places that already charge an arm-and-a-leg and do not need the extra dough. So the prices quoted for meals and taxis are pretty much final, no hidden charges. Lastly, you might want to get yourself a change purse because you will find yourself with a pocket full of shrapnel as anything under 1,000 yen is in coins.

 

BTW - Possessed S I will be in Seoul next weekend - have traded pms with CDN about taking a beer. You around?

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Wow this is amazing detailed information thanks especially to UAL and Kamui.

 

Yes, clothes shopping will be a non event for me in Japan but I have problems with that even in my home country. That's why I am going home first before going to Japan.

 

Having lived in London for sixteen years I am used to carrying an A to Z atlas around as it is impossible to find anywhere there without it. It's good to know that there is an English version available. Can u also buy a subway map in English?

 

Any info on costs of TV, and English channels like the BBC world service availability???

 

Thanks.............planning to be in BKK for two weeks starting at Easter will anyone be around then??

 

uniformguy

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uniformguy said:

Wow this is amazing detailed information thanks especially to UAL and Kamui.

 

Having lived in London for sixteen years I am used to carrying an A to Z atlas around as it is impossible to find anywhere there without it. It's good to know that there is an English version available. Can u also buy a subway map in English?

 

Any info on costs of TV, and English channels like the BBC world service availability???

 

Thanks.............planning to be in BKK for two weeks starting at Easter will anyone be around then??

 

uniformguy

 

Concering orientation: The subway and train system is, as you might know, one of the best in the world. After a few days of orientation you won't have many problems. Everything is bilingual (except local buses which I mostly avoided) and there are subway and train maps for free. Moving from station to station is no problem, but to find an unknown place can be nightmare.

If I have an appointment in an unkown part of the town or a different town I mostly add 30 min. for orientation and searching. But this is not a special problem for gaijins: due to the complicated address system you will see often Japanese in subway stations standing in front of a detailed map of the area trying to figure out where to go.

I set my personal negative record a few years ago when I went to Shiga (near Kyoto) to visit the Shiga Prefectural Museum of Arts only to find out that the museum is located in Otsu :grinyes:. Another mistake happened when a Japanese told me the wrong exit to leave the station in Ashia (near Kobe) to go to a museum. I walked 30 min. up a mountain in the summer heat until I realized that I should have taken the opposite exit :: and once it took 1 hour to realize that a gallery had closed recently I could not find :banghead:.

But my biggest problem was and is to find a place like a bar or cafe again I have visited once with friends. Often it was impossible since most streets seem to look the same, there I started to collect business cards from every place I went.

 

You will find bilingual maps for towns, trains, Japan in every bookstore which has a department for english books. For starters "Lonely Planet Japan" has excellent listinings for this kind of shops. IMHO this guide offers the best start for newcomers on where to go and how to go there.

Anyway this does not apply for bars and restaurants since Tokyo is much too trendy and big for such kind of guide. Depending where you live, whom you meet, your kind of interests and how much money plan to spend you will experience complete different places and scenes I and other board members have seen.:up:

 

For arts, music eg. there are some websites like:

Tokyo Q or RealTokyo

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Hi Kamui,

 

Thanks for the info - I never cease to be amazed by the breadth of knowledge possessed by certain board members. Some of you seem to have been to *every* Asian country (political barriers notwithstanding) at least once, and thats what keeps me coming back to the board. Add to that the currency of information from those who live in Japan, Indonesia and Korea (among others), and we've got a formidable resource. The Regional Sanuk forum was a major factor in my decision to see a lot more of Asia than Thailand : money and time permitting, I hope to cover 5 more countries in the next few years.

 

At the risk of being flamed as an arse-kisser, I believe that the future of this board is in very good hands as long as we have members like yourself.

 

Cheers,

 

Artie

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:bow:

I presume everybody on this board has a special feeling for a certain country, probably mostly for Thailand. In my case it is Japan and since I started teach part time at a German University in the department of Japanese studies last year my interests in Japan increased considerably again, even my command of the language decreased in the last years - and it wasn't never really good since I never studied Japanese at university. Anyway I just started to repeat my early Japanese lessons since I forgot large amounts of the language. I even had forgotten how to write the word "photography" in front of my students. :o

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Concerning TV, there is free TV and pay TV in Japan. But in free TV there isn't much in English as far as I remember. You can find a schedule for English program here. I always waited for the one or two English movies every week.

 

My favorite show was a so called "Variety Show" at Sunday afternoon with the movie director Beat Takeshi as guest. The focus of this, I must confess extremely stupid show, was on so called "Talentos", e.g. girls who don't have any talent except theirs looks ::. The funniest part was when this girls were asked to enter a bathtub made of glass with very, very hot water (around 50 C) only dressed in a bikini. Since Japanese have a fetish for big boobs most girls had this quality and the only aim of this "game" was to see the girls screaming and their boobs shaking. :grinyes::doah:

So much on my interest in Japanese culture. :p (Luckily my students don't know this board, don't they?)

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Kamui,

 

Japan is about the last place on earth where I would ever decide to settle. Would prefer the Klong Toey slums in Bangkok or a similar place in Bombay. Klong Toey slum actually would be way better than Tokyo. Nice to hear that also you got lost in that railway station , I spent half a day under the earth and in tears. I do further think that the majority of all Japanese men is mentally sick. ASlthough the concept of buying used ladie's underwear from selling machines has some charm , what you think ? These guys know what romance means. You forgot this in your budget by the way :grinyes: . Ok this was one man's opinion , I can't stand that country. I beg your pardon.

 

On the other hand, thanks for your informative reports , full exalent.

 

BuBi

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:grinyes: :grinyes:

 

Once I was desperately in search for a beer and tried to find a vending machine with beer since I know that there is an equivalent of one vending machine per inhabitant :). The only interesting machine I found was filled with used underwear, but this didn't solve my problem. :hubba:

 

Concerning orientation, it took some time to learn that Tokyo is not only organized horizontally but vertically as well and that different architectural uses are interwoven in a complete different way to western cities [for the philosophers on the board: french postmodern deconstrutivists talk of a rhizome structure]. For example, when I arrive at an European station every exit I take will lead to a street. In Tokyo, if you leave a train station over an escalator it can happen that you end on the third floor of an very big department store. Doing this I lost my way more than once and I had problems to find my way out of the store and usually ended up at the wrong side of the station.

 

BB

If you like getting lost in the underground try the underground area in Osaka with narrow shopping malls, tunnels and subway stations which seem to cover half of the town. It is a labyrinth and I presume once in a while they find a skeleton of a Gaijin there who died of exhaustion while trying to find his way. :grinyes:

 

Anyway, there are other members on the board who live much longer in Japan as I did and will have deeper and different knowledge of the country than I have.

 

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i have spent only a week in tokyo, stayed in some capsule hotel in kabukicho (left my stuff daytime in some locker in the station).

was brilliant. wait for a chance to get back there one day.

 

but...!

i would not want to live with a teacher's salary there - the stress of making enough to get by exceeds by far even the most competitive western country, especially as a foreigner.

it appears to me that even more than in thailand it is of eminent importance to speak japanese to get more than just a superficial view on the country and society.

 

i guess the only way to have a halfdecent life in japan is either by being comfortably wealthy or by having a job with a very good salary.

 

i am not made for a pauper's lifestyle, but i guess that is all you get when you are some average language teacher. sharing tiny cubicles with strangers, eating cheapo all the time, never able to afford a cab, etc. is not really what i would call enjoying life in japan.

 

...but i would love to get back there some time for a week or two.

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