Even if you\u2019ve visited Japan as a tourist before, you may not be prepared for what it\u2019s like to live in the country as a foreigner. Some experiences may be difficult \u2014 even stressful at times. Having said that, if you strive to learn the language as best you can and immerse yourself in the culture (by making friends and picking up hobbies), you may be pleasantly surprised. The first step, though, is knowing what to expect.<\/p>\n
Usually, one of the first things a foreigner will tell you about living in Japan is the sense of being an outsider. You can live in the country for decades and still be seen as a foreigner, simply due to your appearance. The good news is that as more people move to Japan from other countries, this is becoming less pronounced in many places.<\/p>\n
Learning as much as possible about cultural etiquette is important \u2014 not just to fit in but to show respect to those around you. If you\u2019ll be in a new situation, do your research. The good news is that Japanese people will not hold you to the same standards. They\u2019ll understand that you\u2019re not fluent in the culture and will forgive minor mistakes, meaning there\u2019s no need to panic if you make a misstep.<\/p>\n
Depending on where you live in Japan, you may find you can manage quite easily with English alone. However, you\u2019ll most likely be restricted to teaching English as almost all other jobs require a high proficiency in Japanese. If you are able to reach this level, you\u2019ll find a large number of opportunities open up to you.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re likely aware that Japan can be an expensive country. Even so, some items may give you sticker shock. A couple of examples are gym prices (at least US$80 a month) and fruit. Other than bananas, fruit tends to be extremely expensive \u2014 you may need to pay as much as US$200 for a single melon<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another expense you may not expect is key money<\/a>. This is the amount you need to give your landlord when you rent an apartment. It tends to be between one and three months\u2019 rent, but it can be as much as six months\u2019 rent. Although key money is a common practice, some places don\u2019t require it, especially apartments targeted at foreigners.<\/p>\n Japan is a bureaucratic country, and many seemingly simple processes require a large amount of paperwork. For instance, to buy a car, you\u2019ll need to gain the proper permits and acquire a parking spot from your landlord. If you decide to move to a different apartment, you\u2019ll need to obtain a moving-out certificate.<\/p>\n No two foreigners have quite the same experiences living in Japan. You may find the transition relatively easy \u2014 or you could struggle with extreme culture shock, particularly at the beginning. Whatever the case, it\u2019s useful to be prepared for some of the challenges you may face.<\/p>\n Cotoacademy<\/a>, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Even if you\u2019ve visited Japan as a tourist before, you may not be prepared for what it\u2019s like to live in the co […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,59,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japan","category-life-in-japan","category-miscellaneous"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50165,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579\/revisions\/50165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Paying Key Money<\/h2>\n
Mountains of Paperwork<\/h2>\n
![Cotoacademy<\/a>,](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Japanese_Language_School_in_Tokyo_-_Coto_Japanese_Academy.png\"){kind=link}