Cost of living for a foreigner in Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world. The recent statistics shows that capital of Japan, Tokyo is the most expensive place in the world to live. Japan is the second strongest economy in the world, but the most expensive.

One reason for this high expense is the highest living standards by its citizens. The quality of life is also high in Tokyo. Everything contributes to the expenses.

From the last one year living experience in Japan, let me brief the costs of living in Tokyo. The apartment rent per month is 115,000 Japanese yen. For Yahoo BB broadband internet connection with a land phone the bill be around 6,400 Japanese yen. It is quite reasonable considering the quality of service Yahoo BB offers and the advantages of having a landline telephone from Yahoo BB in combination with Apa Kabar international calling card.

The monthly electricity bill will be around 6000 Japanese yen. I paid the last water bill approximately 3600 Japanese yen for two months. So, monthly 1800 Yen is nominal for a single man. The gas bill will be around 1600 Yen, because I don’t cook at home. This gas consumption is for heating the water for making coffee and water heating for bathing. The NHK television bill will be 1390 Yen per month. Softbank mobile phone charges for a month is around 2000 Yen. This includes the extra calls I make to friends within Japan. For making international calls I use Apa kabar card which costs 2400 Yen. I have to buy at least 3 Apa Kabar cards in a month, thus this amounts to 7200 Yen per month.

Daily commutation charges by train to office and back will be 580 Yen per day. So accumulated for a month and also including the extra travels I make to visit friends and for purchase will total to 20,000 Yen. This kind of expense depends on the place where we live. For others, this amount may be less or high.

For food and snacks monthly approximate expense for a single head will vary from 45000 to 60,000. If I go for eating out together with other friends once in a week, this amount will go further high.

Hair dressing charges are quite noticeable in Japan. My hair dresser charges me with a small bill of 3,000 Yen. This is where I got astonished with the living expenses in Tokyo. Every month I pay 3,000 Yen for hair cutting. I am not going for any beautification of my hair! In my country, for this amount of money, even if I go for a medium luxury hair saloon, I can have my hair cut for full two years! Here in Tokyo, we are not paying for the actual work he does rather we pay the hair dresser to live in Tokyo. He has to live in Tokyo in order to render his service to us!

The clothing and physical fitness charges will vary according to the individual and I don’t want to put any amount, but it won’t be less than 10,000 Yen if we take the average per month.

Then there are vacation expenses for a foreigner. Entertainment expenses another category. Today I went to see a movie. One movie ticket costs 1800 Yen.

Since I have insurance, I have to pay some 30% of the expenses. Monthly medical expenses are approximately 5000 Yen.

Living with family and kids is quite highly expensive in Japan. The lowest international school fee won’t be less than 60,000 Yen per month for one kid. The school bus expense may vary from 20,000 Yen and more. Then comes the other education expenses separately.

All the above mentioned expenses are purely from my own experience and have nothing to do with a national average figure. I don’t want to do a totaling of all the expenses and state a particular amount as the monthly expenses. Some companies will take care of some type of expenses. Again that depends on the individuals agreement with the company and company's commitment to the employees. Therefore Just I have given the breakups of living expenses in Tokyo. There are other types of expenses, which I might have missed out. I will update once I remember those expenses.

Japanese houses with Tatami and rent a house in Japan

All praise to Japan till now, here we go a bit sarcastic. This phrase was conveyed to me by a friend: A lucky man is one who lives with an English house, American Salary, French cook and Japanese wife. (This is again praise to Japanese people!)

Then the unlucky man lives with an English Cook, American wife, French Salary and Japanese house! (This one may not be praise!)

Though little exaggerated, the above phrase reflects the traditional belief that Japanese houses are just enough to live. When I entered to the apartment allocated to me I realized it. People with 6 feet height can raise their hands and touch the ceiling. We don’t need to search for a stool to change the lights for example.

Traditional Japanese houses are simple, neat and beautiful. Japanese houses are built with a bedroom with Tatami. The meaning of Tatami in Japanese is ‘folded and piled’. Tatami mats are a traditional type of Japanese flooring. Tatami floors are made of woven soft rush straw, and traditionally packed with rice straw.

The modern Japanese technology uses sometimes styrofoam though it is not widely accepted and not considered traditional. Tatami are made in individual mats of uniform size and shape, bordered by brocade or plain cloth. I am not sure of the exact dimension of Tatami mats, but my boss when he took me to the apartment first time during February 2008 told me that Japanese building standards use different Tatami sizes and bedrooms are identified with the number of Tatami used in a bedroom.

When I changed to a new apartment at Higashi Ojima, my boss accompanied me to select the house. Foreigners may often face problem to find a house in Japan. Many house owners turn their face against foreigners. If approached through a real estate agent, foreigner’s application may be turned down. I have heard of such problems in Japan, where it is difficult for foreign people to find a suitable apartment alone. Many of the house owners have problem in communicating with foreigners.

The language barrier is one of the biggest problems. Also the house owner thinks that due to improper language communication for day to day living, the foreigners may trouble the neighbors. Foreigners come from different background and may not be aware of the garbage disposal procedures and other social gatherings on which Japanese people mix together and contribute to the cleanliness of the building. Japanese house owner is more worried about the interpersonal relationship of the foreigners with local Japanese. Very often this attitude of Japanese people is highlighted as discrimination and racism of Japanese people towards foreigners. If we meet this land owner individually, he is very polite and nice talking and may not have any false prejudice inside. He just wanted to avoid complications (communicating in English with foreigners is a complicated thing for many Japanese people – true!)

Anyway, coming back to our discussion on Japanese houses, the Tatami laid Japanese houses represents Japan’s simplicity even at the height of technological advancements and achievements. Tatami reminds us the nature’s presence inside a Japanese house. Finally at night, for sleeping, we withdraw ourselves from all the modern life stresses and interpersonal strains and go back to the nature! That is a great idea behind Tatami.

Tatami were a symbol of luxury item for the wealthy at a time when lower class people’s houses had mat covered dirt floors. Tatami were gradually popularized and finally reached the homes of commoners around 300 years ago. Otherwise my house won’t have built with a Tatami floored bedroom!

House rent is high in Tokyo. The house rent for my dwelling is $1150 per month, including the maintenance charges. This home is just enough for my family with two kids. In Japan, it is tagged as 1LDK. This means the house is with One bed room, one living room, one Dining hall, one Kitchen. Kitchen is always a part of extension of the dining hall. If we go for more comfort, half of the salary will be consumed by the house owner!

If you are looking for a rented home: http://www.propertyworld.com/_Japan

http://www.sakura-house.com/

http://www.oakhouse.jp/eng/

http://www.arkadia.com/usa/real-estate/for-rent/japan/

http://www.realigro.com/House-for-rent-Japan/index.php

http://www.forleasebyowner.com/x_japan.asp

http://www.housingjapan.net/tokyo_apartment/index.php

http://sabbaticalhomes.com/Home_Exchange_Cities.aspx?country=Japan

Living experiences of a dog in Japan

So far I have written about my life in Japan. Many of my friends comment that I have all praise to Japanese people and Japan. They come across a considerable number of sarcastic blogs on Japan. Most of the blogs on Japan by foreigners are antagonistic in nature and narrate their discrimination experiences.

They have enough reason to prove their prejudices that Japan is highly racist and hate foreigners. All these anti-Japan venom they spatter still by enjoying the peaceful living in Japan far away from their home country where they might have been treated worse than anything. I don’t want to justify any kind of racist mentality if at all any of the Japanese national possess within them. Any kind of racism is against humanity and is therefore animal instinct.

Unfortunately enough (!) I could not come across any kind of discrimination so far during my stay in Japan and interaction with Japanese people. In fact I have been treated with well respect, friendly and get consideration as I am a foreigner. I have to still find out what section of foreigners face discrimination and why. I will try to find the truth from Japanese friends only and till then let me assert that Japan is fairly good to foreigners.

Probably, as is true with any section of society, some of the foreigners in Japan may try to see only the bad side of everything. Or their experience tends them to think in that direction? I am not sure.

I have not enough reason to blame Japanese people. But today to be frank, I have learned a complaint from a dog which has faced discrimination at his Japanese owner’s house!

Let me write all the story of this dog first in Romanized Japanese and then translate into English.

Inu no seikatsu
Watashi wa Tomo desu. Santosusan no uchini imasu. Watashi wa maiasa okusan to sanboni ikimasu. 8jigoro teresachan to gakko e ikimasu. Sorekara uchi e kaerimasu. Soshite okusan to kaimono ni ikimasu. Gogo gakko e teresachan o mukaeni ikimasu. Sorekara isshoni koen e asobini ikimasu.

Shoomatsu wa teresachan no gakko to santosusan no kaisha wa yasumi desu. Santosusan no kazoku wa tooi tokoro e kuruma de asobini ikimasu. Watashi mo isshoni ikimasu. Totomo tsukaremasu.

Santosusan no uchi ni neko mo imasu. Neko wa mainichi nani mo shimasen. Doko mo ikimasen. Watashi wa asa kara ban made isogashi desu. Yasumi ga Zenzen arimasen. Watashi wa neko to isshoni yasumitai desu.

Dog’s life (Translation)
I am Tom. I live at Mr. Santos’ house. Daily I will go for a walking with Mrs. Santos. At around 8 O’ clock, I will go with Ms Teresa to her school. After leaving her at school I will return to home. Then I will go for shopping with Mrs. Santos. Evenings, I will go to school to accompany Ms Teresa. Then we will go to the park for playing.

Ms. Teresa’s school and Mr. Santos’s office will have holidays on weekends. They will go to far away places by car for playing. I will also go with them. I will be totally tired.

There is a cat also at Mr. Santos’s house. This cat won’t do anything all the days and won’t go anywhere. While I am too busy from the morning to the night, this cat is very lazy. I have no rest day. I also want to take rest with the cat.

This is the life of our dog at his Japanese owner’s house. He wants to take rest and be lazy like the cat and he feels as if he is very tired of the life in Japan!!!

This was the story of a dog named Tom which we have studied in our last Japanese language class at OVTA. We made a lot of fun out of this story. I am not very much sure whether the discrimination towards foreigners in Japan is strong enough to compete with Britain and United States, where even “No entry for Indians and Dogs” boards were a prestige symbol of their golden past.

While passing through a turbulent and uncertain economy

Today I am little bit out of mood as I could not meet one friend whom I used to talk with at the McDonald outlet. Yesterday also I could not meet him. We are all passing through a turbulent economy, which is overcast by uncertain future. This one is really harder and nobody knows what will be the coming days. It is so uncertain that even companies that performed well in the past are nose diving to declare massive lay offs and job cuts.

My friend from Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany whom I used to meet at the McDonald outlet is an interesting person to talk with on many topics on politics, technology and economics. He has been in Japan for the past 3 years. Since the business has come down and affected the sale of many products from outside Japan, his company is also in trouble.

It is interesting to mention here that I have one more friend from Vienna whom I used to meet at the ‘Makudonarudo’ (McDonald) outlet at Kiba.

Many of the Japanese use the word ‘Shrinking economy’ for the current economic phenomenon. Contraction of the economy another popular word in Japan used for the economic slowdown. My friend from Bamberg has planned for a vacation at the end of this month, but what happened to him today. It is unlikely that he will miss for two consecutive days.

My knowledge about Germany is very limited. He told me that Bamberg is a town area in Bavaria and Bavaria is the largest state in Germany by area. Bavaria is located at the south east of Germany.

He is interested to hear about my place and I will ask him about the places in Germany as if the whole Germany is very small for him to know everything about Germany. Japan’s association with Germany during Second World War is a historic fact, even though not so popularly welcomed publicly by many people.

The juicy chicken setto (Chicken hamburger) or Ebi fileto setto (prawns hamburger) with hoto kohee (hot coffee) is our favorite at McDonald. He also prefers the same. Some days we sit more than one hour with our hoto kohee sharing our ideas on world affairs and recent developments in technology.

If I am correct in hearing from my friend, there is a river named Regnitz. He told in Bamberg smoked beer is famous. It is called Rauchbier in German language. I still keep the tissue paper on which he wrote the spelling in German language.

Economic recession is deepening. I could not meet my friend today at McDonald outlet. I waited there for almost one hour for him sipping the hotto kohee slowly with the hope that the he will come.

I could not see any reduction in sales in terms of number of people at any of the McDonald outlets in Tokyo. This is my personal observation and I am not much sure about the exact number of people visiting each outlet. Before one year and now I could see equal number of people chooses to eat out at McDonald. In fact McDonalds had come down with economic packages like one chicken hamburger set cost 630 Japanese Yen before, is now available for 490 Japanese Yen. This is during 11:30 hours to 13:30 hours. This is the time they get peak business and many Japanese like the McDonald food. These 'stimulus packages' implemented by McDonalds attract more customers even at the time of economic slow down or shrinking economy.

My hotto kohee has cooled down. There is no point in waiting for him today. Economy is uncertain and we don’t know what is there for us tomorrow!