Experience in Tokyo, Japan by Natsumi

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What is it like to live in Tokyo? Would you recommend it? What is the city like?

Tokyo is such a exciting city to live. You would never get bored. There are so many interesting people, cheap and delicious food, entertainment, traditional and modern architecture, and many shops!

As you know transportation in Tokyo is the best in the world, so you can go anywhere by train or subway. You will be surprised to see how complicated train and metro is in Tokyo. Even I think it is difficult! There are many apps that help you by showing the fastest and cheapest route. An app for the train will be necessary to live in Tokyo.

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Japanese food! Many of my foreign fiends say what they miss the most after they left Japan is food. Just so many places to eat yummy food. You will find your country restaurants and definitely you should try them because you will see how different from meal that you eat at your country. Japan has a lot of traditional dishes and many of them need chopsticks to eat. Japanese restaurants in the US have easy chopsticks to hold for people who have trouble with using them, however traditional Japanese restaurants do no prepare the easy chopsticks, you'd better practice how to use them!

And Tokyo has so many places to see. A lot of temples and shrines, Tokyo Skytree, Harajuku, Shibuya, Japanese gardens, animal cafe, maid cafe, museums... I am pretty sure you can not choose what to visit.

Tokyo is an energetic and exciting city. People are very nice and they will try to help you even if they do not speak English. I can guarantee your stay in Tokyo will be an unforgettable memory for you.

What is the student lifestyle like in Tokyo?

Students in Tokyo study, work and play hard. Here it is not common to live in a dormitory or share house. We don't have culture to share private space with someone and managing a dormitory is expensive, so students live by themselves. They do have freedom! At the same time, they must pay for everything. They work so hard and I was one of them. I had 3 part time jobs and worked 6 days a week. During weekends, I used to work 14 hours a day! Students work a lot but also they play a lot. Being a student in Tokyo will be very busy but you will enjoy the life for sure!

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How much does it cost to live in Tokyo?

It will be difficult to find an apartment for yourself as a student in Japan because many apartment owners think foreign students can't earn enough money to keep paying the rent with limited working hours. To rent an apartment you must pay fees at the beggining, which is very expensive. The fees are called shikikin and reikin. Shikikin is security deposit and reikin is key money. So students end up living in a dormitory for foreign students or share house. Share houses are getting popular. Averagely you pay 30 000 yen for deposit at the beggining when you move in. It will depend on areas where to live and the rent ranges are between 40 000 yen to 80 000 yen.

Is it difficult to find accommodation in Tokyo? Is there any advice you can give?

It is not easy for foreigners to find accommodations. You should start to look for a place to live months in advance and go see the room with your eyes before moving in. Some owners put good pictures for the site and you expect to live in a beautiful place and once you move in, it can be very dirty and disappointing... There are real estate agency for foreigners. If you are going to live in Japan for a longterm, you should ask them first.