Hiya fromTokyo

Idleswine · Post by **Idleswine** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 7:53 am

Hi - I'm from England and moved to Japan about 15 years ago.
I'm 44 and nowhere near ERE but have recently made a few changes that I hope are putting me on the right track, mainly cycling into work. All Japanese companies cover commuting expenses for trains and buses - which in my case I get to pocket - roughly about $2000p.a.
I'll be happy if I can pay off the mortgage in 12 years. Without having to pay for housing Tokyo can be a surprisingly cheap place to live.
Spent 20+ years being totally careless with money - until now.

BeyondtheWrap · Post by **BeyondtheWrap** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 5:24 pm

I just spent a semester studying abroad in Tokyo. I'm surprised you say it can be cheap. I spent a lot of money, but that may be because I was trying to have lots of fun in the short amount of time I was there. You really need to steer clear of the restaurants, bars, nightlife, vending machines, and buying everything you see. Another reason it was hard for me to be frugal was not knowing the language, making it difficult to get special deals or argue when I felt like I was being ripped off.
The convenience of the transportation and the department stores is really nice though. The city is clean, too; it's a great place to live.

Idleswine · Post by **Idleswine** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 3:57 am

I think it takes a while living here to know where to go shopping. Short term visitors always complain about high prices. And you're spot on about needing to steer clear of expensive bars/restaurants, vending machines etc.
The language also helps, not so much for bartering as it's not really the done thing here, but for researching where to get stuff.
When my parents came over on a visit from the UK we took them to some local markets and they were surprised at how cheap some things were.

Post by **jacob** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 5:45 am

So the $5000 water melon is a myth?
(I was in Tokyo in 2002. I'm sure I only went to the expensive places. In fact I remember us have issues finding supermarkets, so we got our food from 7-11 type shops.)
[Actually this seems to be a typical touristic problem of mine. It's because no supermarkets are called supermarkets anymore and it takes a while to figure out the chain names.]

Q · Post by Q » Tue Aug 17, 2010 6:18 am

One of my most memorable meals was a 45 minute walk to the Lawson's down the street from the hotel for two cokes and some oreos...for dinner.

Post by **jacob** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:36 am

Actually maybe I can finally get a small language issue settled: "Hiya" means "fast", yes?

Idleswine · Post by **Idleswine** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:43 am

＠Jacob - actually you can pay silly money for water melons. I remember chatting to an engineer whose parents were melon farmers in the north of Honshu. He told me his favourite activity as a kid was "melon smashing" - to destroy most of the crop to keep the prices high. Luckily for me I can't stand melon.
I buy vegetables directly from a farm about a minutes walk from our house and we also go with the in-laws 2 or three times a month to a discount supermarket and buy in bulk, then split the packs between us. It takes a while to find out where these places are.
We usually spend the equivalent of about 300US dollars a month on food, and don't really want for anything - aside from English bitter.
And yes hiya does mean fast.