Moving to Shinjuku, have a few questions

[Yaguchi]

Hello, my name is Dedric, Im new to the forum. I plan to move to Shinjuku in the spring of this year. I will be living there permanently. Iam a 21 year old African Amerian male, I speak fluent English, and Im learning new Japanese everyday. I have been studying Japanese for quite sometime, but in my opinion, the best way to learn a language is to be in the country of origin. Now that you know a little bit about me. The questions I have are:

1. Will it be hard to find a place to live?
2. Will it be hard for me to find work?
3. Will the cost of living be very high?

Im very anxious to move, I already have alot of my stuff packed , but before I do anything, I would like to know the answers to these questions.

Arigato !

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Yaguchi

Hello, my name is Dedric, Im new to the forum. I plan to move to Shinjuku in the spring of this year. I will be living there permanently. Iam a 21 year old African Amerian male, I speak fluent English, and Im learning new Japanese everyday. I have been studying Japanese for quite sometime, but in my opinion, the best way to learn a language is to be in the country of origin. Now that you know a little bit about me. The questions I have are:

1. Will it be hard to find a place to live?
2. Will it be hard for me to find work?
3. Will the cost of living be very high?

Im very anxious to move, I already have alot of my stuff packed , but before I do anything, I would like to know the answers to these questions.

Arigato !

Why live in Shinjuku? It is one of the most expensive areas of one of the most expensive cities in the world. You could literally live 15 minutes away and cut hundreds of dollars off your rent.

I am a little confused. You say you are going to move there permanently, but don't have a job.

There are three ways to live long-term in Japan.

1) be enrolled in an Japanese school
2) be gainfully employed by a Japanese company
3) be married to a Japanese citizen

You need to be one of these things before you land at Narita, or else you are a tourist, and your visa will expire in 90 days. Landlords don't rent to tourists, schools don't enroll tourists and companies don't hire tourists.

[Kanji_The_Wanderer]

Yes Yaguchi, listen to MMM, it's not as easy as you would imagine. Just like any country, you can not simply walk in and be accepted as a citizen. It is a long process and can take a long time before you are allowed to stay in Japan.

When I was younger, and only up until a few years ago, I thought I could just simply move to Japan and get a citizenship. If only it were that simple.

I advise you to go as a tourist a couple of times and feel it out before you attempt to just up and leave.

I still have yet to visit the country myself, but you can learn a lot about how it operates just by reading the threads here.

[jpdrag0n]

rofl i thought the poster lived in japan. yeah...you cant just pack your bags and come here bud. a college degree is best. theoretically, if you had a legit means to get into the country...i would not recommend shinjuku. as MMM said its expensive. as ive seen, alot of my friends (college students) live in places like chofu, tama center, or takahata-fudo all of which are easily accessible to the keio line to shinjuku and shibuya. i mean...sure it would be cool to live in shinjuku but only if youre rich.

[chachava]

I work in Shinjuku but live in Yokohama - got a much larger apartment for a lot less than it would cost for a standard 1dk in Shinjuku...

[jpdrag0n]

i live in hachioji in an apartment leased through my university. i pay 400 bucks a month. it seems alot of salarymen live here because its pretty far from central tokyo but i see a sea of salarymen going to work from tama center every morning.

[chachava]

Originally Posted by jpdrag0n

i live in hachioji in an apartment leased through my university. i pay 400 bucks a month. it seems alot of salarymen live here because its pretty far from central tokyo but i see a sea of salarymen going to work from tama center every morning.

I hope to god you don't have to get the chuo line into shinjuku weekday mornings... I had to a while back when shonan-shinjuku was off (jumper)... went to hachioji and transferred assuming it would be quiet

I was wrong... it was hell hahaha

[jpdrag0n]

no i normally take the keio line from tama center because thats easier from my apartment. it wasnt too bad. ive only gone this route in the morning a few times for job interviews. the worst i had was on the hibiya line...i think it was a weekday night. my brother and cousin came to visit me for new years and it was absolute hell. that was the most packed in ive experienced ever in tokyo. sometimes leaving shibuya on the keio line is also pretty bad. agh..

[chachava]

Originally Posted by jpdrag0n

no i normally take the keio line from tama center because thats easier from my apartment. it wasnt too bad. ive only gone this route in the morning a few times for job interviews. the worst i had was on the hibiya line...i think it was a weekday night. my brother and cousin came to visit me for new years and it was absolute hell. that was the most packed in ive experienced ever in tokyo. sometimes leaving shibuya on the keio line is also pretty bad. agh..

I meant the Keio line, not chuo lol... I felt like I was in a tin of sardines heading into Shinjuku at 8.40 :-/

[Kanji_The_Wanderer]

Originally Posted by jpdrag0n

i live in hachioji in an apartment leased through my university. i pay 400 bucks a month. it seems alot of salarymen live here because its pretty far from central tokyo but i see a sea of salarymen going to work from tama center every morning.

Wow, 400 bucks is not bad. Hachioji, that's in Tokyo? That's pretty cheap. What does it cost deeper into the city?

Just curious, but what do you study?