Financial Situation during Temprorary Visit?

[Projectoffset]

Hello everyone, I was hoping you could help me with some options/decisions concerning money when you're living under Temporary Visitor Status in Japan.

I and 2 other friends are planning on a 1-2 month visit to Japan. This will not be anytime soon, most likely during the summer of 2011, but I suppose getting help is never premature. At the moment we're not thinking too hard about it, and the initial plan was to get a job while there in order to pay for rent. Of course, after brisk research, I found out that Temporary Visitors cannot work in Japan. I was hoping to get information on ANY possible options we have.

At the moment I see several solutions, some harder or riskier than others.
Background info:

• We are college students.
• 3 people: 2 guys and 1 girl
• By the time of the trip, our ages will be 20, 20, and 22.

We are all college students with loans. We also have little time for work during semesters, the only opportunity presenting itself during breaks. One option is to work during breaks up until the point of the trip in order to accumulate money to pay for tickets and to rent an apartment (assuming renting an apartment and living there is the cheapest option).

We WILL be living in the same apartment (all 3 of us, 1 girl and 2 guys). The 2 guys are willing to sleep in the same room of course. The girl is as well, if needed. Food, rent and transportation will all come out of the money the 3 of us have accumulated up until the point of the trip.

However, we could also attempt to try and get a job with an employer that is willing to "overlook" our temporary visitor status - this, of course, being risky and most likely hard to do.

Something else I've considered is trying to find a homestay family willing to take all 3 of us in for the 1-2 months in exchange for work, this is of course a variation on finding an employer willing to ignore out Visitor Status. But, perhaps this way it isn't considered official "payment".

I'd like to apologize for the poorly constructed post, I would appreciate it greatly if you could give me advice, tips, and maybe solutions to our predicament.

Again, I apologize for atrocious post construction, I hope I could get my point across. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[Sangetsu]

First, where are you from? Japan has a working-holiday agreement with many countries which allows one to get a 6 month to 1 year visa, and enables one to work part-time. Unfortunately, there is no such agreement between Japan and America.

Japanese don't really want to hire short-term, temporary workers without valid visas. There are enough legally eligible people available right now who are looking for work, so your prospects are not great.

There are a few musically-inclined foreigners who often perform in parks or near stations for a little ready cash, but the amount of money they make is underwhelming.

If you are careful, a 1 or 2 month trip to Japan needn't be expensive. Quite a few people seem to get by on $10 a day without any problem. Your best bet right now is to get whatever extra part-time work is available where you are and save it up for your trip.

[ozkai]

First off, if your post is actually serious, I think the chances of the three of you obtaining employment for 4 to eight weeks would be very slim, and even more so in renting an apartment.

Four weeks is not a long time not to work so I fail to see why you and your mates would not be able to save enough money between you beforehand.

[atheistwithfaith]

There is as good as no chance of you finding employment while there on a visitor visa, and even if you get a working holiday visa its very highly unlikely you will find work unless you are very fluent in Japanese and have obtained your degree (which I'm guessing you wont have by that time).

I would say your only option is hard graft in your holidays.

For accomodation, depending on where you are staying it can be quite pricey and 3 can be a bit of an awkward number of people. If you plan to stay in Tokyo I'd say you could find somewhere for about $500-700 a month for each person. I don't know much about homestays at all, but I would look into that - as long as you realise if you want 3 of you to stay then it would most likely be somewhere out in the countryside.

Long story short; you will not be able to find employment there, you are going to have to save up in your home country, you might be able to do a homestay.

[Firebird]

If you can get the working holiday Visa you should be ok to get smaller Jobs but mostly in teaching english and for a longer period. It will be hard to get any job just for 4 weeks!

Homestay´s in Japan are usually only available together with a language course, it will be hard to find one without a course. For a course + homestay (breakfast an dinner) you have to calculate around 160 000yen each. On top of that will be lunch, travel to and from school and your own spendings. However, i did have alot of fun in that time because you can meet many people.

Apartment: Renting an apartment in Tokyo for such a short period is not a good option. For Most appartments you will have to pay a high key money wich is not refundable! Your best chance would be to search for a big room in a Gaijin house.

Some links: School + Homestay Geos Kudan Institute of Japanese Language & Cultur Tokio Buchung mit Online-Rabatt. Japanisch Sprachschule in Japan

General Prices and living cost Prices and living cost in Japan

Gaijin House´s: Home
the one i stayed (quite nice!) Oakhouse | Guest House Tokyo, guesthouse, room rent in Japan

and a site with appartments so that you could see into the prices. They might have something reasonable but im not sure if you can rent it on a temporary visa: Tokyo Apartments -Reasonable Apartment Accommodation Guesthouse

[MMM]

Instead of going for one two two months, why not go for one to two weeks. That's a vacation, and you wouldn't have to be slumming it just for the sake of staying for an extended period of time.

You are likely not going to find any work. You are likely not going to find any place that will rent a single apartment out to a mixed gender unmarried threesome, especially for such a short period of time. (The unreturnable deposit will cost as much as a hotel room for a few weeks, any way.)

It will also be difficult to find a homestay willing to take in three adults for that length of time.