Moving to Shinjuku, have a few questions
 

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:D , but before I do anything, I would like to know the answers to these questions.

:vsign: 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.

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.

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...

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

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 :-/

Ok, I talked to my friend and he is holding a spot for me at his mechanic shop. So, now that i have a job, and a place to stay. (with my friend that owns the shop) what do I still need to do to become a perminent resident?

a working visa

after that, i will be ok? how long do i have to work, before i can get rid of my visa and just become a perminent resident

So your friend's mechanic shop is going to be your visa sponsor? That means the owner of the shop will fill out that paper work at the government office explaining why you, a foreigner, have special skills a Japanese citizen doesn't have, and that's why his company wants to hire you and bring you to Japan.
The government must agree that indeed you have special skills a Japanese citizen doesn't have, and deserve to be accepted into the country.

This is why 99% of legal foreigners in Japan are teachers.

yeah im thinking leasing through my university is cheaper than just renting an apartment from someone. hachioji is pretty far west of central tokyo. it takes me about 1 hour to get from tama center to shinjuku using the 準特急 and 急行 that the keio line has. im at chuo finishing some of my general ed credits for my college in the us.

yes, exactly. why do you want to go through the trouble of being a mechanic in japan? ur idea makes no sense really...

you can't just 'get rid' of your visa and become a permanant resident...even if you married a Japanese girl, I'm pretty sure that you will still be on a spousal visa

I think that you can go for a permanent residense after 5 years (married) and 10 years (un married)

As far as getting a working visa I just do not see that happening because of what MMM said.

Maybe if your friend owned like a store that does like custom stuff and they wanted to bring you in an America (not sure if you are) for your taste and style from over here.

I not moving there just to become a mechanic. My friend and I orig. opened the shop here in the US, but he moved to Japan. He has been there for 6 years no problem and he asked if i can come work with him again. I wasnt using the Mechanic job as a free pass, but i was just saying i will have a job when i go there.

How will you get to stay in Japan though. I don't know what type of visa you can even get. You can't really get a work one I think because of what MMM said.

Do you have a bachelors degree? You could try job hunting elsewere I guess.