PoseidonCubed, How are you supporting yourself in Japan are you solely grinding poker, or teach English etc ??

Yeah, I'm teaching English (occasionally a bit repetitive, but for the most part an extremely enjoyable job) with minimal grinding. I probably spend more than most eating out/drinking, but I certainly didn't come here with the intention of saving a lot of money.

Looking at driving up to Osaka/Kyoto for a day each around the 22nd...can't wait.

Oh did you buy a car in japan?
Just want to mention aswell that ive been in a kind of brutal downswing last few weeks and really wanted like a break from online poker so i just brought a bar (kind of impulsive) that ill be taking over mid january so if you ever make it to kobe (or anyone else from 2p2) ill hook u up for sure (its right in the middle of town so its easy to find), also ill get a real nice poker table etc so hopefully we can find a dealer and set up some fun games !
So Im officially not a professional poker player anymore i guess and almost definitely no supernova elite chase for me next year ;p;lol

wow that's sick news sprite zero, good luck with everything

Hey guys, I've been living in Japan for 15 years now (Kobe for the past 8). I have a house, a car, a wife, a dog and healthy poker itch. I run small games out of Hobgoblin the odd Sunday evening. Would like to make it more regular, but that would require more fellows like yourselves. If you are on Facebook, search kobe poker club at http://www.facebook.com/groups/237154041726/?fref=ts and see what we are up to.

Oh i didnt know there were games at hobgoblin? how high do you play? or is it just mainly for fun?,
The place that I bought is Midnight Express, its pretty much just a block down the street from Hobgoblin aye, if youre short of players then we can combine player pools lol

Ty man, hows everything going with you? Did you say you were trying to get over here or something?

Yea I am tempted to get out to Japan on the working holiday visa, but I have no degree so can't really teach English, Don't know how I would really support myself out there, could grind poker but BR not really big enough at the mo etc

Have you got like business visa now you bought a bar?? etc

Good stuff, guys...hope to get in some games with you sooner rather than later (Kobe is coming up soon on the to-do-list).

Best of luck, SZ.

Which city is the best and the worst to live in?

Hey Sprite, Jay is an old friend of mine, and I'm sure we've met. The Hobgoblin games I run are 2-4 thou buy-in cash games with re-buys (all strictly under the table). I keep a table over there and do all the dealing to keep things moving. I used to do sitngos, but the cash game format is so much easier to run as I dont need to worry about blind jumps. When will you be in Midnight next? I go there often and would like to talk poker with you. Not sure if you are Gary or Kevin, but Jay has talked to me about selling for a long time and I saw that he announced on FB recently that Midnight had finally been sold. Look forward to getting to know you better.

hey guys, I am about to move to Kyoto and am looking for a transfer. I will send Pokerstars or Skrill for Japanese Yen (paying a solid vig as well). Any amounts (min: $300) welcome.

I work for a major training site and have a lot of references on 2+2. Please PM if you can help out. Looking forward to partaking in this thread once I'm settled!

Hi folks, os there any grinder on these days in Osaka area? Im spending the Christmas Holidays here and im planning to move here next Feb.

Cheers!

Random Bump? This thread died completely lol.

Japan guys hows it going?

jjyykk did you get settled in Kyoto alright? By the way can you still send stars for yen?

Samu did you end up moving to Osaka?

Nice bump...I'm living in Shikoku right now. Just working, enjoying life and not studying Japanese nearly enough. It's quiet and pleasant, but always looking or an excuse to visit Kobe (finally checked it off the list last month...almost instantly became one of my favorite cities in Japan) an Osaka anytime. Again, if any 2p2ers are still here, it'd be cool to meet up sometime, maybe during a holiday weekend or something.

みんなこんにちは！

Great thread! I'm really glad I found it!

I'm a semi-pro, turning into fulltime pro in a couple of weeks as soon as I graduate. Living in Poland now which is my home country, but from mid-july or august I'm planning to move to Asia for probably at least a year..

My planned destination is Singapore (however dunno for how long yet), as it's the place I know the best (lived there for 6 months before). It's also an awesome place to live, very modern and highly developed and with great nightlife...

However, Japan is the country I'm actually the most attracted to, but has always been sorta out of range... it always seemed kinda closed to foreigners and extremely difficult to settle down (being a European) without a job or school there.

But apparently 2p2'ers will to settle any cool place in the world, regardless the difficulty


I'm planning to visit Japan (again) this summer, around mid-july probably. I have some friends there but also would be great to meet up with any of you guys.

And question to all of poker pros who are not settled in Japan yet but considering it: why not to gather up and set up a grind house there in the future? Who's in?

Grinding is very -EV in Japan unless you make 50k+ a year, when you can easily get an English teaching position paying about 2500$ a month without having to work hard for it or having to go through swings.

If you can't legally work in Japan (or want to study there), there is no reason to be there imo.

Extremely closed off society, even the locals hardly interact with anyone outside of work and outside of Tokyo and Osaka there is virtually no party scene.

If you aren't married to a japanese girl or running a company on the side there is no legal way to stay there long term anyway as a grinder.

@straightflushin
Thanks for your opinion. Seems like a little different than OP's and few other guys' who posted here, but it's good to see anyone's point of view
How about you? Are you living in Japan now, or lived before? For how long?

I know that costs of living are high, but 50k/yr is easily in my range and from what I understood from previous posts you can spend even 3x less money for the same things than regular tourists if you know how to do it and where to go
There's hardly any place in the world where it's officially legal to live as a grinder, so that's not much different to other countries. I also learn Japanese so moving there is a great way to practice imo

The important thing is the difficulty of finding an apartment to rent for 3-6 months, has anyone done that or know sth about chances of renting one? I don't think I'm gonna decide on a longer period as long as I don't experience if it's worth it or not by myself

Have lived before in a few areas of Japan, didn't like it much in the end, but been around asia for a while so there was no novelty at all to things, which is something that usually keeps western people around and interested for a while.

Not really, the yen is weak, but your apartment will be tiny unless you shell out the big bucks.

If you live in Thailand you can do visa runs - no problem, nobody will ask you anything.

If you do that in Japan to get your 90 day visa exemption stamps in case you can get them you'll have problems getting back in really quick.

The japanese immigration will also want to know what you're doing there. Not working and not studying for 90 days will raise red flags and lead to lots of questions about you and your reasons for your stay, source of funds etc.

If they let you in is solely the decision of a single person at immigration.

No problem, but will cost you 1.5-2k at least in Tokyo for a really small place. In Osaka there are cheap options due to all the homeless people and day laborers living there but they're basically just a hotel room for ~50k yen a month.

Your main problem will be boredom unless you go out of your way to chat up random people and speak good enough japanese to hold down a conversation for a while.

Agree with what sf says about apartments. It's still a pretty closed-off society, and while they cater to tourists very very well, still doesn't offer a lot of options when it comes to establishing residency for longer periods of time. Setting up all your living arrangements in Japan involves time and a lot of paperwork...quite a pain in the ass if I'm honest and definitely not worth it if you're just staying for 3-6 months. A decent, newish, one-bedroom apartment in the major cities that's spacious by Japanese standards will be in the range of 70-150,000 yen per month. There are smaller ones used by many foreign teachers and college students that are much cheaper and can be easily cancelled after 6 months, but they're shoeboxes.

Why not visit for a few months, get some sightseeing out of the way, make friends, practice the language and try to get a feel for the culture (especially outside the major cities). Living and being a tourist in Japan are two very very different things imo. Way too many people move here thinking the whole of Japan is like Harajuku, Tokyo (quite the opposite). If you decide that Japan is for you afterwords, then great. It's not hard to get a job at a private English school that will sponsor your visa and let you choose your own working hours.

Boredom shouldn't be a problem...there are a million things to experience when taking a break from grinding, even if you don't speak Japanese.

First of all, thanks for all the advices and useful information

Legal stuff can big an obstacle, I also thought about it.. but if I could work as an English teacher for some time, teaching for 5-10h/week or sth I could handle that, for a price of making my stay legal I'm also thinking about setting up a business in Asia in the future, might even consider Japan if I find the market attractive enough.

I am aware of a huge difference between visitng a country (even for a few weeks) and living there as a member of the society. I also have a bit of experience living in Asia (lived in Singapore for 6 months and over a month in Bangkok) and I know that's the only way to get a feeling of the the way people live and do stuff everyday..

@straightflushin, poseidon~
Did you guys move to Japan to work as poker pros or as sth else? Or to study? Did you have to manage your accomodation and everything by yourself or you already had a place to stay and ppl and/or ppl to live with?

And once again about rental prices: if I was interested in sth bigger (for 2-3 ppl), not necessarily in centre of Tokyo (could be suburbs or cities like Nagoya/Osaka/Kobe), what would be the price for 3-6 month rental? Sth around $1k/person is possible to get?

Unless you hold a passport of a native english speaking country (it seems you don't) together with a university degree , have working experience and some certifications it's not going to happen.

You won't get a visa for some part time job either.

Totally different places as they all cater to foreigners. In Japan few companies want to deal with foreigners due to the real or perceived hassles that come along with it.

Just grinded while figuring out if I wanted to stay longer. I think you can live a lot better elsewhere in the world without the socially claustrophobic environment and all the hangups of the locals that come along with it. The countryside is a bit different but I'm a big city person after all.

Arranged it by myself, lots of companies offering short term rentals with websites in english / english speaking employees.

Outside of Tokyo there is virtually no market for short term rentals catering to foreigners, so you're stuck with the few serviced apartment providers charging outrageous money for shoebox sized apartments (usually 3k+ for 20m² or less).

1k per person for a 3BR is only possible on a long term contract but you'd loose the large deposit + key money etc. so it'd work out a lot more expensive than that anyway.

Ild agree with the fact that its difficult getting settled, it can be a bit of a mission getting an apartment especially short term can be a bit of a nightmare but by no means is it impossible just tricky (just talking from my own experiences around Kobe so I'm not sure about Tokyo and Osaka).

Also visa stuff if you're not gonna be working full time as an English teacher there aren't many other options.
If you come on a 3 month tourist visa you can for sure extend it for another 3 months.

The stuff said above about it being pretty much solely dependent on the immigration officer is pretty true as rediculous as it sounds. But if you see an immigration lawyer after you arrive and ask him to handle all the applications etc you'll be fine. You just need to know how to word it I guess.

Also after you arrive you have 3 months to find a company to sponsor you for a work visa, which as long as you can speak fluent English and have a university degree shouldn't be a problem.

Also sure it's more expensive than other asian countries as far as living expenses but the quality of life is Japan is pretty high and the yen is pretty weak now, 50k a year is waay more than enough imo.

I guess it can be kind of a closed off society to foreigners but I've never really felt it ( I've been in China and Philippines for 6 months + each and in my experience its been much easier in Japan as far as feeling at home, integrating into society etc) , its very easy to meet people you definitely won't be bored here and the night life in Japan at least around Kansai can be pretty sick.

Anyway this is all just the experiences/opinions of one guy in one part of Japan, straightflushin seems to have different opinions/experiences to me and Poseidon cubed seems pretty knowledgable on the subject.

For anyone in Japan now, shall we try organize some kind of night out? First round on me for sure ; )

In the end it's all up to personal preferences I guess.

People in Kansai are also quite different from people in Tokyo.

Bump!
I'll be in Japan for about 3 weeks~ starting from mid-july, I'm spending about 9 days in Tokyo visiting friends and partying (18th-27th), then I plan to head to the west to Kyoto, Kobe and maybe even Kyushu Island (that one's not precised yet) for the rest of my time (until 5th~)..

If anyone's living in any of above mentioned places and wants to meet up, let me know!