interested!

Anyone with any info on the gambling laws to be passed/ casinos to be built?

What's the word on the street?

Hey guys.

Probably going to spend a month in Japan in January in Nagoya as a friend lives nearby. Anyone have any experience with the area?

Also, could anyone point me in the direction of a good website to rent an apartment / studio / condo for 1 month? Don't really want to stay in a hotel for that long.

Thanks!

I asked some people but they don't really know much about it.. I think it's already decided tho they gonna build a casino but don't really now when but definitely before olympics.

Dunno much about Nagoya, I was there only once and for a few days so don't know much about this place..

For the apartments, as I mentioned in this thread many times, it's the most annoying thing in Japan for people like us (poker players who come here with no visa and for short term). It was super hard for me to find sth decent in Kansai and afaik Nagoya is much less "foreigner friendly" than Kobe or Osaka, so it might be even more difficult..

The only thing I can advise is to check airbnb/shared apartments or if they have Leopalace in Nagoya, that might be an option too.

How did you end up finding something and solving the problem?

yuuup, makes sense. Had been googling to no avail before I posted that. Everything seemed expensive as **** and unfurnished. Will post an update if I manage to find something reasonable.

It took us 3 weeks in Osaka looking for an apartment which resulted in finding nothing we liked. I was lucky tho, because I had a friend who knew gaijin community in Kobe and he also knew a guy who rents apartments to gaijins who come to Japan for short term working/studying. That's the guy I rented apartment from and it was the one and only option to rent a normal sized and furnished apartment in Japan for a short term.

Two other guys I came with didn't want to live in Kobe so they kept looking for sth in Osaka. After 1 or 2 more weeks with some help of their friends in Japan they found very tiny apartments in decent location but they stayed only 1 month and paid more than 2k$/each for shoebox places.

I`m in Osaka, been here 15 years. Drop me a line if you want to hook up for beers or need any Q`s answered.

Oh, cool ! Usually I was the one answering questions, but now I'll take a role of the one who's asking

Are you a poker pro or playing regularly? where are you from and what are you doing in Japan for 15 years?

And one more thing, that I've been trying to get as much information about as possible and still didn't get enough... Visas. I've spent last 5 months in Japan on tourist visa, however 2nd time I came here the customs officer seemed a bit suspicious and I wasn't ever sure if he lets me in.. But I wanna come back to Japan next year too and ideally spend here more than 6 months, maybe 1 year or sth.

What would you advise? What kind of visa can I get and what is the best option in your opinion? I've heard about people coming to Japan to learn Japanese in some language schools and they don't have too many classes and can usually stay more than the course takes.. I don't have any proved info about it tho...


And ofc it would be cool to meet up ! Because I'm super busy lately I'm not sure if I find time to go to Osaka.. But if you come over to Kobe that would be cool, this thread's OP has a gaijin bar in Sannomiya and there's a couple of poker plaeyers living here as well

Was a while ago I did research on this because I'm also planning to get a student visa. I think you can't slack, you need to study full time to be eligible for a student visa and learning japanese is not easy and from what I read most schools if not all schools(that have the right to give foreigners student visa) are strict about skipping classes. If you're thinking about enrolling in a language school just to get a visa so you can sit home and grind poker and not learn japanese it won't work at all. How interested are you in learning japanese? It also costs atleast $6k/year and up in school fees. It's pretty cheap but still not an insignificant sum for most people.

Btw, the place you got in kobe seemed like an awesome deal. I don't know much about the prices in Kobe but it can't be that much cheaper than Osaka(?). For 85k yen in central tokyo you would probably get 15 sqm studio in an old building.

Please give us a Fukuoka report, can you be a young <30 years old male and enjoy the nightlife there or is it mediocre at best?

Hmm, that sucks. I'll still try to get some info about it soon and if I get to know sth I'll post it here. Im definitely coming back to Japan next year and I don't want it to be another tourist visa, coz it might get a bit risky coz I've spent almost 6 months here on this visa already and also I wanna stay more than 3 months.

For the place in Kobe, yeah, it's a pretty good deal. The place is a bit old, but location is decent and the price is very good I think. Next year I'll probably move in with my gf, but in case sth goes wrong I'll probably take this place again, or some other one from the same guy.

And yeah, sorry I finally didnt make a report on the trip. Actually Fukuoka and Tokyo were the only two cities we stayed for more than like 2 days, so I'll just write my thoughts about Fukuoka (I can write about Tokyo too later if you want, but I guess Tokyo doesn't need to be described;d).


So, Fukuoka.. Just a few days there. I didn't know a single person there and didn't have much idea of where to go. We stayed in Hakata and close to the "redlight district" Nakasu. First impression on the city was pretty nice, definitely more quiet than Osaka/Tokyo or even Kobe, but also seemed to have a lot of places to go out. My favourite was the beach (imo much better than Suma near Kobe), dunno how it was party-wise coz it was autumn and the bars were closed already but I just liked the atmosphere. Many people were having fun, some were playing beach volleyball, some were riding water-scooters and some were doing some break-dance jam.
About girls. We didn't do any partying coz we didn't really know places to go (dunno if there are any clubs there, but since I'm in Japan clubbing is not my favourite activity so I wasnt even looking for it). There's a bunch of kyabukura (girls bars) in Nakasu, like everywhere in Japan, which is also not really a place targeting young (and attractive?lol) gaijins, rather a playground for old, rich and shy japanese salarymen. We went to a few bars tho and the general impression was that girls were definitely more excited about gaijins than they are in Kansai/Tokyo, coz they're simply not used to seeing them in the streets, only in TV or in the movies;d I haven't been to any city before where I was getting so many smiles/blushes/waving from random girls in the streets;d that was pretty cute however, they speak english much worse than in kansai/tokyo, also I guess because this city is not cosmopolitan at all.
Food - Fukuoka has probably the best ramen I've ever eaten, even tho I'm not a big ramen fan I really liked it Apart from that food was ofc delicious as everywhere in Japan but nothing exceptionally better than in here.

When I left Fukuoka I said to myself it would be nice to come back here for 2-3 months in the summer. Summer, because I really wanna see the beach during the season and I think this city would be way more fun in the summer than in any other seasons. However, because I don't know anyone who's libing there and who could help me out finding an apartment etc, I still don't know.. Also visa factor will be very important, coz I'd need to get one to make some plans. Definitely gonna come back in the summer tho, time will show if for 2-3 months or just short holiday

I don't really have any cool pics, just a few I took in random places.

http://screenshooter.net/100599654/ikfqwsv

http://screenshooter.net/100599654/exvnjpt

http://screenshooter.net/100599654/ugybmkv

http://screenshooter.net/100599654/simxdju

http://screenshooter.net/100599654/abkhsrc

http://screenshooter.net/100599654/spfayvx

edit: and I suck at posting pics so I just post the links to screenshots lol.. If anyone tells me how to post those pics in the post I'll edit that later;d

Lived in Nagoya (kanayama neighborhood) from 2009-2010. Had a Japanese friend who got me an apartment. Like others said may be super difficult to rent something on your own. It was hard enough to get a membership at gold gyms w nothing but a tourist visa. Big expat community w plenty of gaijin bars to hang out at. Shooters was my regular hangout. If I can answer any other questions let me know.

3cardraise, thanks for the report. Fukuoka sounds nice but I think it's one of those cities that might be fun to visit but *might* be boring to stay a longer period. But I could be very wrong as I've never sat foot in Kyushu. It's funny you say that about girls reacting to foreigners. Seen many posters in other forums saying they like Fukuoka since there are few gaijins so they get more of a star treatment compared to Tokyo or Osaka.

Reading your posts it makes me believe you really want to live in Japan and you're also going through the hassle of coming back and forth on a tourist visa. Why not just bite the bullet and sign up for a language course? If you're interested in Japan then learning the language is not a bad idea. I don't know about your personal situation but if you need to grind 40hours+/week to pay the bills then a language school is not a good idea. With the right circumstances(not needing to play poker all day long to afford living) it feels like a no brainer that someone like you should get the student visa.

Glad this thread is here. Since I've been living in Mexico for bout 3.5 years its started getting a little stale. Tijuana is still one of my favorite cities of all time but I think it may be time to move on next year while I still have any remains of youth.

Tried to figure out which country in the world I wanted to travel to. Wanted it to not be freezing, slightly more baller, good food and high national IQ. Japan seemed to fit the bill better than anywhere. Randomly I'm also 1/4 japanese which makes the idea more romantic for me

Anyway, I eyeballed a map and thought that Osaka seemed like the best place to live and lo & behold searching 2p2 osaka titles this thread conveniently.

I'm 0% committed to Japan but may consider moving there for 2-3 years sometime late 2015 or 2016 and had a few idiot noob questions -
Is Osaka by and large the best place or good enough given things to do, restaurants, warmth, proximity to other cities, cost of living and all that stuff or are there better places worthwhile checking out?
Are there any legal restrictions to my living there? Must I give a ****?
I want to be idk how to put this but "semi-baller". My budget would be about $3-4k/mo on rent for a 1bd and $3k+/mo on food. Does that do anything reasonable? I definitely dont want to go to grocery stores or take a serious quality of living hit that I've been used to from Tijuana as idk if that would be worth it to me.
Are there cheaper human resources like maids, PAs etc or is it all fairly pricey?

Language wise I'm functionally fluent in French and Spanish and been learning Mandarin the past few months but may switch that to Japanese if I start to commit to going there. Seems like a good new challenge for a culture shock.

And I love hanging out with anyone so if there are people still up there if I end up arriving there I'd be down to hang out whenever.

In the time you have taken to write this post you could've found out that Osaka is cold as **** in the winter, it's far from a baller city and you'll have a hard time enjoying yourself without speaking fluent japanese unless you like hitting up low class gaijin bars.

Also no long term stay without a legit reason.

Have to disagree with you here. There are foreigners all over in Osaka, which of course means the novelty factor is lower, but also you'll find quite a few people who you can communicate with in English. It's a city with a lot of personality, and there's definitely something for everyone. Nothing wrong with gaijin bars of course, but you don't even have to be close to fluent to enjoy yourself elsewhere.

Of course the colder months are kind of a shock to the system after the tropical summers, but it's still only 48F right now. Can't even remember what the freezing the midwest winters were like after being here for two plus years.

haha not the review i was hoping for. the latitude of osaka is nearly identical to tijuana and when i looked up annual temps it didn't seem that bad but it takes one to know it. i definitely did look that up before posting.

i think its pretty difficult to find cities or countries with high IQs that are also warm, there seems to be an inverse correlation there. japan seems to have both, sort of.

is there a different city i should consider looking at if osaka isn't that good given what i wrote? id def rather be well off in a city like osaka than being the poorest in tokyo is thats how it works. could be totally misinformed.

Completely disagree too.

Weather, well, you can look it up online, depends where your reference point is. If you compare to Canada/Russia the climate is warm and mild. If you compare to countries like Mexico tho, it's definitely colder here in winters lol.

I lived in Kobe for 6 months and I'm coming back next year. I've spent a lot of time in Osaka too, my gf is from Osaka and also it's the city I usually went out.

If you're seeking for 5-10k/month costs of living place, Japan is definitely the one. I've been to many countries all over the world, rich and poor, fun and boring, Japan has been definitely my favorite so far, however I wouldn't really recommend it to sb who is too stingy and wants to live low budget lifestyle. Japan could definitely be fun for everyone, but having a bit more money to spend gives you a lot more fun

About the places to live, Osaka imo is a very good choice. There are only two considerable choices for ppl like us coming to japan: Tokyo/Yokohama or Kansai. The other parts of Japan are also interesting and "very japanese" but it's way more difficult to hang out there as a foreigner and I guess it's also a bit less to do there..

Trying to answer your questions.. Things there are the most pricey here is all kinds of services and food (from my observations). Food, however is probably the highest quality you can get anywhere in the world and also Japanese is one of my favourites if not number 1, so I guess there's a lot of merit in the price. The services tend to be expensive coz Japan is no-immigrants country so they don't hire cheap labour force (like the do in Europe for example) to do the minor jobs, everything is done by the Japanese. Except for awesome food I love the general "convenience" or living here in every aspect and ofc I'm a big fan of Japanese women's beauty and style

If you have any more quesitons feel free to ask! I'll be back in Japan from January/February and will likely stay in Kobe (or Osaka),

very nice of you to write that 3card, thanks.

my biggest question right now just deals with legality. i absolutely hate bureaucracy (who doesn't?). i really just want to fly there, pass through customs and rent an apartment for a couple years and leave when im ready. i dont want to have to do other bull****, is that avoidable? i dont think i need a japanese bank account, don't want a car or to rent a car ever, i don't ever end up in jail doing dumb **** etc so if i lay low, is it a problem?

mexico has their doors wide open which is fantastic but i realize 1st world countries operate differently.

Temperatures are roughly the same as in Tokyo (close to freezing temps at night). If you want TJ weather, head to Okinawa, but the locals tend to be a bit weary of foreigners due to the US military presence there.

Osaka is more expensive than Tokyo housing wise if you're there short term, due to a lack of companies catering to foreign renters.

There are tons of serviced apartment companies in Tokyo where you can live in high standard (but small) apartments for your money.

Food is roughly the same in both cities, although there are maybe a bit more super low end restaurants catering to all the day laborers and homeless in Osaka.

Without a job, a company or being married, you already might get turned down at immigration on your second entry, if you already stayed for 90 days that year (highly depends on your luck).

If you hate bureaucracy, Japan might not be for you lol.

Okinawa is interesting, thanks for pointing that out. Idk if that would be a long term stay for me, but I might consider voyaging there during a winter perhaps if I make it up there.

Otherwise, ty for the info.


You may be totally right. Its that kind of thing that prevents me from unloading six figures into their economy, smh.. but I guess gov'ts figure its net +EV.

I'll look into this all soon myself to see if I can straighten something out, perhaps if there is an agency I can pay for some guidance/help. If I can, I really hope to be over there soon enough and hang out with some of y'all.

No cheap immigrant labour is not really true though. There are filipinos working in health care and cleaning industries and lots of young chinese people working low paying service jobs. You will most likely run into asian immigrants in Tokyo and Osaka but rest of Japan is pretty much immigrant free to my knowledge. I'm guessing you didn't notice because there aren't any sizable visible minorities in Japan. But Japan has 1mill+ immigrants so the statement no-immigrants country is false.

theskillazdatklls: you haven't even been to japan how do you know you will like it for years lol. Japan is a big NO when it comes to settling without paper work. It has been discussed a few times in this thread. If you got the cash and the freedom to come to japan and party for X days(whatever your passport allows you) do it, you will have a blast.