living in Japan
Out of context: Reply #17
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- heathen0
PeterH hit it spot on. The housing system here is incredibly wacky and infuriates me to no end. Outright racist and unnecessary-borderline-illegal-p... customs make things really really expensive/difficult when you start out here or if you plan on moving around.
However, I've been in Tokyo now for about 2.5 years, and its been such a rad experience. I started off teaching and now doing an IT stint at a uni to improve my japanese. teaching is definitely the easiest way in, and learning the language is a must if you want to do anything else.... unless you are super specialized and/or work for an international company.
In bigger cities like Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, etc... you could get by without any Japanese pretty easily. i know plenty of people who've lived here for years and done just that. BUT, you'd be shocked at how very little english is actually spoken by the general population. They learn it as children and can generally understand it, but don't expect an answer back in English.