city gaijin vs. country gaijin

[ttjereth]

Did a search and didn't find this on here (but the search feature doesn't allow exact phrase searches so I gave up pretty quick:D) so forgive me if this has been posted before.

Which is the better place for "gaijin" residents to reside? In one of Japan's never-ending cities? Or out somewhere amidst the plains and mountains of the Japanese countryside?

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20060701td.html

Thought it was interesting if a bit of a stupid format for an "article". I'm definitely all for the country. I live in Tokyo now, but I hate it. It's noisy, crowded, dirty, expensive, small accomodations, most of the people are shitheads, etc. etc.

I'm from the city back home, but I'm looking forward to moving back out to the boondocks here in Japan ASAP.

[kusai Jijii]

I did over a decade living in Osaka. I really enjoyed it as a single guy, but packed up 12 months ago and moved out to the country (greater Kinki area). Our kids seem much happier out here - they can have more of a similar childhood to the one I experienced in Oz. Its cleaner. The food prices and quality are much better. The people are great. The local school is a zillion times better than the one they attended in Osaka. The pace is slower. In a good way. I'm so glad we made the move.
Horses for courses of course. But I for one think Japanese rural life offers the gaijin the best of both worlds - all of the stuff we like about Japan (food, piss, warm people / goats (for Boothie;) )without too much of the shit we dont (noise, drunk saleryman cunts on crowded trains, pushing obachans etc).
Each to their own I guess.
But I for one thank God I'm a (newish) country - er I mean Inaka - boy!:cheers:

[Gilligan]

I think to give justice to the question, we need to get a clear definition of "country". Knowing where KJ lives, I'm not sure I would refer to it as country, although I know it would absolutely be called "inaka" in Japanese.

My idea of country would be much more something like middle of nowhere Aomori, while anything within an hour train ride of a metropolitan area I would consider the suburbs. Given those definitions, I would consider the suburbs the best place to live in Japan--as KJ said, best of both worlds.

[succubusqueen]

Well I live in Tsukuba...and Its inaka enough...It's quite boring, but if a person is looking for a wild party animal life...Tsukuba is not the place. On the other hand it is quiet...(except for my squizo neighbour) and I have all the things I need first hand.

So yes...Im an Inaka gaijin!!;)

[Takechanpoo]

Although I am not gaijin, I live in suburb , neither city nor country.
Everything is like desert.
you gaijins better not live in Tokyo suburb.

[canman]

My urban brothers and sisters. Sure living out in Aomori, might seem nice, but just wait until you want to buy a textbook, and the nearest English bookstore is in Sendai, 400km or a Y16000 shinkansen ride. Don't get me wrong, I would never want to live in or even around Tokyo, but there are a lot of advantages that we don't have here. I would love to be able to take my family to more museums and galleries, but they just don't exist. Also don't forget that whenever we want to travel, we must add the cost of getting to Tokyo to our travel costs. For us that is another Y30 000 per person, just to Tokyo.

[FG Lurker]

I love the convenience and opportunities of city life, but I also love fresh air and peace&quiet.

So I live in Osaka, but from March to October I spend long weekends etc on an island in the inland sea. It gives me enough "inaka time" to keep me balanced but I don't have the inconveniences of actually living there.

If I had to choose just one or the other I would stay in the city -- I start to go stir crazy after about a week without the stimulation of city life.

[Visitor K]

i lived in what i consider to be "the suburbs" of osaka (wakayama city) for one year, and i really enjoyed it, then i moved to tokyo and lived there for two years. i enjoyed tokyo, but i would never consider moving there again, i much prefer the suburbs or "inaka" as the japanese are want to call it.
it might have something to do with the whole kansai-jin thing, but i found the people there much more friendly and open. living in the countryside was great for practicing japanese, except when i moved to tokyo everybody laughed at my wakayama-ben (a trully strange dialect.. onaka ga okii???).
with the public transportation system in japan, it is easy to live in a comfortable area and still have access to the city. i am not a driver, so i could never live out in the countryside back in the states, but in japan it is fully possible.

[FG Lurker]

For us that is another Y30 000 per person, just to Tokyo.

Man, I thought it sucked getting down to KIX. 20 minute taxi ride and 30 minutes on the train...

[james]

i'm out in rural shimane.. uhm.. not that there's much of shimane that couldn't be considered so.

i'm in the middle of the san-in mountain range at an elevation of 500m above sea-level. we get a buttload of snow too. the weather here is actually quite similar to aomori in the winter.

the closest metropolitan area is matsue (about 200,000 people), about an hour away by car on back roads. there is literally a big manure pile maybe 20m from our property line, if that. our town has a population of about 7,900 and declining, despite my best efforts.

there are definite advantages to being out here. it's spacious (relatively), clean, people are polite though rather provincial at times, and for the most part it's safe. it's great if you like animals too. it's just like raoul's wild kingdom here at times. weasels, lizards, snakes, wild boar, the occasional monkey, millions of frogs (literally) and lots of bigass bugs.

i can definitely empathize with the disadvantages though. just getting to KIX to fly home is a four or five hour trek. not much in the way of foreign goods.. hell for awhile i *was* the foreign goods. no night life, the nearest mcdicks or mos burger is an hour away, and i've all but given up on ever finding anything i need here in town. no privacy whatsoever, especially as *the* visible minority.

having a decent internet connection out here has been a lifeline. shopping, calling friends, getting info.. i'd be long gone mentally without it.

i think what it comes down to though is finding a lifestyle that suits you..

edit: and yeah, the dialect out here is.. rustic

[GomiGirl]

My urban brothers and sisters. Sure living out in Aomori, might seem nice, but just wait until you want to buy a textbook, and the nearest English bookstore is in Sendai, 400km or a Y16000 shinkansen ride.

Isn't that what Amazon is for?

[unkosando]

I used to live in Ikebukuro which was a totally shithole! My girlfriend (now wife) used to live in Ebisu which was fantastic!! As for tokyo if you have tons of money and live in nice interesting area it can be great.

I think if we moved back now I would pick somewhere in Kansai. The people are way cooler than the average Tokyo-jin (read cunt).

The country would be nice but I am afraid I would get bored in a week.

[ttjereth]

I think to give justice to the question, we need to get a clear definition of "country". Knowing where KJ lives, I'm not sure I would refer to it as country, although I know it would absolutely be called "inaka" in Japanese.

My idea of country would be much more something like middle of nowhere Aomori, while anything within an hour train ride of a metropolitan area I would consider the suburbs. Given those definitions, I would consider the suburbs the best place to live in Japan--as KJ said, best of both worlds.

I think anything that the Japanese would call Inaka is fair enough. Otherwise if you wanted to get really specific ranking by population maybe.

I think if you are in walking distance of a good number of rice patties/farms you can safely consider yourself inaka.

[ttjereth]

[quote="succubusqueen"]Well I live in Tsukuba...and Its inaka enough...It's quite boring, but if a person is looking for a wild party animal life...Tsukuba is not the place. On the other hand it is quiet...(except for my squizo neighbour) and I have all the things I need first hand.

So yes...Im an Inaka gaijin!!]

Tsukuba was actually one of the places we were considering building a house, because of the new(ish) train line to Tokyo.

[tidbits]

I am too used to the city life, I used to love everything that is 24 hours (or till late hours) business-convinient store, vending machine, restaurant, petrol station, cafe & pubs, I am still complaining the shopping mall here close too early. Used to love that every second counts and which train wagon you take matters when go to work. Now I have kid, so I can't enjoy the city that never sleep, but I still prefer city than country. I have never been to every city in Japan, but the nice looking small city of Kobe or the spacious Sapporo in the north is good enough for me now.

[ttjereth]

My urban brothers and sisters. Sure living out in Aomori, might seem nice, but just wait until you want to buy a textbook, and the nearest English bookstore is in Sendai, 400km or a Y16000 shinkansen ride. Don't get me wrong, I would never want to live in or even around Tokyo, but there are a lot of advantages that we don't have here. I would love to be able to take my family to more museums and galleries, but they just don't exist. Also don't forget that whenever we want to travel, we must add the cost of getting to Tokyo to our travel costs. For us that is another Y30 000 per person, just to Tokyo.

http://www.amazon.co.jp

The world of online retail tends to eliminate most all fears I have about not being able to get some specific product or another, on top of that, I think you'd have to work pretty hard to actually be somewhere 400km from a bookstore

Museums don't factor in for me, because we never go even living in Tokyo. I've been to Ueno and seen the signs for a 3 hour wait and such enough that I have sort of just given up on going to the museum as being all that feasible here.

The haul to Tokyo is definately a minus though. When I lived in Tochigi that extra 3 hours was a real killer after the already less-than-fun flight back from the U.S.

[ttjereth]

Isn't that what Amazon is for?

Beat me to it!:D

[ttjereth]

I used to live in Ikebukuro which was a totally shithole! My girlfriend (now wife) used to live in Ebisu which was fantastic!! As for tokyo if you have tons of money and live in nice interesting area it can be great.

I think if we moved back now I would pick somewhere in Kansai. The people are way cooler than the average Tokyo-jin (read cunt).

The country would be nice but I am afraid I would get bored in a week.

That is another big factor for me. Tokyo is just too damn expensive. I want a house, since I'm going to be hear for years and years yet anyway, and it's just not feasible in Tokyo.

Boredom doesn't factor in for me, because I am a homebody anyway, and since I am fairly easily amused it's not so bad. I am more than happy to spend a night bowling, at the movies, at local festivals that aren't disgustingly overcrowded or shooting pool or something, which are all available near (within an hour drive) of all the areas we are thinking of moving. In fact, I actually had more of a social life when I lived out in the boondocks, than since moving to Tokyo

[kusai Jijii]

[quote="ttjereth"]
I think if you are in walking distance of a good number of rice patties/farms you can safely consider yourself inaka. ]

By that definition, I'm definately inaka. Other criteria (that I fall into) might include...
-having a tractor drive up your street once a day
-seeing frogs and snakes in your back garden
-not being able to live comfortably without a car at your disposal
-your neighbour's back yard is by far the best place to party / drink on a saturday night anywhere within a 5 Km radius of your house
-you become "pussy-struck" by all the young trout when you go into town.
etc..etc..

All that being said, I still work in a major metropolitan city and commute to work on the express train. So I guess I'm not that inaka.

[ichigo partygirl]

I've lived in real inaka on the shores of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture and I've lived in Yokohama. I am a city girl all the way. If i want to escape the city and get some quite time or fresh air yada yada i will catch a train for an hour or so. I'd much rather have the trappings of city life than the peacefulness of the country. I also found being a gaijin much easier in Yokohama - in Shiga i was a rare sight and always stuck out like a sore thumb. I guess i might think differently if i had a family but the single life is a hell of a lot of fun in the big smoke.

[TennoChinko]

If you have the money, then living in a neighborhood like Azabu-Juban in Tokyo is awesome. And, that's what where I am right now. I've also had friends who reported comfortable compromises in places just outside the Yamanote Line like near Toritsudaigaku Station, Shimokitazawa, or Yoyogi Uehara. The area near Todai (Nezu, Yushima etc in Bunkyo-ku) is also a nice off-radar choice).

Having to live in some grey concrete pachinkofied jungle - whether it's in East Tokyo, the suburbs or some industrial provincial town or city - sucks beyond all belief.

If it's the country, then only in some place where the living, scenery and lifestyle are awesome. I've met people who try and take advantage of both worlds. They live in Shimoda, Zushi, Karuizawa or Chiba (the nice part called "Boso" - not the flat shitty grey part that includes Narita and Chiba City etc) and manage to get their firms to reimburse their commuting expenses.

[Greji]

you gaijins better not live in Tokyo suburb.

Why might that be Take? I've lived in the kogai longer than you and have no difficulty with it, although I find it strangely lacking in its goat population.

[james]

By that definition, I'm definately inaka. Other criteria (that I fall into) might include...
-having a tractor drive up your street once a day
-seeing frogs and snakes in your back garden
-not being able to live comfortably without a car at your disposal
-your neighbour's back yard is by far the best place to party / drink on a saturday night anywhere within a 5 Km radius of your house
-you become "pussy-struck" by all the young trout when you go into town.
etc..etc..

All that being said, I still work in a major metropolitan city and commute to work on the express train. So I guess I'm not that inaka.

you sure you're not out here in shimane near me? you just exactly described where i live, without being here.

[TennoChinko]

Although I am not gaijin, I live in suburb , neither city nor country.
Everything is like desert.
you gaijins better not live in Tokyo suburb.

If "Tokyo suburb" means most parts of Saitama, Chiba, and Kawasaki, you're probably right.

However, if you mean to include Yokohama or areas off the Sobu/Chuo line like Kichijoji, Hachioji, Mitaka etc... I'd say you're mistaken.

[Iraira]

While I have never lived in the hardcore inaka, where one wakes up and can see their milk supply unit grazing in the field, the country folks are much more friendly than the Tokyo folks. I lived in deep Kanagawa for awhile, a good twenty minute walk from the closest station (gasp!) and my neighbors there were a heck of a lot more friendly than the people I live around now (Nakano-Shinjuku border). Had more friendly conversations with my neighbors in the old barrio than now, and I seriously doubt that I could even speak a clear concise sentence in Japanese back then.

[canman]

You have never tried to choose a new textbook for a more than 200 students before. You just can't go online and look at the title. You have to pick up the book read through it, look at the exercises and the like. Publishers will only send you so many sample copies, and even though they have great sales reps who are very knowledgeable and offer great advice, I feel the teacher has to choose which book suits him or her and their teaching style the best.
That said, I do enjoy living in a smaller city, where many people know me, and its easy to get around, and the people are truly friendly, and warm hearted.

[American Oyaji]

You have never tried to choose a new textbook for a more than 200 students before. You just can't go online and look at the title. You have to pick up the book read through it, look at the exercises and the like. Publishers will only send you so many sample copies, and even though they have great sales reps who are very knowledgeable and offer great advice, I feel the teacher has to choose which book suits him or her and their teaching style the best.
That said, I do enjoy living in a smaller city, where many people know me, and its easy to get around, and the people are truly friendly, and warm hearted.

Sorry Can, I love Hachinohe. It's my kokoro no furusato. Just city enough to satisfy the american in me, but country enough to soothe me.

[ttjereth]

By that definition, I'm definately inaka. Other criteria (that I fall into) might include...
-having a tractor drive up your street once a day
-seeing frogs and snakes in your back garden
-not being able to live comfortably without a car at your disposal
-your neighbour's back yard is by far the best place to party / drink on a saturday night anywhere within a 5 Km radius of your house
-you become "pussy-struck" by all the young trout when you go into town.
etc..etc..

All that being said, I still work in a major metropolitan city and commute to work on the express train. So I guess I'm not that inaka.

It's fairly easy to commute on express/shinkansen trains from a lot of pretty inaka places anymore, so I wouldn't say that disqualifies you.

My wife (who has Tokyo in her bones) plans on commuting from the place we are thinking of in Tochigi, and that's a two hour train ride one way

[ttjereth]

If you have the money,

I don't

[dimwit]

Was up in Tokyo last weekend and I can't see how most of you survive it. Yeah you can everything but the commute is a royal pain and the price of a pint is outrageous.