How I did it: I actually had a great time in Japan.  I lived in Kobe for a month in a normal neighborhood with my own apartment and everything.  It was massively culture-shocking to be immersed in Japanese life because it is orthogonal to Western culture in almost every way... so that's fun.  I liked being able to wear pajamas around town and not even look out of place or being able to buy excellent sushi at any grocery store or hearing sound effects from old Nintendo games as signals on the subway.

However, there are two big caveats to my recommendation to visit Japan.

Lessons & tips:

• Learn Japanese before you go

Ever wanted to experience the awkwardness of having people just repeat
their language over and over at you and treat you like a retard for not
understanding??  Japan is the place to go!


I didn't know Japanese before I went and that definitely limited my
experience.  People in Japan either don't know English or are too
shy/lazy to speak what little English they may know.  This includes
EVERYONE... even people working in hospitality and service industries. 
In many restaurants, there wouldn't even be any pictures or translations
on menus.  I literally pointed and hoped.


Before I went, I mistakenly thought I would be better off because I had
learned ~100 basic Japanese words.  Wrong!  That won't impress anyone
there.  They still just treat you like a retard.  My advice is to either
become 100% fluent or don't bother learning a single word.  Trying to
learn is a waste of time and will just confuse people you talk to.

• Japan is 150% the price of New York

Japan is great if you hate your own money.  You can destroy it here
quicker than anywhere on earth.  Look it up online, Tokyo and Osaka are
currently #1 and #2 out of every city on earth in the Mercer Cost of
Living Survey.  There's a good reason.


I did the math once and realized I was literally spending $70 every 12
hours to survive in Japan (more if you count my 150% NY price rent).


It wouldn't be a problem so much if I was going out on the town with
that money... but I wasn't.


$100+ every day for was for a basic survival budget... buying hotdogs
from the grocery store, doing everything myself, never splurging...


Imagine going out to eat at a cheap dump and spending $40 on noodles and rice and feeling like you just got a deal.  That's Japan.


God help you if you're one of those people who don't value-shop for
things.  Japan will eat you alive.  It's not an exaggeration to say that
you could easily spend $500/day just taking public transportation,
eating sub-par food, and living in a place that makes Best Western look
like Disney land.


In other words, Japan is the most (capitally) developed country on
earth.  Everything costs $0.01 less than the max price you would pay for
it at any turn.  I can't overstress this point enough.


And I'm actually a little bitter about it because I hated when other
people would only tell me about how expensive Japan was before I went.  I was determined to learn something else to talk about.  But I failed. 
It really is that terrible that even if you actively try to ignore the
price of being there at all cost, it is the only thing you can think
about some days unless you're richer than God.


I can't even imagine how rich you'd have to be before you would feel
financially comfortable there.  Now I understand why every Westerner
there breaks the law and teaches English on the side to earn $50/hr or
whatever.  You need to do that a few hours a day just to break even
there.

Resources: OK, rant over.  Japan is awesome... it's just that there is so much awkwardness and price-gouging that it's hard to remember much else.  Go visit, but try to limit your time there so you don't dwell on the
negatives too much.

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Sep 02, 01:20PM PDT | 2 comments | 4 cheers