Reflection
It’s been a while since I last posted about our move to Japan, honestly, it’s because we have been busy settling our affairs, getting the house in order, and of course trying to explore as much as possible.
The first couple of days after moving to Japan were hectic. We needed to install the internet, setup my cell phone and do all of our paperwork for registering with the town hall as well as insurance signup.
THANKFULLY we had our friend Mayuko with us who did almost everything for us. For which we are incredibly grateful.
For those of you who don’t know when you move to Japan regardless of the town / city you move into you need to register yourself with the town hall. This essentially is you saying “hey I live here, this is my address etc”. This will also sign you up for that prefectures health insurance, taxes and notifications.
It is MANDATORY you do this within I believe 14 days of moving in. Any longer and you could be fined or worse.
At the town hall they will ask you for your resident card which you get at the airport after you pass immigration. They take the card and stamp the towns information on the back and officially sign it. Once this is done it will be valid for use for opening bank accounts, registering health insurance etc. Without a town registration stamp on the back the card is valid but may not be accepted everywhere.
The whole registration process took about 1 hour to do. But again this is because we have an amazing friend who understands the requirements and is fast with doing paperwork. If you’re moving to Japan I highly recommend taking someone who can read, write and speak Japanese. It will help the process move so quickly. But please make sure that person has the entire day free since you don’t know what kind of delays can happen.
Once we registered we headed to Costco to get BULK items for our house. Mostly toilet paper and cleaning products. We don’t have the space for food or at least bulk food. It was about a 2 hour drive, so not something we’ll be doing every weekend.
The week ended and Mayuko needed to go back to school, so we said our goodbyes and thank yous’. We were now on our own!
After about a week or so of debating we decided that due to our location and our dogs it was necessary for us to get a car. We do have a train that comes hourly but due to the size of our dogs they are not permitted to ride on the train. So if anything happened or if we needed or wanted to take them somewhere then we’d be out of options.
So the hunt for the car began.
Honestly in Japan used cars are relatively affordable. Ranging between $500usd to $3000usd. The only catch is they need something called a “Shaken” which essentially is insurance for 2 years. The Shaken covered collision but not voluntary coverage. So if someone gets hurt then its covered but the car wont be replaced.
We found a car for $750usd which was the perfect size for us. Cars are classified as regular or KEI. We got a KEI car which allowed us to get it without a garage certificate etc. SO many the process so much easier.
Having a car and the ability to transport ourselves opened so much other options for us. And kind of swayed my apprehension to where we were living.
Another issue or personal feeling was the lack of communication between our neighbors and our family. None of the neighbors spoke English which is understandable but none of them also wanted to use the translator apps. So that honestly left us in an isolated situation. Don’t get me wrong, we can understand some of the language but responding is the hard part. Because of this it was making difficult to adapt or at least for me.
Until one day I was walking our dog in the morning and a man approached me. I told him the regular “ohayougozaimasu” and nodded. He gave me an intrigued look and I asked him if he spoke English. To my extreme surprise he responded with a yes. We quickly became friends and it was nice to be able to have someone in the neighborhood who I could talk to.
After getting to know the family a little better he introduced us to some of the other neighbors and to some of the others that spoke English. Ironically we were surrounded by English speakers and we had no idea.
For me personally this changed my feeling towards where we were living. It shined some light on what I thought would be a difficult process for my brother and I. As we loved living outside of the major cities but thought it would become difficult for us to adapt if we couldn’t communicate. Essentially there would have been no or a lack of community in our lives.
Bringing us to the current.
I love our little town, I like the people who live around us and I think our dogs are enjoying themselves for the most part. I am still learning about a lot of things, like snakes, raccoons etc as we didn’t have these things in Hawaii. And these small aspects of life have been HUGE changes for me.
My recommendation to those who are planning on moving to Japan or are just dreaming about it. Take the plunge. But do what my brother and I did. Find a rural part of Japan that is surrounded by “bigger” cities and towns so that you have the convenience of life without the overcrowding issue. Learn some Japanese, plan on getting some type of transportation whether that be a bike, car or scooter. And try your best to speak to whomever wants to talk to you as you’ll never know whats around you until you try.
I had my doubts about our town and home the first day. Especially after the car ride in at night. But after the last month has passed, I think I can say confidently that I am so happy here and I can probably see myself living here for a long time.
