Job Discussion Forums

[skarp]

There are some FAQs - sorry to ask for an update on them.

Very simple and specific question.

How much do you spend a month in Tokyo?

(Not counting rent, bills and travel to work costs)

Basically - it's food, an occasional night out to the cinema or similar, travel to visit interesting local places or to attend job interviews.

The question is specific to Tokyo. I guess that is the most expensive place.


I guess if people in Tokyo take their monthly net salary - deduct rent, bills and savings it would give me the info I need.

Thanks

Skarp

[Glenski]

Figure on 30,000 yen/month for food, so that's about 7500 yen/week, not including snacks. A Coke is 120-150 yen, or if you hit a sale, it could be 88-100 yen. Potato chips run 80-250 yen per bag (or even higher if you buy the full size can of Pringles).

Rental videos have their weekly specials and their cheaper prices for releases that have been on the shelf a while just like back home. Plan on spending an average of 300 yen per movie rental.

Taking a subway or train downtown will cost money, of course. How much depends on where you live, but figure on a ROUGH average of 500 yen one way. Taxis start at about 650 yen.

Now that you're downtown, plan on entrance fees to museums at anywhere from 500-1500 yen, depending on the exhibition.

Want to eat out? Regular family style restaurants like Royal Host, Skylark, or Gusto will serve a basic meal for 800-1000 yen. If you want to take in a stand-up soba or ramen shop, you will pay maybe 600 yen per bowl. McDonalds is McDonalds, and the other fast food joints serve food at roughly the same costs. Big Mac meal (or similar) will be 550 yen to 800 yen.

Movies will run you 1700 yen each unless you go to the very first or very last show of the day, in which case you could pay 1000 yen. Snacks are extra, of course.

Looking to hit the bars? You could pay nothing to get in, or you might have to pay the charm charge of 4000-10,000 just to get a seat (maybe also pay for your first drink). Figure on 1000-2000 yen for a cheap night out thereafter, depending on how long you stay and what you eat/drink. All-you-can-eat (tabehodai) or all-you-can-drink (nomihodai) places exist, but they serve for limited periods of time.

Now that you have eaten and drunk your share, watch the clock. If you miss the last train/subway home at midnight or so, you will be faced with how to get home. Taxi fares usually double after midnight, so you might have to shell out 2000-5000 yen just to be taken home. Overall, a month of going out twice per week with moderate drinking will cost you 30,000 to 50,000 yen per month. This is an extremely conservative figure but based on real experience.

Going to job interviews.
Again, transportation varies with distance. You might get lucky and have to spend only 200 yen for a subway ride, or you might have to pay a lot more for a subway ride, plus a bus ride, plus a taxi. Who can say how much this will be? A conservative estimate is 1000-1500 yen round trip. (One extra tip: since street addresses are not assigned like they are back home, you can't expect a string of buildings with consecutive numbers. Plan ahead to find that employer so you don't get lost and show up late.)
Have you made photocopies of your resume to take along? A 2-pager will run maybe 20 yen at the convenience store (not the best quality photocopy, though).
Need to dry clean that suit? You are looking at 1500 yen or so unless you hit the shop on a bargain day.
Need a haircut? Ok, you can get a dirt cheap one for 800-1000 yen but I wouldn't recommend it. Figure at least 2000-2500 yen for a simple cut.

[bearcat]

Rent in places in Tokyo will run you 700-1000 a month depending on where and how much space you desire.

Utilities will run you 200+ a month depending on your water, gas, phone, and electric consumption.

Food will run 300-400 if you eat from home. Add 200 to that if you eat out all the time. (average meal cost is about 6-10)

As glen mentioned with transportation above, keep in mind most companies will reimburse you for travel expenses... thus its not really an expense.

Entertainment glen covered decently enough.

So as a rough guesstimate, you're expenses will run 1200-1700 a month depending on how conservatively you live.

[lajzar]

bearcat, I'm taking a wild guess here, but I don'T think those prices are in yen.The previous poster is apparently in Korea, but I believe even less that those prices are in won.

Perhaps I have missed something, but I don't think the OP has given any hint as to what his native curency is. Certainly, no more hint that you did in your post.

[PAULH]

[vash3000]

To be honest, I think an average individual`s 250,000 YEN salary would pretty much be eaten up in Tokyo.

I don`t live there, but if I did ... I think you`d need to make closer to 350,000 Yen to be able to save anything (say around 1K U$ a month).

Of course, you can live on next to nothing, virtually anywhere, but I wouldn`t recommend it.

I would think that living in abject poverty in Tokyo would just suck.

Best,
V.

[shmooj]

[sonician]

I live here with my finacee (also from Canada) and we both work for Nova. She works full-time and I work part-time (and add an extra 20 classes of OT per month.. three extra days work).
Between us, we send home about Y250,000/month (about $3000Cdn) and live on the rest.
Our breakdown is as follows (all numbers per month.):
Rent Y90,000
Electricity Y3500-4500 (depending on the time of year)
Water (combined) Y3500
Cellphone Y4000-5000
Internet (10mb Cable) Y4000
Gas Y3500

We love going to the Shop 99, a Y99 grocery store. Everything is Y99. You really can't beat it. Why people go shopping anywhere other than a place like that is beyond me. We spend Y12000 per month on groceries there, and that's on the high end.
The only other grocery shopping we do is hitting Costco in Makuhari once a month. We spend about Y10,000-12,000 and it lasts us for the month.
Why buy Cokes for Y120-150 when Costso has 24-can flats for about Y1000?
Costco also has delivery which is always on time and a great rate Y400 per 30kg box)

So far, we still have Y160,000+ left over for whatever else... movies, dinners, travel, etc. (about Y5000/day.. and we only go out once a week.)
This month we're even going to Seoul for five days and it's only costing us about half the remainder.

As far as transportation in the city, I've never spend more than Y450 one-way, and that took me well over an hour (and two transfers).
If you want to cheap it, get the children's ticket. Not totally honest I suppose, but it's never a problem.

There's lots of options for cheap eats. One place near where I live has all-you-can-drink from 6pm-midnight for Y580. No beer, just spirits, but what a great time with a group of people.

There's tons of ways to be smart about things when living here. I've calculated that on a per month basis, it's a bit cheaper to live here than in Canada!
If you have any other questions, feel free to message me.

[Glenski]

Living near a Costco, living with another person, ... both great ways to save money, but not always possible. Not trying to be negative here, just realistic.

Look at my earlier thread on "cheapskates" if you want more tips on saving money (both sensible and hilarious).