Job Discussion Forums

[maryknight]

yes, i'm very picky when it comes to bedding. i am pretty easy to please
on everything else. can i get a good quality pillowtop mattress in japan? i like the new thing in the US----pillow top mattresses that are soft but provide suppport because of what's under them. i'm coming alone and will just need a twin bed. and i realize i'll have to buy it myself.
i really appreciate answers to my seemingly silly question----i had a chronic pain condition and this is something that is a need for me (lest you think i'm some sort of high maintenance chick!)

[JimDunlop2]

Yes, you can get this.... But do be prepared to shell out BIG bucks for it.

Furniture, in true Japanese Zen fashion is both really expensive and really cheap. Japanese-style furnishing (what you would likely find in a tatami-mat room, e.g. low furniture) is usually quite reasonably priced. But any sort of "Western" furniture: beds, couches, table and chair sets, come at a premium.

My wife, who also suffers from chronic back pain, has found relief from one of those orthopaedic-foam pads that are about an inch thick. You know the ones that you hit with your fist, they're as dense and hard as a rock, but it you push your hand into it slowly it retains the outline shape of your hand? Those can usually be had for 10 to 20,000 yen. A regular matress though? Last time I was in the furniture shop, I think I remember seeing them for about 100,000 and up. <shudder>

[abufletcher]

For years my American-Mexican kids slept on futons. But nearly every one of their Japanese friends slept on a bed. However, "bed" in Japan doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as bed in the US. In Japan a bed can be little more than a raised platform that's just as hard as the floor.

I'll also mention that I find the mountainous pile of springs and foam costing hundreds and hundreds of dollars that most Americans take to be a necessity of life to be one of the silliest things I've even seen.

[maryknight]

yeah, i seem to need one of those american spring pillow top and all that mattresses.
please tell me what 100,000 yen is in dollars.
my husband just told me he wants a divorce and-----i'd planned to go to japan before i met him. i got a tefl two years ago.
thanks!

[earthmonkey]

[Gordon]

[abufletcher]

I'd say that what you'll sleep on when and if you find a job in Japan is the very least of your worries at this point.

On a brighter note, Mary you seem to be extremely upbeat about it all (in Japanese we'd say "genki") and that alone with get you a long long way in the Japan EFL scene.

[madeira]

See if you can find a pad to put on top of a bed or futon here that you can live with, as suggested...

If you can't, I'd plan on having a bed shipped over. (Yes, expensive, but if you need it, you need it. Ask for a quote from a furniture shop. Should be less than a grand to ship by sea.)

One other thing... how are you about pillows? I need 100% down, and soft. Even medium is OK. No got here. Also, if you bring a bed, buy sheets for it at home. The selection here is dismal. Down duvets are everywhere, and pretty cheap, though.

[abufletcher]

[Gordon]

I'm with abu here. Look if you NEED anything as extravagant as down comforters and beautyrest spring mattresses or whatever, perhaps you should reconsider living anywhere outside of your country. You will be forced to change your lifestyle enormously.

[abufletcher]

Just as long as I can get my Downy fabric softener strips from Foreign Buyer's Club, I can survive.

[Gordon]

[madeira]

The 'local population' has been pretty happy to get the pillows I've brought over as gifts. I get more requests every time I go to NA. Sometimes there are just unexploited markets out there.

Anyhow, unless you're one of the 'anti-globalisation' people, you're not buying a lot of local stuff. Locally available, but not locally produced. The furniture I bought had samples at the shop, but was shipped from Portugal for me. The carpets were ordered from a US company, made in Iran... but shipped from the UK. Still cheaper than buying direct from a shop in Tokyo. A (Japanese) friend just redid all the plumbing in his house and replaced the fixtures. It was cheaper to order from Canada.

Electricity, gas, food, sulphur, (paint/plastics) steel, wood... we're basically 'ordering' them shipped over. Even traditional goods, like paper and soba are basically imported. Japan doesn't produce enough buckwheat or mulberry.

So, maybe for some products, you end up being a market of one. No big deal. If you want it and you've got the cash, why not order it? Maybe people just haven't seen the product yet, and don't know that they really do want it.

I could probably sell a ton of pillows!

[abufletcher]

I don't disagree. I just meant that expats can go overboard on bringing what they see as bigger and better coals to supposedly "primative" Newcastles.

But generally speaking to live happily in another country you've got to accept that most of the things you'll need need to be locally purchasable -- even if they are manufactured elsewhere.

Who knows, maybe eventually everyone who's wealthy enough will want to sleep on one of those enormous palaces of springs and foam that Americans call "beds."

[Gordon]

Madeira, I am talking about NEEDS. People who say they have to have this or that when they plan to live in a foreign country, shouldn't go to that place. Medications excepted, there are very few "Needs" that we can't forego when we live elsewhere.