Job Discussion Forums

[Furansesu]

Greeting Gaijins!

I've signed my life away to Peppy's Kids Club, due to come out in May and I have some questions I was hoping could be cleared up! I won't ask specifically about Peppy's but if anyone has any knowlege/experience of them or is also starting in May, please PM me!

1) The encephalitis jab.....who actually bothered to get it before going to Japan? The price puts me off!

2) Is 250,000 yen/month sufficient to live on AND save approx �150/month (I know this has been asked alot already AND it is lifestyle dependent but the recession talk makes me very nervous)

3) Of the English speakers out there, is any one country better represented than others?

4) For fellow Brits, where can you buy voltage converters? All the shops I've been to have told me Japan runs on the same voltage as Britain (approx 230)....that's a blatant lie surely?

Thank you!

[seklarwia]

What are you taking that you will require a voltage convertor for?

Laptops power supplies here can take inputs of 100-240V and 50-60Hz which means all you will need is a plug convertor.

Things such as hairdryers could be a problem and might best be bought when you arrive instead of brought from the UK.

I will have to buy a new power block for my xbox360 though since the ones here take only 200-240V input current

And the jab... I asked about it too and my travel doc said that it wasn't really required an that although serious, quite rare. I'm not so hot on forking over close to �100 for it either. It's so expensive here because no normal GPs or hospitals actually stock the jab. She did say that sometimes it is actually cheaper to get location specific jabs in those countries. I don't know whether that is case for Japan, but it has certainly been the case with other jabs that I have had such has hep B (which was a series of 3 jabs costing �30 each here but totaling �20 when I had it done in China).

[Furansesu]

Laptop, heater, hair straightners, hair dryer, DVD player....the usual! Laptop was the big concern...as I've been told you can mess it up forever using the wrong voltage. (I don't really understand the physics of electricity so I find all this hard to comprehend - it might as well be magic to me).

[seklarwia]

I'm thinking it will be safer to just get most of those in country. I've seen some incidents when you try to mess with things like hair straighteners and dryers. An as for heaters... how are you planning to fit any clothes with all that in your luggage? We only get 20kg hold luggage in eco and 1 piece of hand luggage!

I just checked every laptop power supply in my house (that means 5) and despite the make they all have the same specs that I listed above. If you are unsure, just read the underside of yours. Where it says "input" it have the should read the same.

[Glenski]

1) The encephalitis jab.....who actually bothered to get it before going to Japan? The price puts me off!
Not me. It's not required. Or is it for Brits?

2) Is 250,000 yen/month sufficient to live on AND save approx �150/month (I know this has been asked alot already AND it is lifestyle dependent but the recession talk makes me very nervous)
Right now 150 pounds is 20,400 yen. If someone can't save that paltry amount, then they are a terrible spendthrift here. Figure that from a 250,000 yen/month salary, half goes to rent, food, utilities, phone/Internet, and insurance. What you do with the other half is up to you. Go out drinking casually for 2 nights a week, and you will burn 50,000 yen/month, leaving you with 75,000 yen. Bank 20,000 yen right away, and you still have 55,000 yen for other things.

3) Of the English speakers out there, is any one country better represented than others?
[b]USA probably, but the UK and Australia are well represented. Sometimes it is region-specific. Does it matter?

4) For fellow Brits, where can you buy voltage converters? All the shops I've been to have told me Japan runs on the same voltage as Britain (approx 230)....that's a blatant lie surely?
[b]Japan runs on 100 volts. Depending on the region, the more important item is the Hertz (50 or 60 Hz).
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2225.html
http://kropla.com/electric2.htm

[Furansesu]

Thank you both so much! My input says 19V - 7.9A? Who knows? Might just suck it and see.

The jab's not required and even the travel nurse couldn't say whether it was worth it or not, I just have overprotective parents.

Nationalities doesn't matter really, I've just spent the last 23 years in the UK and want to meet as many 'foreigners' as I can....and the Aussie accent can melt a girl's heart.

[seklarwia]

You just read the output Believe me you would have burnt down your house already otherwise.
Unless your laptop is older than I am and you carry it around in a huge wheely case, your power supply will work fine over there. You just need a convertor to go from UK 3 pin to Japan 2 pin plug (which I do believe is the same a the US 2 pin plug - you lucky people) I've only seen the occasional desktop pc that has required an input voltage much higher than avaliable in Japan.

[Apsara]

Just because it is called Japanese encephalitis, does not mean that it is rampant in Japan in 2009. The name is a hold over from the WW2 era- you do not need a vaccination against it in modern Japan. I've been here for 11 years and certainly haven't caught it, nor have I ever heard of anyone catching it. Do make sure you have been vaccinated against measles as Japanese children are not routinely vaccinated and there are frequent outbreaks here which cause some schools and universities to close for several days from time to time. Chances are you were vaccinated as a child.

If you plan to travel to South-East Asia, China etc. while here you might want to look at getting a Hepatitis A jab, as it is food and water-borne and common enough that you could actually even catch it at home. The jab is available here too of course. Even if you travel to SE Asia, India etc. the Japanese encephalitis jab isn't really necessary, or there are other jabs that are more important if you were having the full set done (typhoid, polio booster, rabies etc.)

Why on earth would you bring something like a heater with you? Buy one here second hand, or even new- electronics aren't that expensive here, and sell it on when you leave. Consider the same for the hairdryer etc- they are all available here and you won't need to buy a whole lot of plug adaptors or keep changing them over. It's going to start warming up soon anyway, you won't need it again until november at the earliest unless you are going to the far north.

People from English-speaking countries are represented about in proportion to the populations of their countries, with perhaps Aussies a bit more so and Brits a bit less. This means that the place is crawling with Americans and non-Asian foreigners are usually presumed American until proven innocent (Please don't get offended, Glenski, I'm just joking, really )

[seklarwia]

Good point.

If you haven't already, go and get you polio, hep A and typhoids boosters done again. Its just one jab (at least I only remember one in 2007 it might have been 2...), lasts for upto 10 years and it is free.
And as long as you did have the MMR you should be good for measles, but do check with your parents if you don't know. I remember many of my classmates' parents didn't allow them to have it for various reasons.