|
Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
|
 Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 5:37 am Post subject: |
 |
|
| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
Most EFL teachers pay 50,000 or 60,000 a month or more for accommodations. A 1k would not be 'comfortable' for most foreigners- except of course the kind that are rarely there. |
Honestly, this really depends on where someone lives. My first 3 years in Japan, I paid 35,000/mo for a 2DK *house* (not apt.) (in a small town of 30,000 people), and then for another 4 years I paid 45,000/mo for a 3DK apartment (in a city of 350,000 people). Granted, both places were in the middle of nowhere in Tohoku, both buildings were somewhat old, and this was between 2000 and 2007, but still, it can depend a lot on where someone is living. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
dove
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Posts: 271
Location: USA/Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 8:44 am Post subject: |
|
|
| If you earn a low wage like that and if you expect to pay back any debts you might have (and possibly save any of your income), you will need to have a low-rent apartment. You will need to have your transportation paid by your employer (very likely). You will need to be creative and find ways to enjoy your life in expensive Japan that don't break the bank. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:29 pm Post subject: |
|
|
rtm,
This thread is about Ashikaga specifically. Ashikaga isn't in Tohoku. It's in Tochigi Prefecture. That's the north end of Kanto. Plus, it's a city, not a tiny town, in the southern part of Tochigi. It's more expensive than Tohoku. So, again,
| GambateBingBangBOOM's first post in this thread wrote: |
if your definition of live comfortably includes:
- having more than one really small room in your apartment
- being able to go out to an inexpensive bar (similar to the $5 a beer kind) a couple of times a week (for a COUPLE of drinks- not getting super-drunk!), or a little bit more expensive kind (the almost $10 a pint kind) once a week and still be able to pay off at least a bit of your student loans.
-not fairly seriously debating with yourself as to whether or not you can afford it when you're really hungry and you pass a McDonalds (assuming that the debate isn't about health things) or even a $2 sandwich from 7/11 when it's coming up to pay-day.
-some sort of internet in your home (but not cable/ satellite TV)
- a cell phone plan that actually does mail (if your cell phone doesn't do mail, you can expect to have almost zero social life in Japan)
- joining clubs / meeting people and going on dates etc
(in other words the kind of life that up until recently pretty much all foreigners were able to lead)
Then the answer is, "No. You won't be able to live comfortably on that salary in Ashikaga." (BUT, if you have no debts whatsoever and have no desire to save [meaning you would leave Japan with zero that you don't already have, and that you don't spend while you're here by getting money wired to you if you blow your tight budget and are starving], then you could probably have the above described lifestyle, possibly, but not definitely, with the exception of the size of apartment). |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
|
| Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 6:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
rtm,
This thread is about Ashikaga specifically. Ashikaga isn't in Tohoku. It's in Tochigi Prefecture. That's the north end of Kanto. Plus, it's a city, not a tiny town, in the southern part of Tochigi. It's more expensive than Tohoku. So, again,
|
Yeah, I understand that, and I do know where Ashikaga is. Also, like I said, I paid 45,000 for a 3DK apartment in a city that is about 2x as large as Ashikaga, so the fact that Ashikaga is "a city, not a tiny town" is moot. Probably, the vicinity to Tokyo matters more. I am sure you are correct about prices in Ashikaga, though, as I have never lived there, and I am not disagreeing with your assessment that the OP would not be able to have a very comfortable life in Ashikaga. What I was disagreeing with was the blanket statements like:
| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| Benkyo wrote: |
Accommodation: For the first year, 45,000 a month, then 3.5 years at 30,000 a month and 2 years sharing a place at 35,000 yen each. Only the last place took a large deposit that we won't get back, amounting to 70,000 each.
|
Which sounds like you enjoy living in a 1k.
Most EFL teachers pay 50,000 or 60,000 a month or more for accommodations. A 1k would not be 'comfortable' for most foreigners- except of course the kind that are rarely there. |
Or do both you and Benkyo live in Ashikaga? Or did you mean "Most EFL teachers in Ashikaga"? I just wanted to point out to anyone else reading this thread that prices do vary a lot depending on where you live, and not every EFL teacher in Japan has to pay 60,000/mo for a 1K apartment, that's all. Just trying to add more info to what's on here already.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 4:29 am Post subject: |
|
|
| rtm wrote: |
Yeah, I understand that, and I do know where Ashikaga is. Also, like I said, I paid 45,000 for a 3DK apartment in a city that is about 2x as large as Ashikaga, so the fact that Ashikaga is "a city, not a tiny town" is moot. |
No, it's not. Not in Kanto.
| Quote: |
| Probably, the vicinity to Tokyo matters more. |
Vicinity to Tokyo and type of place (city or not). Utsunomiya is more expensive than Ashikaga, and it's further from Tokyo. But it's not really a small city like Ashikaga.
| Quote: |
I am sure you are correct about prices in Ashikaga, though, as I have never lived there, and I am not disagreeing with your assessment that the OP would not be able to have a very comfortable life in Ashikaga. What I was disagreeing with was the blanket statements like:
| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| Benkyo wrote: |
Accommodation: For the first year, 45,000 a month, then 3.5 years at 30,000 a month and 2 years sharing a place at 35,000 yen each. Only the last place took a large deposit that we won't get back, amounting to 70,000 each.
|
Which sounds like you enjoy living in a 1k.
Most EFL teachers pay 50,000 or 60,000 a month or more for accommodations. A 1k would not be 'comfortable' for most foreigners- except of course the kind that are rarely there. |
Or did you mean "Most EFL teachers in Ashikaga"? |
This is a thread about Ashikaga in particular. What I meant was most people in and around Ashikaga- as in the places most people who work in Ashikaga might live.
| Quote: |
I just wanted to point out to anyone else reading this thread that prices do vary a lot depending on where you live, and not every EFL teacher in Japan has to pay 60,000/mo for a 1K apartment, that's all. Just trying to add more info to what's on here already. |
Except that this is a thread about one city in Japan. One that is considered far enough away from Tokyo that it's "out there' (and therefore not as expensive), but isn't part of Tohoku (and therefore isn't all that cheap either). Actually, I never said that a 1K would cost 60,000. That was the type of thing said by somebody else- somebody in Chiba. Nobody is saying that prices throughout the country don't fluctuate. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
|
| Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 2:07 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Y 300, 000 a month in and around Tokyo will allow you to live comfortably regardless of your lifestyle.
Y 350 ,000 a month will allow you to save.
Y 400, 000 and up is gravy.
I've lived on Y 180, 000 a month and it was real tight. My rent was around Y 80, 000 and so the Y 100, 000 I had left over just barely covered food and denki, gas, etc. Impossible for most to save on that kind of salary. What made it worse was that I was only working 3 days a week, and you know what people say about that - when you're not working, you're spending money!
But Y 300, 000 is just a rule of thumb. I'd really hate to do it on anything less nowadays. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
fujisan
Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 42
|
| Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2010 8:20 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Benkyo wrote: |
| Biggest saving: no car. |
It looks like your biggest savings was not on not having a car, but on your rent. You're sharing an apartment in the countryside. If you lived in an urban area your rent would at least double, maybe triple. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
flyer
Joined: 16 May 2003
Posts: 539
Location: Sapporo Japan
|
| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 4:33 am Post subject: |
|
|
Yes, a car can be a big money spender. Taxes and parking as well as normal up keep.
But if you are in the country you will probably have no choice?
The first year or so in Japan we didn't have a car and it was a good way to save money |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Benkyo
Joined: 07 May 2010
Posts: 11
|
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:20 am Post subject: |
|
|
The figures I gave were a little off - I forgot the 500,000 I got when I retired, and only about 2/3 of the 10,000 pound debt I had was paid off from savings made in Japan. Doesn't change the overall figures that much though.
I lived in Hakodate, which may be very different rent-wise than Ashikaga, but it seems to me that most foreigners end up paying way over the odds for accommodation. My 30,000 yen apartment was a 1k, and the shared 70,000 yen place was a really roomy 2ldk with balcony and parking. Both were very centrally located in the city of about 300,000 people (?), but I'm sure rent is cheaper in Hokkaido than elsewhere. I'm sure we could have managed somewhere cheaper still though, since every Japanese person I spoke to about it was surprised at how expensive our apartment was. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling.
Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
