Back to couple of months ago when i came to Japan for the first time. I think the first 3 months was the hardest period to start living in Japan. I was lucky since my wife came to Japan first and my daughter and i came 1 month after so at least couple of things are already been prepared before we came. Besides, my wife also speaks Japanese so we didn’t have any communication problems with Japanese people here.
Back to the topic. From my experience there are at least 10 important things to do to start living in Japan for the first time. Here in this case i assume you already have your accomodation either an apartment or a university dorm if you come to Japan for study.
1. Alien Registration - If you come to Japan for a long period such as study or work you need to register to the local City Hall where you stay. In Japan they call it “Alien Registration” but lately they changed to “Foreigner Registration”. After you registered you will get an ID card stating your period of stay.
2. Insurance - This is one of the most important thing to have when you live in Japan. You’ll see most of the things here are insured included mobile phones. But the critical one is the health insurance since medical cost is really expensive here. But by paying for insurance you can get significant deductions.
3. Embassy Registration – This probably sounds not important but to be honest you will need it someday. So i suggest you to visit and register your self and family to your country’s representative in Japan either the Embassy or Consulate General.
4. Bank Account – Once you get an Alien Registration Card you can open a Bank Account. There are a lot of banks available in Japan both local and international brands. But some banks require you to stay at least 6 months in Japan before you can open an account.
5. Learn Japanese Language - Most Japanese people doesn’t speak English, even here in Osaka, the third largest city in Japan. So if you plan to stay in Japan for a long period of time i recommend you to start learning Japanese Language since the first time you arrived.
6. Mobile Phones – I know some people probably can live without mobile phones. But here in Japan, is that normal? So i guess you need to get a mobile phone so you can communicate with other people without going to public phone.
7. Internet Connections – Most of apartments in Japan are already equipped with standard utilities such as electricity and gas. But for internet connection, you need to handle it your self.
8. Find Church - Since i’m a Christian i need to find a local church here in Japan. It’s not easy to find an English Church so you probably need sometimes until you find it unless you don’t have any problem to go to a Japanese Church.
9. Join Communities - For Indonesian people especially students there are communities available here in Japan called PPI (Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia). And for Osaka the name is PPI Osaka-Nara. You may find such communities for your country or join another communities.
10. Enjoy Your Life – During the first couple of weeks you probably will feel totaly like a stranger in town. No body knows you and you don’t know anybody. You can’t talk to anybody since no body speaks English and you don’t even understand anything on the TV. Besides you probably also will have a problem with the foods. But most likely you will be shocked with prices here in Japan. But rather than trying to compare it to your country i suggest you to enjoy your new life in Japan unless you will get depressed.
Well, on my next posts i will share about each of these topics and hopefully it will help anybody who plans to live in Japan like me. So stay tuned and get updated!
