How You Know You've Been in Japan Too Long
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- You bow when talking on the phone.
- You've figured out kanji for your name.
- You have a personal inkan and a koseki, and you know what those are.
- You've accidentally said 「お疲れ様です」 to a friend from your native country.
- You take your shoes off when visiting your native country.
- You get upset when having to use a toilet without a heated seat and butt spray.
- You forget to tip when visiting your native country.
- You've gotten stuck in the door when rushing for the train on multiple occasions
- You've been scolded by train station staff for rushing into the train on multiple occasions.
- The first thing that
Living in Japan - How to Get Rid of Coins
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Anyone living in or visiting Japan is no stranger to walking around with a bucketful of coins in their pants/purse. The excitement before your first Tokyo subway ride soon quells as you're greeted by a flurry of coins spraying from the ticket machine like a Las Vegas slot hitting the jackpot. Tourism stamina wanes as you really start feeling that 10-pound metal load clinking in your pocket.
I don't know why Japan loves coins, but the reason rests in the fact their paper money starts at 1000 yen, roughly a $10 bill back in better economic times. During my years living here, I've developed a few techniques for coping with coin overload.
How to Get a Credit Card in Japan
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It's tough to beat a credit card's convenience, so I felt naked and demoted after moving to Japan and encountering a sea of rejection when trying to apply for a local credit card. True...I could use my US credit card, but that weak dollar / strong yen exchange rate right now would obliterate my US savings account. In addition, overseas card transactions are often denied by the vendor or credit card company or both; and sending money home to pay the bill effectively strips the credit card of its intrinsic convenience.
Damn, I wanted a local card. But at the same time I understood their reluctance to grant me one. I'm a gaijin, and everybody knows that we're the ones that commit all the crimes here. I could easily go on a crazy "Brewster's Millions" shopping spree and skip town. While jobless irresponsible American me managed to get a decent credit card as a college student, responsibly-employed living-in-Japan me failed time and time again.
How to Find a Good Apartment in Japan
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Finding a good apartment or any apartment in Japan can be a real pain for foreigners. Most apartments require a guarantor on the lease, basically someone to vouch for you. Unfortunately, that often proves somewhat of a difficulty for us foreigners because no one wants to vouch for us hooligans :-(. If you're lucky, your company will sign as your guarantor. If you're unlucky (like me), they will not. Below I present a few foreigner-friendly, no-guarantor-required housing options that have proved quite handy to yours truly.
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