LIFESTYLE TIPS

Because a late bus can leave you being late for work, planning your daily trip around the daily weather forecast is a good idea. If it snows you can expect busses to run upwards of 20 to 30 minutes late. Another useful tip is to arrive 10 minutes late for the previous bus on the schedule so you can catch that one, since if the weather is bad all of the busses are likely running behind. 

Japan is very big on separating your trash to minuscule levels. You will find yourself having to separate from different types of plastic, to different types of paper in other to figure out if it is burnable or non-burnable, recyclable or non-recyclable. In order to get into the habit of automatically sorting out your trash, instead of sorting it out the day before throwing it out, it is a good idea to buy separate cans/bins. In the long run, it saves a lot of effort and time, especially if you find yourself in a place where you throw different types of rubbish everyday. 

Outside of the winter months biking to work or around town is a good alternative to take public transit and even some people with cars ride a bike instead in order to save money on parking and gas. There are a few laws around using your bicycle, such as having to register it with local authorities, but in general, it is a cheaper and healthier alternative to driving for those who can do so!

Due to the use of either heaters or air conditioning, in the summer and winter months, the dry/humid air can cause trouble during different seasons. Being able to control the humidity in your house will help prevent mold or mildew from growing on your tatami mats or carpet in the summer. It will also help prevent you from catching colds and getting a sore throat from all the dry air you breath in the winter.

Fish is super cheap in Japan and this oven is a really quick and easy way to prepare a healthy meal with little to no prep time involved. For example, you can get fillets of Mackerel for about 150 yen a piece, and so you could make a hearty, healthy, home cooked meal for under 500 yen that only takes 15-20 minutes to prepare (-the rice cook time)

For those who don't already have a rice cooker and regularly eat rice, getting one here in Japan is something you really should look into! Buying a rice cooker that can keep rice warm for a few hours after cooking is extremely useful because you can cut down the amount of weekly rice making by half! Learning the settings and timing your rice cooking so it’s ready when you get home is also another great way to save time.

When you meet and talk with new people, ask them about their favourite spots in the area or recommendations for places to travel/explore.

One of the main barriers foreigners have is their access to information. This is because even if you are proficient in Japanese, your ability to understand situations in Japanese is not the same as your ability to do so in your native language. This is a meaningful gap that most people don’t realize until a few weeks or months in, but it means actively asking for information is more effective than figuring it out on your own.

An IC Card, otherwise known as a Suica, uses NFC technology to serve as a ticket for trains normally. However, Japanese technology and society has evolved to the point where you can actually use this card for other transportation services, such as buses, to being able to pay for goods at most major stores, including convenience stores. In some places, you will also be able to use your IC card for convenience stores. This card becomes really handy when you go to Tokyo, as most services down there accept IC cards as forms of payment. Charging your IC card can be done online, in convenience stores or at any train station.

You will find out very quickly that there are different types of shoes for different occasions. Not by design, but for usage. As a teacher, in your school you will have indoor and outdoor shoes, and very quickly, you will realise that having your own indoor shoes is much better than using what the school provides you. But even in the home, you might find yourself wanting slippers, and going to Japanese houses, you'll realise there's even a separate pair of slippers for the toilet. Knowing which shoes are for what use is definitely handy for all situations.

Everybody has food that they miss from home. As you will quickly discover, getting food that you would normally eat back at home comes as a high premium here. There are places such as Amazon, Rakuten and iHerb which sell imported foreign ingredients, but they might come at more of a cost than you expect. The more you can learn to cook using local ingredients the cheaper food will be for you.

This might sound a bit obvious but given how you will be spending about 1/3 of your day sleeping on a bed, getting either good bedding or a good futon is much recommended. Buying a well-made futon will run you between 15,000 yen to 35,000 or so but is totally worth it since if you buy a poorly made one for 6000 yen you will most likely use it for a few weeks, give up. Buying a good bed from a place like Nitori (around 12,000-30,000 yen) is also recommended if your place already doesn't have a bed.

Doing hobbies mutually with other people weekly is not only a great way to meet people, but gives you something in common to bridge to cultural and language gap that will often make it difficult for you to make friends in other situations. It helps break the ice with people you first meet and gives you something in common with everyone in the room.   Hobbies themselves are also often enriching as a way to keep learning and growing          through your stay in Japan, so please give it a shot.