January 2019 – ian leahy

How I am living cheaply in Fukuoka, Japan

I originally put this post about living in Japan cheaply on my other blog ESLinsider. Here is the post…

How I am living cheaply in Japan

I just moved to Fukuoka, Japan about 5 days ago. I have wanted to live here for quite a long time. Finally, I made it. One of the things that kept me out of Japan was the fact that I thought it was so expensive.

I think that is what most people think, right?

Well, I think it can be, but it’s not that expensive for me as at the moment I would say that I am paying about $7-800 a month to live here.

My rent

I am living in what is called a sharehouse. I basically share a kitchen and bathroom with 8 other people and have my own room. That costs about 30,000 Yen a month plus 12,000 for utilities which is about $380.

I saw other places in Japan that were close to that price, but without a long term visa most places won’t rent to you. Many also want you to have a Japanese friend to act as a guarantor. There can also be a lot of fees: like a cleaning fee, key money, guarantor fee, deposits, and you sign a contract for a year.

I had to pay a deposit of 30,000, but only signed a contract for 6 months.

It’s pretty wimpy construction, but it’s alright for now.

If you are interested you can find these online by searching:

(insert city name here) sharehouse

Food

Some things seem a little cheaper and others not so much. Eggs are less than $2, milk is also less than $2 a litre, vegetables vary, The only thing I noticed that was a bit more expensive that I usually eat was sweet potatoes. They were like a few dollars more expensive for a lesser quantity.

I haven’t seen much of a selection for cheese which was expected as that was the same in other places I lived in Asia.

I am estimating that my bills will be similar to before in San Fran or maybe a little less.

I have been making a lot of soups with miso or soba noodles.

Transportation

I got this great bike so my transportation is free. I paid 6,800 Yen for this bike. I have been using it quite a bit as most things I need to get to are far. It’s about 7 kilometers to jiu-jitsu and a similar amount or more to get to the center of Fukuoka (Tenjin or Hakata).

Japanese lessons

I feel pretty excited to have found some lessons that are nearly free. The city government has a volunteer program at different government buildings throughout the city. These classes are like a $1 a class or $5 a month or maybe $10 for 6 months of lessons (usually one day a week), but there are classes everyday of the week in different locations.

At this point I am trying to match up my schedule so I can take the classes near or around the same time that I do jiu-jitsu.

Jiu-jitsu lessons

They are cheaper than in the States. The cost at the place where I am planning on going to is 10,800 a month which is about $100.

How long will I stay in Fukuoka?

As of right now I am on a tourist visa. I can stay here for 3 months and then I have to leave. I will probably just take a short trip to Busan, Korea where I used to live and come back for another 3 months.

Then I will have to decide if I want to stay in Japan for longer. If I do want to stay in Japan for longer then I will probably need to change my visa status. To do that I would need a different visa. Some of the ideas I have are:

Apply for a cultural visa
Find a job teaching English in Japan

The cultural visa is more appealing to me as I may be able to get that by studying judo, but I have not found anywhere to do that in Fukuoka. You’d think it would be easy to do, but not so.

There are lots of places for jiu-jitsu in Fukuoka, but the “BJJ” community on Reddit doesn’t think I could since “Brazilian” jiu-jitsu and Japanese jiu-jitsu are considered a bit different. Brazilian jiu-jitsu evolved from Japanese jiu-jitsu and emphasizes grappling on the ground and competition.

But I am still planning on asking my teacher about it after I have been training there a while.

As far as teaching English goes I have sort of been there and done that in China, Korea and Taiwan. Lately ESLinsider has been doing well and I have been able to live off of it. However, if something changes then I may need to get a job or perhaps a part time job that would give me a visa.

On my way to Fukuoka, Japan

I left San Francisco yesterday after living there for almost 6 years. Time flies and now I am sitting in the Taipei airport waiting for a connecting flight to Fukuoka.

My last few days was spent trying to get rid of stuff and get ready for my trip.

It always seems last minute when it comes to traveling.

So…

I will be living there for probably at least 6 months. For starters I will be on a tourist visa, but then may try to get a cultural visa for studying judo or maybe, just maybe look for a job teaching English in Japan so I could get a longer visa.

My goals are to live in Japan, learn Japanese, train judo/jiu-jitsu, work on ESLinsider and some other creative projects.

ESLinsider has been able to sustain me over the last 6 months or so. Hopefully that will keep up and then there is always WWOOF’ing if that fails.

Every time I move my stuff that makes me question how much I need it. My DJ stuff is really heavy. I brought with me 2 cases that have my turntables in them. They weigh 40 lbs each.

I’d like to do a street performing show with my turntables, but that is tricky thinking how I will move it around.

Actually that is less tricky. I have some ideas for making a cart for them, but the trickier part is where am I going to keep it? I would need to live on the ground level and be able to wheel it into my home.

In another hour or so, boarding starts.

Haven’t slept much in the last 3 days. Hopefully tonight I will.

It’s hard to change your habits and make a move. But really it is not as hard as it seems because now I am on my way. This move all started with me buying a ticket and then filling in the blanks.

It started in a state of uncertainty.

It’s more of a shoot first aim later strategy.

So I am still aiming, but I think I am off to a good start. I have a room in a share house all lined up and will be paying less for rent than I did in San Fran.

And it can’t be much worse than that.

My desire to live in Japan started way back before I taught English in Taiwan in 2004. I sort of beat around the bush and lived in China, Korea and Taiwan and now finally I am going to Japan.

It won’t be the first time there, but it will be the first time to live there.

Japan was originally my first choice for Asia, but it didn’t seem as easy to get a job there teaching English so I always went with the other countries.

Now after years of hearing that voice in my head say, “go to Japan” I am.

I couldn’t go on not doing this. I didn’t want to be an old man saying to myself, “I didn’t, I should’ve, I could’ve…”

A low impact full body workout exercise

This is a modified version of the mountain climber exercise. Basically instead of jumping with sneakers you slide with socks and this makes it more of a low impact body weight exercise.

I use a pair of socks and do it on my yoga mat. But it might also work on another kind of slippery floor.

I think to get the most out of it you should sprint at some point or go as fast as you can. Of course if it is your first time then you can go a little slower.

What I do is often a 10-20 count at a medium pace and then go as fast as I can for 10-20 seconds.

If you do that you will get your heart rate up there and be breathing hard.

Then take a break until your breath calms down.

Then do it again.

And again.

As of recent when I do this I’ll often do at least 3 sets. But before this video I did 5 or 6 sets.

There are many different ways that you could use this exercise.

Here is a suggested workout with this exercise:

10-20 seconds medium pace, 10 second sprint as fast as you can. Rest for 40 seconds.
10-20 seconds medium pace, 10 second sprint as fast as you can. Rest for 40 seconds.
10-20 seconds medium pace, 10 second sprint as fast as you can. Rest for 40 seconds.

Of course you can modify this by doing more sets or longer sprints, etc.

You can also add this to your body weight workout. It also works as a good warm up. Very quickly you can get your heart rate pumping and be out of breath if you do it fast enough.

It will work many muscles in your body including arms, shoulders, core, quads, hip abductors and glutes.

I think it’s a good all around low impact exercise that works many different muscle groups and brings some of the benefits of sprinting.

Benefits of sprinting:

1. Save time
2. Improve cardiovascular health
3. Strengthen muscles
4. Improve muscle tone
5. Reduce stress
6. Improve speed and power

The con of sprinting by running is that it is hard on your joints. So a low impact way of sprinting is by doing this exercise.

I found it to be a low impact exercise for my legs. It doesn’t irritate my knees like squats do sometimes. Like it’s not a very good leg work out exercise per se, but you’ll get some and it shouldn’t hurt your knees.