The Japanese word for “living somewhere new”.
Moving to a new place is definitely stressful for everybody. Even if you’re just moving down the street into a new house, it can cause quite a bit of anxiety. Now, imagine you’re moving nearly 6,000 miles away, and starting a new job the next day…stressed yet? Yep, I thought so. Moving to Japan from England was definitely a scary adventure, but a totally worthwhile one, and one that definitely changed me as a person for the better. Right now I cannot imagine living anywhere else! So let me take you back to where all of this first started…
Love in a club.
When I first came to Japan in March of 2018, I was studying on an exchange program at an International University in Mitaka, Tokyo. I majored in political filmmaking and women’s studies… not quite the major of usual English teachers, but never mind. It didn’t take me long to meet a handsome Japanese national; now my boyfriend, guardian, part-time translator and partner in crime. Meeting him that night at a nightclub in Roppongi (classy and romantic, right?) was an event that would change the course of my life permanently. Not something I, nor my parents, ever expected to happen. After a tearful “goodbye” at the airport, I went back to England to finish my degree, but we never went a day without speaking on the phone. We saw each other any time that we possibly could, he came to England for work, I went to Tokyo during holidays. We both knew that as soon as I graduated, I would come to Tokyo as an English teacher. If anyone has ever been through something similar, it doesn’t matter how far away you are, you will understand that long distance relationships are always hard, but if it’s meant to be, it will always work out…and ours worked out perfectly.
Weeks before I graduated, I travelled to Tokyo as a visitor one last time. The reason was actually to help my boyfriend move house. We picked out the apartment together and moved to a beautiful place in the very centre of Tokyo. One night after unpacking, as we ventured out for dinner, we noticed an English school just 5 minutes walking distance from our new house. I got a job there the next day. For some foreigners, finding a job in Japan as an English teacher is never that easy, but in some amazing stroke of luck, for me it was! In a few months I would be living in Tokyo permanently as an English teacher. To say my boyfriend was happy is an understatement, and to say my mum was happy is an overstatement…but nevertheless supportive, of course.
Immigration (AKA: confusion and degradation)
As soon as I stepped off of the plane, it was a whirlwind of paperwork, immigration visits, bank visits and all the while navigating my way through a new job and new life. My boss kindly took me to the immigration building to get my working Visa. For any readers looking at living and working in Tokyo, I would recommend getting a working holiday visa in your home country first, or if you already have a job, getting a three / five year visa at the Japanese embassy in your country. It is much safer and less of a “grey area” than getting a working visa whilst already here. Although I had no problems and getting a visa here was fairly easy with the help of my boss, going to the immigration building in Tokyo is a total car-crash of confusion. Nobody wants to be there, especially the immigration workers. It is not the most welcoming place in Japan, and it really does make you feel like an outsider trying to fight your way into a country that, in this place, seems unwilling to want to take you in. Nevertheless, on my second visit there, I was handed my three-year working visa. That card was like my key to acceptance in Japan. I was now a resident, and there was no way I could be viewed as a foreign visitor any more. This really was my home, and this tiny card with a horrifically pale photo of me on it was proof.
“I JUST WANT A PHONE, PEOPLE!”
Surprisingly, getting a visa was the easiest part of this process. Once getting a visa I then had to register my new address at the local City Hall. NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING is online here. Everything is done through phone calling, visiting someone, or paperwork… mountains and mountains of paperwork until you can make a pretty comfortable futon out of it. Luckily I was able to bring my own translator to city hall. Although you can request a translator when you’re there, I would personally recommend bringing your own, as some of the information relayed to my boyfriend seemed as though they were attempting to make me pay for pensions and other aspects that I didn’t even have to pay for at first. During this one visit though, I was able to register my address, apply for health insurance, and adjust when I started paying for tax and pension.
Getting a bank account was the next step. Again, this couldn’t be done online, but my boss offered to help me and translate the process. They had recently changed the rules though to make it more difficult for foreigners to get there own bank accounts, so my boss actually had to be present anyway to confirm that I was a worker here, despite me already having a valid working-visa. Luckily I could give the bank my boyfriend’s phone number as contact information, but for some of my other friends they didn’t have this luxury. As a foreign resident in Japan, you cannot apply for a bank account without contact information, but you also cannot buy a phone and number without a bank account. So what do you do? For some this can be a tricky endless cycle. However, after setting up a bank account I could finally get my own Japanese phone and number, another difficult process for foreign residents. I had to carry my passport, health insurance card and proof of my visa. But even for some mobile providers, you have to prove that you pay for things such as gas and electricity. I JUST WANTED A PHONE! Thankfully after two trips, and a Japanese national in-tow, I was able to get a great deal.
Some processes of moving, even something as simple as getting a mobile can be really difficult here for foreign residents. They don’t make it easy for you, but then why should they? This is their country that you’re moving into. The difficult and frustrating early processes are basically your training ground to find respect, patience and appreciation for the things that they are giving to you, in order to be able to live as one of them. It is the training to develop a Japanese mind in a western body. They break you down in your rudeness, impatience and privilege, and then rebuild you to find equality with everyone else around you. It is a game that I have now learnt to play well, with my Japanese mind now firmly set inside my western body. I may be “Gaijin” on the outside, but on the inside I am very much being taught to be “Nihonjin”.