Review from Ryan (Australian) [March 2023 ~ ]

REVIEWS

Length of my stay

Tokyo (4 months), Osaka (2 months), Otsu (2 weeks), Nagoya (1 week), Onomichi (1 week) and Fukuoka (currently living here for over 2 months)

 

Where did you enjoy your stay the most?

Fukuoka has been my favourite (so far!)

 

What was the most memorable part of your stay?

During my first month in Tokyo, I went out with a German friend from my sharehouse and we decided to enter a random izakaya.. That night, we met 4 Japanese salarymen in the same izakaya, spoke a lot of broken Japanenglish with them, got super drunk, lost a lot of money and then somehow ended up on the streets of Akihabara. It was probably the best night of my life 😂

What was the most difficult part of your stay?

During my first month here, I lost my wallet. Luckily, the process to get a new residency card isn’t too difficult but I did have no money for about a week and a half. I’m just glad I didn’t lose my passport too! To survive during this time, people from my sharehouse lent me money and I (of course) paid them back once I got my new bank cards from Australia. I’m forever grateful to them 🙏😭😭

What was the most surprising thing?

Since coming to Japan and living on my own for around 10 months, I’ve realised that I’m a lot more capable than I thought I was. My first month or two were very messy but now I have a proper lifestyle set up, a job, friends and a proper schedule. I’m also a lot more interested in what it might be like to live in other countries!

How did you find your accommodation?

Mostly through word-of-mouth from other working holiday makers (living in my sharehouse) or through Google (searching for hostels/guesthouses/free accommodation work/etc.)

What was your motivation for wanting to stay in Japan?

I’m really interested in the Japanese language and had studied a bit of it already. So, I wanted to improve it more by speaking with native Japanese people compared to speaking with teachers/other students

What were your regrets?

 

What problems did you have with your alien registration card, certificate of residence and other paperwork?

No problems! Just make sure you DO YOUR RESEARCH beforehand regarding what you need to bring to immigration offices (passport/other paperwork/etc.) Better to bring it all than end up forgetting something small!

What difficulties have you had in communicating with Japanese people?

Because I can speak basic Japanese, I usually don’t have any issues with simple tasks (buying groceries, ordering at restaurants, etc.). However, I almost always have issues when doing more formal tasks (tasks related to my residency/moving addresses/etc.) Even so, you shouldn’t worry about something like this because every time there’s been too much of a language barrier, DeepL and Google Translate have come to the rescue 🙂