4 ms·

> lower quality of life generally The quality of life in Tokyo can be quite extraordinary, depending on your point of view. As a westerner imitating the salar

> lower quality of life generally The quality of life in Tokyo can be quite extraordinary, depending on your point of view. As a westerner imitating the salaryman lifestyle? Absolutely terrible, primarily for work-related reasons. As a westerner doing basically anything else that doesn't involve employment at a massive Japanese conglomerate? Excellent. If you can deal with the lack of English and gain some modicum of comfort with Japanese culture, it's a fantastic place to live.

bschwindHN 9y ago
Agreed! Here are some of the quality of life improvements I've observed between NYC and Tokyo: - Minimal honking for the amount of cars on the road - Clean, timely trains, subways, and buses - Clean streets and sidewalks (unless you go to the busy areas of Shibuya/Shinjuku, it can get nasty there) - No tipping but you still receive excellent customer service - Modern apartments with things like auto-filling baths, digital temperature control for hot water, delivery boxes at apartments for package delivery when you're not home, contactless IC cards to unlock your door/mailbox, door video monitors, Toto washlets This isn't to say NYC doesn't have some of these, it's just less common and you'll be paying more. I do wish Tokyo had more NY pizza and bagels though.
- sklinger 9y ago
  Heath care costs are quite low as well. Where I lived (in Osaka) there was a cap of 80,000 JPY* / month for hospital bills - no matter how much the procedure cost. *80,000 JPY = 721 USD
ensiferum 9y ago
And can deal with the racism towards "kaijin"
- culturestate 9y ago
  I assume you mean gaijin and not actually kaijin, which is a fantastical sea monster ;) In seriousness, there is a decent amount of racism but it’s really not that much worse than other places in Asia - that’s part of what I meant by adapting to Japanese culture. It also gets much better if you speak Japanese.

bschwindHN 9y ago

Agreed! Here are some of the quality of life improvements I've observed between NYC and Tokyo: - Minimal honking for the amount of cars on the road - Clean, timely trains, subways, and buses - Clean streets and sidewalks (unless you go to the busy areas of Shibuya/Shinjuku, it can get nasty there) - No tipping but you still receive excellent customer service - Modern apartments with things like auto-filling baths, digital temperature control for hot water, delivery boxes at apartments for package delivery when you're not home, contactless IC cards to unlock your door/mailbox, door video monitors, Toto washlets This isn't to say NYC doesn't have some of these, it's just less common and you'll be paying more. I do wish Tokyo had more NY pizza and bagels though.

sklinger 9y ago
Heath care costs are quite low as well. Where I lived (in Osaka) there was a cap of 80,000 JPY* / month for hospital bills - no matter how much the procedure cost. *80,000 JPY = 721 USD

ensiferum 9y ago

And can deal with the racism towards "kaijin"

culturestate 9y ago
I assume you mean gaijin and not actually kaijin, which is a fantastical sea monster ;) In seriousness, there is a decent amount of racism but it’s really not that much worse than other places in Asia - that’s part of what I meant by adapting to Japanese culture. It also gets much better if you speak Japanese.