Furusato Firsthand: Daily Life in Japan from Budgets to Commuting

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve visited Japan as a tourist, how much research you’ve done, or how badly you want to make the jump: without the right visa, the journey ends before it even begins. Moving over as a solo backpacker or a student is one thing, but when you’re planning an international move as a working family, the visa isn't just paperwork—it’s the foundation everything else has to be built on. You can’t pick a neighborhood, look at schools for a teenager, or book a flight for your pets until immigration confirms that you have a legal right to stay and that you can sponsor your family to come along with you. Finding our way through that bureaucratic maze was our first real hurdle, and before we could figure out how we were getting in, we had to start by ruling out what was completely off the table. Japan’s immigration laws are very specific, and there are several "common" visas found in other popular expat destinations that you simply won't find ...

The truth of a daily blog is that we'll be capturing actual daily life here. Most of it is not exciting, but if you want an accounting of how it's going and what it cost, then that's what we're here for! I'll throw in tips, information and whatnot as it becomes apparent what can be useful to the normal traveler or new expat here as well (like dining at Sushiro yesterday). Today we definitely had one of those "not interesting" days. We finished moving out of the house with one more load of furniture before late morning and some cleaning. Afterwards, it was running back into Kyoto to locate a small list of items we really needed to make things more comfortable here. Quick draft of that list looks like this: Pet tower so cat can see out a window here Cat food and treats (essential!) Towels - larger and smaller than what was here Seat cushion for long working days Black out curtains for sleeping past 5AM Hiking boots for taking trails out in the rain After som...

The day started with us knowing it would be a long one. The goal was to move everything from our temp lodging in Arashiyama to the apartment in Kameoka (which will be for 6+ weeks). After packing most of the house up, I timed the drive (with traffic) from Arashiyama to the apartment in Kameoka at exactly 45 minutes using the expressway (toll: Y360 each way). Taking route 9 adds approximately 10 minutes if there are no special traffic jams, so toll it was for the day. We could only get two car full loads in before afternoon errands and dinner. Tolls came to Y1,440 ($9.16) for the day. We've stayed in this apartment before, but never for this long or with this much stuff. Furniture needed to be rearranged for this reason and a few new pieces will need to be bought before we finish up our time here. Overall the projector was set up and the furniture here meets our needs much better than the house in Arashiyama, so it should prove to be a better day-to-day here shortly. I needed anothe...

I promised myself that after relocating in August, September would start the daily blog. Life has been a whirlwind thus far, but we've mostly been on "vacation mode" - not so good for accurate 'daily living'. In the coming weeks, expect a few posts on getting settled in Japan and what the daily living begins to look like. I don't expect to have really good, accurate posts of what I expect this blog to be until we settle into our house, which will be late October to our best estimate. That being said, look forward to small updates the best we can make! Tomorrow will mark a move into our apartment in Kameoka that will provide us some stability and ability to cook until we can settle into our own place.  View on the bridge to Kansai International Airport (KIX) Today was easy to summarize. We went straight to Osaka as the rental car had to be exchanged (maxed the days out). This was a long (nearly 2 hours each way) drive, with a small stop at Abeno Q's mall. I...