I am currently working on obtaining a teaching position in Mito in Ibaraki-ken and was wondering if a gaijin house might be an option for me to save some money. Currently I make 8 dollars and hour in a small US city and have a wife and two kids. I will recieve about 250-300k yen a month and was planning to send about 75000k yen a month home for them and live off the rest. Do you think this would be possible?
Interesting question... saving money here is not too difficult, depending on how often you like to go out! :)
I have never been to Mito, but at half the size of Oita city, I can't picture it being overly expensive to rent a place. I have never actually heard the term "gaijin house" before, but a friend of mine in Beppu is living in a guest house. He gets kicked out about 3 weeks a year during the high tourist season. It is a nice way to go, but in smaller cities, it may be nearly as cheap (or cheaper and more convenient in the long run) to rent your own apartment. Furnishings come cheap at second hand stores. I guess it just depends on how long you plan to stay.
Hi Talon4life, Hummmm, it's maybe a good idea that you rent your own appartment in Mito. Gaijin house is more for "single" people, but not for a "family".As Matt said, if you live in smaller cities, you could rent your own appartment as it's not so expensive.
I once stayed at Kaijin-house in Chiba . Gaijin-house is one of the good accommodation to start your new life in Japan. However, you need to know that it's a cheap accommodation=the quality of living is not so great sometimes... If you are a lucky person, you may find a nice gaijin-house where you could meet up some interesting people around the world, otherwise you just get shit from your house-mate everyday. In general, people who live in Gaijin-house are nice and friendly! My experience in Gaijin-house was good (The appartment was extremely small, and we had only one bathroom for 10 people though).We did lots of activities together when we had some free time. My house-mates were very interesting people like; Italian(she speaks 5 languages fluently), Canadian(who wanted to be called he is a French somehow...), Chinese(who escaped from her New Zealander boyfriend),German(who looked like a movie star), American(who was refused to open his bank account by almost all japanese bank in Chiba, so he actually went to Tokyo to open his bank account) and another Canadian (who looks Asian;coz his parents are from Taiwan).
Back to the point! There are some "weekly (or monthly) apaartment" in Japan. They are fully furnished,electricity+gas+water are included, and you don't need to pay for the expensive deposit. To start living in Japan, the "weekly appartment" could be good for you too. :) Good luck mate!
0214: Do you really like valentine's or did I miss saying, "Happy Birthday"!?
So, it sounds like you don't necessarily need to be a foreigner to live in "Gaijin housing"? You sound like you had a variety of "interesting" sharemates.
Thanks Matt! Yes it was my birthday on the Valentine's ;) Because of it, I recieve a lots of chocolate for my birthday present.... and that's all I get!!!
Yes, it's possible for Japanese people to live in "Gaijin-house"(it depends on the Gaijin-house though),however, you will be charged more than "foreigner". For example, I paid 43000yen par month, but other people(foreigner) paid only 38000yen..... If you are happy with this condition, some of the Gaijin-house accept Japanese people :) ...and also some Gaijin-house provide "English lesson" for Japanese people at their place too.