I live in rural Japan, and moved here in 2009 to build a house and raise a family with my Japanese wife on a 5-acre farm. It is isolated, but to me that's a perk! It's so quiet and at night we only hear the wildlife: deer, owls, boars, foxes and tanuki. I'll take this any day over sirens, car alarms, sub-woofers, stereos, TVs and loud drunken parties. The neighbors keep a distance and that's fine. Our closest city is 45 minutes away by car. If I was in my 20s or 30s, I wouldn't like it, but now in my 60s I like the space, privacy and solitude.
"over sirens, car alarms, sub-woofers, stereos, TVs and loud drunken parties." That doesn't happen in Japanese suburbs and most parts of a city either.
Asian cultures have always seemed good to me and I did toy with the idea of living there. If you are interested, I would like to learn more about your experience while living, their practices with government, participation in the community, what the community requires of you, what the people are like... all those kinds of things. I'm really interested and I would still like to go to Japan. I am running out of time unless my Android comes online quickly. :-) I know very little japanese, 70 years old and hoping they have good street signs.
I mean, if you're a young person, living in a rural area is kinda depressing. But if you are retired and want a nice quiet place, rural is probably a good choice.
@@nhitc6832 I used to teach college anx university 14.5 hours a week with 5 months paid vacation in Tokyo and Saudi Arabia This is not the life of a typical Japanese salaryman Adding stocks capital gains, dividends and my wifes income, I doubled my household income. What 90% of Japanese workers especially those under 40 has no bearing on my life or lifestyle. 8 years ago I had 4 cars in 3 countries. I am not like 90% of Japanese people.
Aussie here, living on the Pacific coast in Mie, in a tiny fishing village of around 400. It's a 15 minute drive to shops, we have our own doctor. Peaceful, beautiful, friendly. Wouldn't have it any other way. Of course it is possible thanks to the convenience fast internet has given us. Embrace technology, make the move!
I'm an Aussie to and love Japan. Can I ask your age as reference to myself of 64. I've lived in isolated parts of Australia and understand what living a quiet is like..take care Aussie 🙃
Almost no Japanese youth wants to live in a rural area. Let that sink in. The fact is, you have to have an insane level of commitment to be accepted in a rural community. Another thing to consider. Quite a few Japanese city dwellers have the same idea and buy a house dirt cheap and move to a rural area like after they retire. I'd say well more than half end up regretting it. Now, how harder it'd be if you are not familiar with all the unwritten cultural no-nos and not proficient in the language... Some expats do seem to live happily, so i'm not saying it's impossible, but for most people it'll be super hard.
A lot of young people leave because there is not much to do and for employment not a lot of jobs. You get used to living in the countryside once the locals get to know you it’s pretty easy.
@@deadby15 They ask my wife, where is your husband? He is on a business trip. He is visiting his goat farm in Pakistan of his condo in Nha Trang. I will be a phantom to the locals.
I'm an introvert so I didn't mind living in rural Japan. But going on my 3rd year in rural Japan, I miss human interaction. The isolation is real. I have JLPT N3 and can speak and understand Japanese but I have 0 Japanese friend until now. I'm planning to move to a big city soon. I'm done with rural Japan. Even an introvert like me feels so lonely. It's crazy.
the key is to have something to do and people with similar interests would come by. being a Chinese from rural China that lived in Borneo now rural Japan I would say it is the same everywhere. remember that deeds is what matters more than words.
I am from the rural area in Eastern Europe. The only disadvantages for me are the lack of workplaces, lower chances of finding a wife and the lack of emergency services. Remember, if you get injured in the countryside, you'll have to wait a while for the ambulance to arrive. And sometimes that can be the difference between life and death. I'm speaking from experience.
Countryside isn't boring, you have to find entertainment for yourself, don't wait for others. You can equip your home gym, playing musical instrument, watch movie at home, exercise in nature and all other things
I think it's a matter of age more than a matter of preference. I am 24 I grew up in a rural area of my country, I moved to the city when I turned 18, and I loved it ever since. The amount of people you meet, entertainment you have, and all the possibilities of a city still excites me to this day. But I sometimes this noisy life gets tiring and I come back to my grandmothers and grandfathers house in a rural area to rest and recharge, I meet my old friends there living peacefully. But after 3 days of rest it gets boring real fast to me. I do get the appeal both city and rural lifestyle and both are needed. But currently I like the city more, I think it's because of my age and my current goals in life. But I do see myself getting old like my grandfather and living with my wife in a rural area enjoying simple and peaceful life. Just like my grandparents
The only reason I would be hesitant to live in rural Japan is the same reason why I would be hesitant to live in rural America: I prefer city life, infrastructure, shopping, culture, and conveniences, and I don't want to own a car and be forced to drive it everywhere, everyday, for everything. The ideal living situation for me would be an apartment in the city with a small rural recreation property near a small town with a train station on a line that goes relatively directly to the city.
To learn Japanese, it is best to go someplace where no one speaks English. I went to college at Okayama U. in the 1970s. I met only one English speaker, and only saw him a few times. I spent a lot of time in the country then and later, but I prefer a medium sized city such as Okayama or Hiroshima. I had one hilarious experience. A young Japanese American women visited the campus. She spoke no Japanese, so I escorted her around the town. We had a good time. People did a double take when she spoke English and I interpreted into Japanese! I strongly recommend learning Japanese in a structured class in the U.S. before you go. Up until around 2000, they had no internet service in the countryside. Now they have it, so you are less isolated. The downside is you are tempted to watch English TV and TH-cam. While I am on the subject: a lot of Japanese internet TV is geo-restricted. To watch Japanese internet TV from overseas you need a VPN. You wonder why they geo-restrict things. They don't want people watching their programs? They think no one in the U.S. speaks Japanese? Weird.
All countries geo restrict content, it's about licensing rights and is nothing uniquely Japanese. Even netflix catalogue varies from country to country.
at the end of yr vid. I've lived in several big cities over 5 mill. seoul, osaka,melb and spent a month in each of orlando, guangzho and bangkok. i am worn out with crowds and currently live in the outskirts of a 90k small city, i grow many vegies and fruit and go dumpster diving. i prefer this life at this age. good vid. okini !
Been living rurally in south-west Japan since 1999 and you couldn't pay me enough to live in a city or even a town area, ever again! Hard work keeping the farm upkeep in summer, but I wouldn't change it.
I was raised in the countryside and when I taught English in Thailand, I lived in the countryside. It was fun to do my tefl certification in a large city but I never did enjoy the nightlife, shopping and partying that my classmates did. I am the type of person who is more comfortable with my hands in the dirt.
The places you are describing are rural indeed. But there are very accessible rural areas as well. Take Atami for example. 1 hour 45 minutes to Tokyo by regular train and 39 minutes by bullet train to Tokyo. One can buy a secondhand home for 5,000,000 Yen or $35,000 USD. Live close to the ocean, eat the best seafood and veggies, and make a trip Tokyo when you get the itch for a big city.
The average price of a used home in Atami is considerably cheaper than 50 million yen. You can buy a large second-hand house for 10 million to 20 million yen in Atami City . Atami City is close to the sea and is a popular area among foreigners.
@ wow, I’ve never seen a house so cheap in Atami. One 20 year old house in ShimoTaga with great views and sun recently sold for over 50,000,000 Yen or $350k. Another one is on the market for 45,000,000 Yen. But I have seen very old homes built on land that needs significant erosion proofing sell for 1/10 of that.
@ there are many farms and fishing villages near Atami. Atami proper, the area with the resorts, certainly is not rural but the outskirts certainly are as far as lifestyle and atmosphere goes.
In the end it depends on a lot of factors. While I've never lived in the Japanese countryside, I have spent a lot of time there (especially in Gunma-ken), and I did live for a while in an area best described as semi-rural - a short train ride away from the downtown area with its department store and shotengai, but my apartment was also a short walk from an endless stretch of rice fields where I used to go for walks in the morning. In my late 20s/early 30s I lived in Tokyo and could never have seen myself being anywhere else, but as I got older the idea of moving away from the urban center became more appealing. Now that I'm in my early 60s I could see myself retiring to a home in the countryside. As for work, there are many examples of gaijin decamping to the inaka and starting up businesses such as cafes or restaurants. I knew of one Canadian who quit English teaching and moved to a rural corner of Kanagawa-ken where he built guitars.
Gunma is a nice, green place. I used to live there in a small town (hey, we might have bumped into each other!). I would love to go back. Maybe someday...
Added problem with community obligations especially on the North Island. Plowing/Shovelling snow for evryone when you may be one of the handful of people left young enough to shovel snow can literally be back breaking.
I'm going to be real. I've seen a bunch of foreigners who are influencers hyping buying houses in the country side, but I feel like they are going to ruin things.
You are right there are a lot of channels push to buy Akiya’s. Some people are buying them on short term visas. What happens if they can’t get work and renew their visa. I have permanent residency I built my house 20 years ago.
Lmao how. It's already being ruined by people moving out to seek greener pastures. Blaming foreigners has got to be the Japanese national pastime istg.
Your right about those influencers. They make it sound it is very easy to come into Japan and carefully omitted the important point. Buying the Akiya is the easy part. Emigrating into Japan is extremely difficult especially they have a zero immigration policy. Meaning you can buy the house but that doesn’t guarantee you can stay here. BTW, I live in Japan for 13 years.
Looks like here in my village in Sweden not many wonders the streets here, got lots of cars driving through though but that´s it. Further out on the countryside there are not many cars driving though.
Isolation is honestly the reason I want to move to rural Japan. I'm a loner and always have been. I want a place where I can be alone. I spend as much time as I can alone already. I am learning Japanese though, so I will be able to speak to people. No matter what, I'm sure that'll be necessary.
I would prefer having access to the internet so that i can peruse online resources and materials or work remotely. Do you believe it might be possibly to bring a generator and find some way to access the internet? (I obviously don't know much about what this would involve.)
I lived in Okinawa and Tokyo from 1970 to 72 but i learned enough Japanese in those 2 short years to be able to get around, socialize and enjoy myself. It helped that my own language is constructed closer to Japanese than English. But even that did not prevent me from joining the US military and retire 24 years later. Anyone can learn any language if you really want to.... especially if your life or happiness depend on it...
Thank you, good information. Sounds much like where I live, in rural 🇮🇪 even the language aspect -can't tell if my neighbor is speaking Irish, or just has an amazing accent!
I’m an American from New York and I lived in rural China. I don’t think rural Japan would ever be a challenge for me. In fact, it would be a beautiful experience.
if u could handle rural China then rural Japan would be a walk in the park. I hailed from the western rurals of Changsha where civilization was almost non existent! picked up Japanese through daily interaction with the locals and recently English through internet gaming and 90s rock music. there are also alot of similarity when it comes to mindset and culture, just have to retool the mindset a bit but if made it in rural China, rest assured its no sweat. and rural folks here aren't as nosy and way way nicer!
I studied in Nagaoka, Niigata, during the 1980s, a snowy region with only four bus services a day to the city center from the campus, which was located in a rice-growing area. If I missed the last bus, I had to walk for about an hour through deep snow to save on taxi fare, which cost around 10,000 yen.😊
Loved the tour through the countryside. Looks so relaxing. Would suit me perfectly. Would like for your post to have included some of the traditions of rural Japan. What kind of festivals are important to them? Etc. ...what they like and dislike about Americans and foreigners in general,?
I started to learn the language when I have a good skill I will start thinking about moving. Thanks for your videos, thats the inside of Japan I really need.
I live in the countryside with no car. I hate it. I moved to Japan because I wanted to live in a country with good public transportation. I will stick it out for about 10 years because what I'm doing here is important to me. I'm kumicho of my building and it's exhausting on top of often having weeks where I work 12 hour days doing emotionally straining work. When I lived in a bigger city, people treated me like a normal person and I was a known figure in the local community. Here, many people treat me with open suspicion and are wildly rude towards me for zero reason. Every time I start to think I'm just hallucinating it, I go back to where I used to live and I immediately feel more safe and relaxed and people act normal. I am proficient in terms of language but to be honest, some of the things people say to me (usually discriminatory remarks towards people other than myself) make me wish I couldn't understand Japanese.
I've been in Osaka for 24 years and am considering a move to the countryside, except for the ONE thing I expected you surely were going to mention in this video: critters. A friend of mine moved to a rural part of Ishikawa a couple years ago and she tells me all kinds of stories of finding mukade (giant poisonous centipedes) and huntsman spiders inside her home, not to mention suzumebachi (giant Japanese wasps) buzzing about outside. Not sure that's something I could get used to...
I’d prefer the countryside. You soon tire of the overcrowded subways and shopping malls. In saying that, if I was to live in a city or near a city, I’d prefer a city the size of Nagasaki which is a bit more laidback than say Tokyo or even Fukuoka.
Agreed. I have lived in Fukuoka and love it, but there many smaller cities just as pleasant. Sorry, but Nagasaki is too hilly for me, I do a lot of bicycling and it is almost impossible in Nagasaki.
I really appreciate the things you said about learning Japanese and putting effort into being a part of the community. I can't stress enough how important it is to learn Japanese if you're moving to Japan! In my opinion, this is true even if you live in a major city. Why move to a whole other country if you're not going to participate in the culture and community? How can you participate in a culture you can't understand? How can you find community if you can't talk to your neighbours? You don't have to be native level, but something around N3 shouldn't be difficult to achieve with modern study methods and actually living in the country surrounded by native speakers. If you can't discuss the weather, or local politics, or ask your neighbour about their sick mother or how their son is doing in school AND UNDERSTAND THE ANSWER, how can you expect people to treat you as one of them? More importantly if you're not willing to put in the effort to learn their language and their ways, why should they bother? The number of people who move to Japan and CBA to learn Japanese and are content with hanging out with their other expat friends, treating the country like an amusement park and the people like funny animals in a zoo for them to coo over is shameful to me. Just learn the language! Anki is free and Bunpro is $5 a month it's not THAT hard lol
None of your business dumbo, no one asked for your opinion, no one cares if you think someone else needs to learn some language. Mind your own business retardo
One of the big issues I would have with living in the Japanese countryside vs. the city is the food choices - even when I want to cook at home. In the countryside the range of food ingredients is strikingly smaller than in the city. And again, when you want to go out to eat the choices are going to be limited and pretty much only within the range of standard Japanese cuisine. You might have a "Family Restaurant" chain in your vicinity but quite likely there will not even be a lot of those.
It always baffles me when foreigners come to America and Americans get upset they don’t speak English then goes to a different country and still gets upset no one speak English. lol. It’s crazy.
Precisely. It isn't just buying a packet of land but buying into a whole set of social mores and obligations. If you're not prepared for it, don't do it, because you won't enjoy life and will regret the move and will (perhaps ironically) leave another abandoned house.
I am autistic. Isolation doesn’t bother me. There are some aspects that I’m not thrilled about, but I think it would be perfect. I’d be. I’d be happy. It sounds like I’d be much more active there than I am now. This would be a good thing for me because I’m too easily able to withdraw from the world. It has been a struggle to keep active and having a social obligation would be good for me. I am one of them. I’m definitely aging, I am retired.
I remembered watching a female Japanese TH-camr who was sexually harassed and threatened. By an old man who had a high position in the small town. The other old seniors didn't help her. Smh
I would like rural Japan. The only thing that would be difficult would be language, but with real time translation now available, I think that could be dealt with. I enjoy being around animals and gardening.
Possibly can get a mix of both and just move to a small town area rather a village, still get the modern conviences but still have some semblance to the countryside
If you do move ro rhe countryside, think about how close you are to the nearest fully functioning hospital with a 24hr emergency room. Japan actually has a strangely fragmented health service, and even when an ambulance does show up, they could spend longer on the phone working out where to take you. If you are going to live in rural Japan, only have accidents or need emergency treatment between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
I'm ok with living in rural Japan...here in the US I live in a urban/rural area. City life twenty five minutes away but two minutes away there's horses, cattle, sheep and farms growing all types of fruits and vegetables. I have two vehicles so getting around is easy.
I lived in a small city in Ibaraki for seven months. It was tough to get by without speaking the language and especially not being able to read. Once you knew where things were, it wasn't so bad, but it absolutely wasn't as rural as in this video. There were still supermarkets, some conbinis, and it was only a two hour bus trip to Tokyo. I had a car for my work as an English teacher which I could use outside work, but I think it was speed limited to about 80 kmh so I couldn't use motorways. The first couple of months were extremely isolating, especially because back in 2002 I couldn't get a mobile phone and could only access email at work (and was charged for it). The only ATM I could use was at the post office, and most stores didn't accept my Australian bank credit cards. By the time I left, I wanted to stay longer. I think living in a more rural area would be easier now than it was twenty years ago. I'd suggest looking for a happy medium if "real" rural living is too hard. A small city might have more facilities and work opportunities while not being as stressful as a big city like Tokyo or Osaka.
In the beginning it is always tough but after a bit it gets easier. I could not live in a big city living in a tiny little apartment. It would drive me crazy.
@larrikinjapan I lived in a small apartment in Ibaraki but a friend who lived in Tokyo said it was big! 😅 My wife's apartment in Yokohama is a good size. You're right, if you hang in, a more rural lifestyle can be good. 👍
I lived in a rural location in Japan for four years in the 90's, but worked in central Tokyo, which was a nice contrast...despite the 2-hour commute every morning and evening. Cycling home in the summer from the local station to my apartment past Buddhist temples and paddy fields with the cicadas chirruping in the trees was magical.
As someone born and raised in rural Alabama, all of these problems sound incredibly familiar. Youth flight, aging populations, isolated, nothing to do… But on top of that we don’t even have the bare minimum of public service, we don’t have festivals, and community is limited to church gatherings - not even touching on how the majority of people in rural areas have lost their minds over the last decade and have become increasingly hostile. If I could learn the language and find work, I’d honestly prefer living there to here from the sounds of it…
@CB-sx8xh it seems full most of the time. The problem with more frequent services is that I think they only have the two train sets, and the timing with the low speeds on the line makes it impossible to have a train going each way more often. I wish they could have a tilt train to increase the speeds without straightening the line. Shizuoka has diesel tilt trains which would be good except that they're narrow gauge.
Sounds like rural areas in Nebraska. Conservative, depopulated, laid back, interdependent. Traditional too. The big difference would be Nebraska towns where large numbers of immigrants were brought in to work in meat processing plants.
@@davidbudka1298 planning to buy near Lincoln Nebraska and within 90 minutes of Buffalo or Rochester. New York. I can go into the city fir 4 or 5 days whenever I want Twice a month is enough or 2 or 3 days every 5 or 6 Travelling frequently for 68 years. Father was a pilot Grew up in Tokyo and Seattle, born in Hiyama. Kanzgawa. I can live 30 minutes out of Fukuoka Go into the city whenever I want. I can live 1 hour from downtown Kyoto. Japan is tiny compared to America, which is nearly 3x India.
@ understandable. Many years it can be extremely snowy, other years it can just be very cold! Ice storms are the worst! During the Spring we get severe thunderstorms and tornadoes! Nebraska “isn’t for everybody.” However, I love being in rural regions, and I can relate somewhat to conservative and traditional people.
G'Day. I live in Matsumoto-shi Nagano. When i was young I lived in Kobe; it was perfect, I went clubbing every weekend. Moved to Canada for seven years (with my girlfriend, now wife) and moved back to Japan in 2007. We (I) decided to move to the Matsumoto valley because it is beautiful, and the ski resorts are only an hour away. We live on the outskirts and have 1500 sq. meters of fields, enough to grow whatever we may need. Sometimes I think, living a little bit further from the city would be good, but as Larrikin points out, only a ghost town will await you; it may seem OK now, but you will get old too, in time.
Just came across your videos. I’ve been living in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture for over 33 years now. When our sons were young and we’d be out at a restaurant people sitting nearby were surprised to hear our sons speaking Mikawa-ben. I’ll be 71 in December and I retired April 1st. My oldest son and his family live in Osaka and the youngest lives in Okazaki with his family. I like Okazaki because it’s easy to drive to the ocean (Atsumi Peninsula) or down to Mikawa Bay. It’s also easy to drive into the mountains as well. I’m a country boy at heart, but we moved from California to my wife’s hometown a long time ago. No regrets.
Hi Michael, I don’t know you but I know of you. I taught in Okazaki for 8 or 9 years for the BoE. I moved to my wife’s hometown ,too. I like living here 10 minute drive to Mikawa bay.
I believe it depends where in japan at least regarding the social integration. Areas like Kyoto ate very conservative while Kochi is really welcoming .
I'm interested in finding a rural place. Ive been looking at properties around Kyushu, mainly looking at Oita prefecture. No reason other than because its remote.
Such a lovely place. I have never been to Japan and I really hope I get to go there one day. Of course I'll look around in the cities, but I really wanna see the countryside there. I'm not worry about a car, I prefer my bike and trains so that fits me perfectly. Only thing I need to do is learn the language and learn to read it.
The only point I would disagree with you on is the music festivals. Plenty of music in the rural areas from spring to autumn, but you need to be in the know.
As long as there is a significant area or population within a 15 - 20 minute drive, I'm good. Rural area on the outskirts of the city is the absolute perfect setting.
In the American West and Midwest, they have similar issues. In medium-sized towns, they have shopping centers where there are things like Walmart, Starbucks, CVS, Kroger, and Pizza Hut as well as stores like Tractor Supply. The towns might only be 3,000 but the service needs and entertainment for a hundred square miles. This is possible because of cars and pickup trucks. This sounds like a bad idea, but it strikes me such shopping centers might be something that could help with the depopulation of the rural areas in Japan. Planners will hate this as a solution, this is how it works in the real world here.
I don't think how many of you is concerned but who you are is more important. If you respect our culture and rules, never behave like the curds here, then we have no reason not to welcome you.
@@adurasarangheyo9597 What I'm trying to say is we don't really have any problem to have many foreigners here if they respect our culture and follow our rules unlike those curds live here. I don't know if you know what they are doing in japan though they have been causing troubles in my country.
@@キジトラたろ Ignore or participate in the local culture? Also the only strange social norms in Japan are the gifting culture and age over senority. The other rules are very basic and universal.
I am a bit confused because the shown areas partially look like rural areas from the region in Germany where I come from 😅 Imagine going thousands of kilometers away just to be someplace very reminiscent of what you already know 😂 Even the vibe of the dialects feels a bit similar to how dialects in rural areas here work. Not that that's a bad thing but I kind of like it and it is remarkable aswell as good to cheerish comonalities 🙏😊
Isolation was a real struggle for me. People appeared friendly but the inability to understand created a feeling of isolation. And I was miserable. Learn conversational Japanese before moving to Japan.
@larrikinjapan my wife is from Asahikawa in Hokkaido. So I was treated well. It's not really anything they did to make me feel isolated. It's that I didn't take the time to learn to speak. Being in proximity to other people is unfortunately not the cure for feeling isolated. You need to be able to communicate and interact with them in meaningful ways. My wife didn't want to be my full time translator which I can understand. The end result, even though I was surrounded by friendly people, was the same feeling of isolation. That being said not everyone has this problem. Other people in the same situation as I was in adapt just fine. Since this is such a common problem I suggest, in addition to learning conversational Japanese, move there a few months if you can afford to on a trial basis. If you are young and can live on low wages maybe try out the JET program for a year. Dip your toes in before jumping in the deep end, if you know what I mean.
I would love to live in rural Japan…but I do not have a car…and that makes it very difficult. So I did the next best thing and live in a bigger city in the “Inaka”
It's not for everybody but some say it has some advantages. Such as lower cost of living, more opportunity to learn Japanese. Often in the cities you'll run into Japanese who want to speak English. This is an obstacle for you to learn Japanese so the countryside can be better for learning Japanese. Also for some jobs such as teaching at an elementary, junior or high school, there are more opportunities and better pay in rural areas because there is more demand for foreigners to teach English. In the cities there are many foreigners so supply is not an issue and pay may be lower for some teaching jobs. However the declining birth rate in rural areas may change this and demand for English teachers may drop in the future. I've lived in both rural and urban areas and enjoyed both but the cost of living is much higher in urban areas.
I have been living in rural Japan for almost 25 years (lived in Tokyo for 15 years before that). I think the issue you raise has as much to do with living in a small town as it does with Japan. Obviously if you dont speak the language, you cant expect to have an easy time of it. That shouldnt require explanation. The issues of "isolation" and "social integration", however, are points that need a little bit more context. Having grown up in a very rural area of the US, much of the social "standoffishness" that you describe has been a far greater problem for my wife -- who is Japanese -- than for me. I guess my expectations about what things are important to my rural neighbors are more in tune with how they actually behave. If you move into a tiny town in Iowa or Cornwall, I bet you find the same sort of difficulties. I can recall how even when I graduated from high school, people in my home town still referred to our farm as "the old Roberts place". Ive had the same experience here - after a quarter century, only now are people in town starting to see us as "part of the community". If acceptance and a busy social life are priorities for you, then certainly rural Japan is a poor choice of domicile. But those who understand what its like to live in a rural area, and want that slow-paced lifestyle, Japan is one of the best places I can think of, to live. Inexpensive land and housing, good education and a pretty comfortable standard of living, even if all you are capable of doing is teaching English.
I wouldnt mind rural Japan living at all. Especially if I can catch a train to Tokyo for the weekend or something like that. I feel like I could import some friends to the area. 😂😂 maybe im just silly.
Agreed. I lived in a country town in Australia for a couple of years, and it had many of the same issues; not much entertainment, not a lot of choice in shops, cafes, restaurants etc. You will be especially isolated if you don't have a car. People in the countryside tend to be a close-knit communities and it's hard to be accepted. So in rural Japan you can have all those issues plus the language and culture challenges.
I would like to live in rural japan, but what are the overheads like? Could you live on a farm and be self-sufficient, or would the land rates and taxes be too much?
What would prevent one from moving to a rural area buy some land, and growing crops or cattle. I always thought it would be neat to rear cattle over there and sell/make American steaks/burgers over there. Of course my plan was to retire off of dividends somewhere similar, where my dollar makes a kings.
Good points, another major one is outside towns and cities it's common for people treat foreigners as lesser/transient/not a person like them and not normal people, even if you own a house. That kind of thing happens in a lot of countrys but there it is visually obvious when you're a foreigner
@larrikinjapan yes, get used to. But you will always be "other" or a "pet gaijin" in any social setting no matter how good your japanese and knowledge of the culture is. Rural is like that much more that built-up areas. Still better that what happens in a lot of other countries though.
If I live in an area with a high proportion of foreigners, there will always be some who behave badly. Where I am the only foreigner, the attitude of the locals towards foreigners will soon be shaped entirely by me. Since I am not looking for a job and will be fluent in Japanese in a year or two, the visa issue is the only problem.
Good video, looks so empty in the streets, I can understand your warning to folks considering moving there. You really need to lean on teaching english locally, and the internet, to meet people.
I would like that. I am 60, and live in a se Asian country, in a small village, and speak the language perfectly, there are perks to living in the country in Japan that we don't have here, but I am too old to change. We also have community obligations, and you must do those things. I have no excuse not to, as I am acculturated, but I think they go easy on new guys. Or they are too new to feel the obligation, and don't care. 😅 We have to clean the small roads in the village, and the ditches, and provide our share of food for those who don't have enough, a lot of different things, but usually it's an excuse to chit chat with the local people.
I wouldn't live in a rural area in my own country, especially in a small community. So I woul never do it in an unfamiliar culture. Trying to fit in such an environment is often way more difficult than fitting in a large cosmopolitan area.
@@larrikinjapan It's the ideal situation. Because, unlike in a big town, you have no choice but to put up with the way those few people perceive you. Not all small communities are so welcoming, and even when they don't see you as a threat or an intruder, they can sometimes breed resentment between eachothers.
As a city slicker I cannot imagine living in the rural areas of my own country, let alone a foreign one and that too a foreign country whose language I'm no good at. More power to those who want to live in the rural areas but a lot of people just plain don't want to do it no matter which country they're from.
I would be willing to live in rural japan, if a criteria of prerequisites could be met. These prerequisites would be: Steady employment that pays enough for my needs and desires, a decent place to stay, some form of support structure (friends or family), and a mastery of the Japanese language. We humans are social creatures and rely on one another to maintain our standards of living. Lone wolves don't last long in the wild, and that is especially true regarding foreigners in japan. I would love to connect with a rural community in japan and enjoy the fun and adventures japan has to offer. But, you would SERIOUSLY have to do your homework ahead of time. And most importantly, learn and abide by their etiquette and social rules. People in japan live and die by societal acceptance. So you better be extremely charismatic and respectful. There is also the fact Japan is a very insular and socially tight-nit society. Many Japanese folk do not let outsiders in their social circles that easily if at all. And racism exists there as well. Long story short, there is more pitfalls and difficulties for foreigners trying to integrate in Japanese society than there are craters on the moon. Is it possible? absolutely, yes. Is it easy? No. But if you DID manage to do it and make it work, I bet it could be very fun and rewarding.
how is the coverage with high speed internet (landline & mobile) in those rural areas? i might be fine if there's not much going on in the neighborhood, but i can't without proper internet access to stay somewhat connected.
I couldn't live like that. Not only because I've read that you need to be very involved with the community (I am a total introvert), but because of the nasty critters especially huge spiders.
I think I would like living in rural Japan. I'm a countryside person who loved growing up in a remote town anyway and the city is just too much for me. But it's not an option if there are no jobs. My country has the same issue actually, people are moving away from the countryside because there are no jobs. Me, too, I can't find a job in the countryside, but I would rather live there.
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I live in rural Japan, and moved here in 2009 to build a house and raise a family with my Japanese wife on a 5-acre farm. It is isolated, but to me that's a perk! It's so quiet and at night we only hear the wildlife: deer, owls, boars, foxes and tanuki. I'll take this any day over sirens, car alarms, sub-woofers, stereos, TVs and loud drunken parties. The neighbors keep a distance and that's fine. Our closest city is 45 minutes away by car. If I was in my 20s or 30s, I wouldn't like it, but now in my 60s I like the space, privacy and solitude.
Very similar to me. I have lived in the countryside since 1996. I couldn’t live in a city.
"over sirens, car alarms, sub-woofers, stereos, TVs and loud drunken parties."
That doesn't happen in Japanese suburbs and most parts of a city either.
Asian cultures have always seemed good to me and I did toy with the idea of living there. If you are interested, I would like to learn more about your experience while living, their practices with government, participation in the community, what the community requires of you, what the people are like... all those kinds of things. I'm really interested and I would still like to go to Japan. I am running out of time unless my Android comes online quickly. :-) I know very little japanese, 70 years old and hoping they have good street signs.
❤❤❤❤
exactly my plan. awesome to hear a kindred spirit. how do the kids like it? do they have friends? school?
I mean, if you're a young person, living in a rural area is kinda depressing. But if you are retired and want a nice quiet place, rural is probably a good choice.
@@nhitc6832 I used to teach college anx university 14.5 hours a week with 5 months paid vacation in Tokyo and Saudi Arabia This is not the life of a typical Japanese salaryman Adding stocks capital gains, dividends and my wifes income, I doubled my household income. What 90% of Japanese workers especially those under 40 has no bearing on my life or lifestyle. 8 years ago I had 4 cars in 3 countries. I am not like 90% of Japanese people.
But what is the difference between rural Japan, and rural wherever you're from? Probably not that much.
@danielch6662 Japan is unique from other countries Spent 17 years there.
Aussie here, living on the Pacific coast in Mie, in a tiny fishing village of around 400. It's a 15 minute drive to shops, we have our own doctor. Peaceful, beautiful, friendly. Wouldn't have it any other way. Of course it is possible thanks to the convenience fast internet has given us. Embrace technology, make the move!
I'm an Aussie to and love Japan.
Can I ask your age as reference to myself of 64.
I've lived in isolated parts of Australia and understand what living a quiet is like..take care Aussie 🙃
Wife & I are looking around Toba or Wakayama
Almost no Japanese youth wants to live in a rural area.
Let that sink in. The fact is, you have to have an insane level of commitment to be accepted in a rural community.
Another thing to consider. Quite a few Japanese city dwellers have the same idea and buy a house dirt cheap and move to a rural area like after they retire. I'd say well more than half end up regretting it.
Now, how harder it'd be if you are not familiar with all the unwritten cultural no-nos and not proficient in the language...
Some expats do seem to live happily, so i'm not saying it's impossible, but for most people it'll be super hard.
A lot of young people leave because there is not much to do and for employment not a lot of jobs. You get used to living in the countryside once the locals get to know you it’s pretty easy.
They can ignore me till I die. I dont care.
as per yr last part of your last sentence, are you implying there is no need for the BLUE PILL ??
@@deadby15 They will barely see me
@@deadby15 They ask my wife, where is your husband? He is on a business trip. He is visiting his goat farm in Pakistan of his condo in Nha Trang. I will be a phantom to the locals.
I'm an introvert so I didn't mind living in rural Japan. But going on my 3rd year in rural Japan, I miss human interaction. The isolation is real. I have JLPT N3 and can speak and understand Japanese but I have 0 Japanese friend until now. I'm planning to move to a big city soon. I'm done with rural Japan. Even an introvert like me feels so lonely. It's crazy.
Hope you make some friends in the city
the key is to have something to do and people with similar interests would come by. being a Chinese from rural China that lived in Borneo now rural Japan I would say it is the same everywhere.
remember that deeds is what matters more than words.
@@shadowmod3 thank you. yes I know what you mean. I join sports events here as well. I have a lot of friends here but 99% are foreigners as well. 😂
I am from the rural area in Eastern Europe. The only disadvantages for me are the lack of workplaces, lower chances of finding a wife and the lack of emergency services. Remember, if you get injured in the countryside, you'll have to wait a while for the ambulance to arrive. And sometimes that can be the difference between life and death. I'm speaking from experience.
Countryside isn't boring, you have to find entertainment for yourself, don't wait for others. You can equip your home gym, playing musical instrument, watch movie at home, exercise in nature and all other things
@@vladimirpopovic8136 bonsai farming real estate projects finacial matkets businesses To busy, active to be bored In 10 to 15 cities a year.
@@vladimirpopovic8136 agree. Bonsai cooking designing remodeling too busy to be bored
I think there's a regulation for noise in japan
I think it's a matter of age more than a matter of preference. I am 24 I grew up in a rural area of my country, I moved to the city when I turned 18, and I loved it ever since. The amount of people you meet, entertainment you have, and all the possibilities of a city still excites me to this day.
But I sometimes this noisy life gets tiring and I come back to my grandmothers and grandfathers house in a rural area to rest and recharge, I meet my old friends there living peacefully. But after 3 days of rest it gets boring real fast to me.
I do get the appeal both city and rural lifestyle and both are needed. But currently I like the city more, I think it's because of my age and my current goals in life.
But I do see myself getting old like my grandfather and living with my wife in a rural area enjoying simple and peaceful life. Just like my grandparents
I think when you are young the city is great I grew up in Sydney had a blast. Now I am older the pace of the country is right up my alley.
The only reason I would be hesitant to live in rural Japan is the same reason why I would be hesitant to live in rural America: I prefer city life, infrastructure, shopping, culture, and conveniences, and I don't want to own a car and be forced to drive it everywhere, everyday, for everything.
The ideal living situation for me would be an apartment in the city with a small rural recreation property near a small town with a train station on a line that goes relatively directly to the city.
To learn Japanese, it is best to go someplace where no one speaks English. I went to college at Okayama U. in the 1970s. I met only one English speaker, and only saw him a few times. I spent a lot of time in the country then and later, but I prefer a medium sized city such as Okayama or Hiroshima.
I had one hilarious experience. A young Japanese American women visited the campus. She spoke no Japanese, so I escorted her around the town. We had a good time. People did a double take when she spoke English and I interpreted into Japanese!
I strongly recommend learning Japanese in a structured class in the U.S. before you go.
Up until around 2000, they had no internet service in the countryside. Now they have it, so you are less isolated. The downside is you are tempted to watch English TV and TH-cam. While I am on the subject: a lot of Japanese internet TV is geo-restricted. To watch Japanese internet TV from overseas you need a VPN. You wonder why they geo-restrict things. They don't want people watching their programs? They think no one in the U.S. speaks Japanese? Weird.
Where I live no one around here speaks English. That is strange that they gel-restrict the shows.
Japan has bizarre copyright laws. It’s counterproductive to spreading their culture.
@@JedRothwell I plan to buy a house in Setouchi, Okayama, Kyoto prefecture , Fukuoka and Nagano, but only in Japan 5 or 6 months max.
@@JedRothwell Elon musk - Starlink!
All countries geo restrict content, it's about licensing rights and is nothing uniquely Japanese. Even netflix catalogue varies from country to country.
I'm 41 and would love to live there. I enjoy the peace and outdoors.
at the end of yr vid. I've lived in several big cities over 5 mill. seoul, osaka,melb and spent a month in each of orlando, guangzho and bangkok. i am worn out with crowds and currently live in the outskirts of a 90k small city, i grow many vegies and fruit and go dumpster diving. i prefer this life at this age. good vid. okini !
@@adurasarangheyo9597 same
Been living rurally in south-west Japan since 1999 and you couldn't pay me enough to live in a city or even a town area, ever again! Hard work keeping the farm upkeep in summer, but I wouldn't change it.
I know exactly what you mean
I was raised in the countryside and when I taught English in Thailand, I lived in the countryside. It was fun to do my tefl certification in a large city but I never did enjoy the nightlife, shopping and partying that my classmates did. I am the type of person who is more comfortable with my hands in the dirt.
I'd rather have my hands in other more enjoyable objects...
@@yootoober2009 😉
The places you are describing are rural indeed. But there are very accessible rural areas as well. Take Atami for example. 1 hour 45 minutes to Tokyo by regular train and 39 minutes by bullet train to Tokyo. One can buy a secondhand home for 5,000,000 Yen or $35,000 USD. Live close to the ocean, eat the best seafood and veggies, and make a trip Tokyo when you get the itch for a big city.
The average price of a used home in Atami is considerably cheaper than 50 million yen. You can buy a large second-hand house for 10 million to 20 million yen in Atami City . Atami City is close to the sea and is a popular area among foreigners.
@ wow, I’ve never seen a house so cheap in Atami. One 20 year old house in ShimoTaga with great views and sun recently sold for over 50,000,000 Yen or $350k. Another one is on the market for 45,000,000 Yen. But I have seen very old homes built on land that needs significant erosion proofing sell for 1/10 of that.
Atami and Kakegawa are great but I don't know if you can really consider a town with a shinkansen stop countryside.
@ there are many farms and fishing villages near Atami. Atami proper, the area with the resorts, certainly is not rural but the outskirts certainly are as far as lifestyle and atmosphere goes.
Sounds nice. Far enough from Tokyo that you don’t have to deal with the place every day but close enough that it’s easy to get to when you have to.
If you have troubles in your home country, you will have them in Japan. Moving doses not change who you are.
If the troubles ARE the country and its decisions, they might. Just gotta check if they have a similar degree of issues before you plan to leave.
In the end it depends on a lot of factors. While I've never lived in the Japanese countryside, I have spent a lot of time there (especially in Gunma-ken), and I did live for a while in an area best described as semi-rural - a short train ride away from the downtown area with its department store and shotengai, but my apartment was also a short walk from an endless stretch of rice fields where I used to go for walks in the morning. In my late 20s/early 30s I lived in Tokyo and could never have seen myself being anywhere else, but as I got older the idea of moving away from the urban center became more appealing. Now that I'm in my early 60s I could see myself retiring to a home in the countryside.
As for work, there are many examples of gaijin decamping to the inaka and starting up businesses such as cafes or restaurants. I knew of one Canadian who quit English teaching and moved to a rural corner of Kanagawa-ken where he built guitars.
You have been here a long time. When you get older the countryside is a nice pace.
Gunma is a nice, green place. I used to live there in a small town (hey, we might have bumped into each other!). I would love to go back. Maybe someday...
Added problem with community obligations especially on the North Island. Plowing/Shovelling snow for evryone when you may be one of the handful of people left young enough to shovel snow can literally be back breaking.
I'm going to be real. I've seen a bunch of foreigners who are influencers hyping buying houses in the country side, but I feel like they are going to ruin things.
You are right there are a lot of channels push to buy Akiya’s. Some people are buying them on short term visas. What happens if they can’t get work and renew their visa. I have permanent residency I built my house 20 years ago.
@@larrikinjapan New laws allow Japan to even take away your PR if you don't do several things.
Lmao how. It's already being ruined by people moving out to seek greener pastures. Blaming foreigners has got to be the Japanese national pastime istg.
Because any foreigners like people like you who cant understand why they wouldnt want you there make it crappy. @sanjeev.rao3791
Your right about those influencers. They make it sound it is very easy to come into Japan and carefully omitted the important point. Buying the Akiya is the easy part. Emigrating into Japan is extremely difficult especially they have a zero immigration policy. Meaning you can buy the house but that doesn’t guarantee you can stay here. BTW, I live in Japan for 13 years.
Looks like here in my village in Sweden not many wonders the streets here, got lots of cars driving through though but that´s it. Further out on the countryside there are not many cars driving though.
I divide my time between urban Taiwan and rural Hokkaido and it's perfection.
Hokkaido is very cold in winter
Where are you from originally?
@ Australia born in Sydney and was living on the Gold Coast before coming to Japan.
@@larrikinjapan No I meant the guy who started this thread, guess I should have been more specific 😅
@@Serjo777 okay what PilotedRobots?
Isolation is honestly the reason I want to move to rural Japan. I'm a loner and always have been. I want a place where I can be alone. I spend as much time as I can alone already. I am learning Japanese though, so I will be able to speak to people. No matter what, I'm sure that'll be necessary.
Where I live is nice no traffic, just peace and quiet.
I would prefer having access to the internet so that i can peruse online resources and materials or work remotely. Do you believe it might be possibly to bring a generator and find some way to access the internet? (I obviously don't know much about what this would involve.)
Most places in Japan have optic fiber very fast internet and electricity so you would have no problems.
@@larrikinjapan That's nice to know. I do a good bit of my job online and if I make a move like that I'm sure that would increase.
Basically, living in rural Japan is the same as living in any rural area. However, you have the added difficulty of not knowing the language.
I lived in Okinawa and Tokyo from 1970 to 72 but i learned enough Japanese in those 2 short years to be able to get around, socialize and enjoy myself. It helped that my own language is constructed closer to Japanese than English. But even that did not prevent me from joining the US military and retire 24 years later.
Anyone can learn any language if you really want to.... especially if your life or happiness depend on it...
@@yootoober2009 Well said
Thank you, good information. Sounds much like where I live, in rural 🇮🇪 even the language aspect -can't tell if my neighbor is speaking Irish, or just has an amazing accent!
You’re welcome
I’m an American from New York and I lived in rural China. I don’t think rural Japan would ever be a challenge for me. In fact, it would be a beautiful experience.
if u could handle rural China then rural Japan would be a walk in the park. I hailed from the western rurals of Changsha where civilization was almost non existent!
picked up Japanese through daily interaction with the locals and recently English through internet gaming and 90s rock music.
there are also alot of similarity when it comes to mindset and culture, just have to retool the mindset a bit but if made it in rural China, rest assured its no sweat.
and rural folks here aren't as nosy and way way nicer!
I studied in Nagaoka, Niigata, during the 1980s, a snowy region with only four bus services a day to the city center from the campus, which was located in a rice-growing area. If I missed the last bus, I had to walk for about an hour through deep snow to save on taxi fare, which cost around 10,000 yen.😊
It would cost a lot more now.
Loved the tour through the countryside. Looks so relaxing. Would suit me perfectly. Would like for your post to have included some of the traditions of rural Japan. What kind of festivals are important to them? Etc. ...what they like and dislike about Americans and foreigners in general,?
I might make a video on those things. I will have to do a bit of research on it first.
I started to learn the language when I have a good skill I will start thinking about moving.
Thanks for your videos, thats the inside of Japan I really need.
That's great!
I live in the countryside with no car. I hate it. I moved to Japan because I wanted to live in a country with good public transportation. I will stick it out for about 10 years because what I'm doing here is important to me. I'm kumicho of my building and it's exhausting on top of often having weeks where I work 12 hour days doing emotionally straining work. When I lived in a bigger city, people treated me like a normal person and I was a known figure in the local community. Here, many people treat me with open suspicion and are wildly rude towards me for zero reason. Every time I start to think I'm just hallucinating it, I go back to where I used to live and I immediately feel more safe and relaxed and people act normal. I am proficient in terms of language but to be honest, some of the things people say to me (usually discriminatory remarks towards people other than myself) make me wish I couldn't understand Japanese.
Sounds like you are having a rough time. I don’t have any real problems where I am. It’s tough working 12 hour days. Take care of yourself.
I would so love to live in a place like this. Quiet, nature, it sounds like a dream.
I've been in Osaka for 24 years and am considering a move to the countryside, except for the ONE thing I expected you surely were going to mention in this video: critters. A friend of mine moved to a rural part of Ishikawa a couple years ago and she tells me all kinds of stories of finding mukade (giant poisonous centipedes) and huntsman spiders inside her home, not to mention suzumebachi (giant Japanese wasps) buzzing about outside. Not sure that's something I could get used to...
We get plenty of them. They don’t bother me I am used to all those sort things being brought up in Australia.
I’d prefer the countryside. You soon tire of the overcrowded subways and shopping malls. In saying that, if I was to live in a city or near a city, I’d prefer a city the size of Nagasaki which is a bit more laidback than say Tokyo or even Fukuoka.
Agreed. I have lived in Fukuoka and love it, but there many smaller cities just as pleasant. Sorry, but Nagasaki is too hilly for me, I do a lot of bicycling and it is almost impossible in Nagasaki.
And to some people the isolation and inconvenience also gets very tiring.
@@mikaellarsson7932 Setouchi, Okayama is nice population 700k
@@mrbHanoi I am sure Setouchi, Okayama is nice. But I think I am stuck with Kyushu, have too many friends etc. Arigato!
Nice video! I should be working there next year. I definitely want to be in the city.
I really appreciate the things you said about learning Japanese and putting effort into being a part of the community. I can't stress enough how important it is to learn Japanese if you're moving to Japan! In my opinion, this is true even if you live in a major city. Why move to a whole other country if you're not going to participate in the culture and community? How can you participate in a culture you can't understand? How can you find community if you can't talk to your neighbours? You don't have to be native level, but something around N3 shouldn't be difficult to achieve with modern study methods and actually living in the country surrounded by native speakers. If you can't discuss the weather, or local politics, or ask your neighbour about their sick mother or how their son is doing in school AND UNDERSTAND THE ANSWER, how can you expect people to treat you as one of them? More importantly if you're not willing to put in the effort to learn their language and their ways, why should they bother?
The number of people who move to Japan and CBA to learn Japanese and are content with hanging out with their other expat friends, treating the country like an amusement park and the people like funny animals in a zoo for them to coo over is shameful to me. Just learn the language! Anki is free and Bunpro is $5 a month it's not THAT hard lol
None of your business dumbo, no one asked for your opinion, no one cares if you think someone else needs to learn some language. Mind your own business retardo
One of the big issues I would have with living in the Japanese countryside vs. the city is the food choices - even when I want to cook at home. In the countryside the range of food ingredients is strikingly smaller than in the city. And again, when you want to go out to eat the choices are going to be limited and pretty much only within the range of standard Japanese cuisine. You might have a "Family Restaurant" chain in your vicinity but quite likely there will not even be a lot of those.
It always baffles me when foreigners come to America and Americans get upset they don’t speak English then goes to a different country and still gets upset no one speak English. lol. It’s crazy.
Thank you for your insight. The community obligations bit is never explained in detail much.
I know.
Precisely. It isn't just buying a packet of land but buying into a whole set of social mores and obligations. If you're not prepared for it, don't do it, because you won't enjoy life and will regret the move and will (perhaps ironically) leave another abandoned house.
I am autistic. Isolation doesn’t bother me. There are some aspects that I’m not thrilled about, but I think it would be perfect. I’d be. I’d be happy. It sounds like I’d be much more active there than I am now. This would be a good thing for me because I’m too easily able to withdraw from the world. It has been a struggle to keep active and having a social obligation would be good for me. I am one of them. I’m definitely aging, I am retired.
I remembered watching a female Japanese TH-camr who was sexually harassed and threatened. By an old man who had a high position in the small town. The other old seniors didn't help her. Smh
I think this happened everywhere not just small towns
@@larrikinjapan you're right
I would like rural Japan. The only thing that would be difficult would be language, but with real time translation now available, I think that could be dealt with.
I enjoy being around animals and gardening.
you would probably fit right in
Possibly can get a mix of both and just move to a small town area rather a village, still get the modern conviences but still have some semblance to the countryside
If you do move ro rhe countryside, think about how close you are to the nearest fully functioning hospital with a 24hr emergency room. Japan actually has a strangely fragmented health service, and even when an ambulance does show up, they could spend longer on the phone working out where to take you.
If you are going to live in rural Japan, only have accidents or need emergency treatment between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
I'm ok with living in rural Japan...here in the US I live in a urban/rural area. City life twenty five minutes away but two minutes away there's horses, cattle, sheep and farms growing all types of fruits and vegetables. I have two vehicles so getting around is easy.
I lived in a small city in Ibaraki for seven months. It was tough to get by without speaking the language and especially not being able to read. Once you knew where things were, it wasn't so bad, but it absolutely wasn't as rural as in this video. There were still supermarkets, some conbinis, and it was only a two hour bus trip to Tokyo. I had a car for my work as an English teacher which I could use outside work, but I think it was speed limited to about 80 kmh so I couldn't use motorways. The first couple of months were extremely isolating, especially because back in 2002 I couldn't get a mobile phone and could only access email at work (and was charged for it). The only ATM I could use was at the post office, and most stores didn't accept my Australian bank credit cards. By the time I left, I wanted to stay longer. I think living in a more rural area would be easier now than it was twenty years ago. I'd suggest looking for a happy medium if "real" rural living is too hard. A small city might have more facilities and work opportunities while not being as stressful as a big city like Tokyo or Osaka.
In the beginning it is always tough but after a bit it gets easier. I could not live in a big city living in a tiny little apartment. It would drive me crazy.
@larrikinjapan I lived in a small apartment in Ibaraki but a friend who lived in Tokyo said it was big! 😅 My wife's apartment in Yokohama is a good size. You're right, if you hang in, a more rural lifestyle can be good. 👍
I lived in a rural location in Japan for four years in the 90's, but worked in central Tokyo, which was a nice contrast...despite the 2-hour commute every morning and evening. Cycling home in the summer from the local station to my apartment past Buddhist temples and paddy fields with the cicadas chirruping in the trees was magical.
It would be nice change after being in Tokyo all day peace and quiet.
As someone born and raised in rural Alabama, all of these problems sound incredibly familiar. Youth flight, aging populations, isolated, nothing to do… But on top of that we don’t even have the bare minimum of public service, we don’t have festivals, and community is limited to church gatherings - not even touching on how the majority of people in rural areas have lost their minds over the last decade and have become increasingly hostile. If I could learn the language and find work, I’d honestly prefer living there to here from the sounds of it…
Once you settle in you don’t even think of it being another country.
2 trains an hour? Same as Newcastle to Sydney (if they are running on time lol).
That is funny
How about three trains a day between Canberra and Sydney? 😅
@@theharper1 I travelled that route a month ago. Every seat was full. Surely that would justify more services?
@CB-sx8xh it seems full most of the time. The problem with more frequent services is that I think they only have the two train sets, and the timing with the low speeds on the line makes it impossible to have a train going each way more often. I wish they could have a tilt train to increase the speeds without straightening the line. Shizuoka has diesel tilt trains which would be good except that they're narrow gauge.
@@CB-sx8xh I can drive 24/7.
Sounds like rural areas in Nebraska. Conservative, depopulated, laid back, interdependent. Traditional too. The big difference would be Nebraska towns where large numbers of immigrants were brought in to work in meat processing plants.
@@davidbudka1298 planning to buy near Lincoln Nebraska and within 90 minutes of Buffalo or Rochester. New York. I can go into the city fir 4 or 5 days whenever I want Twice a month is enough or 2 or 3 days every 5 or 6 Travelling frequently for 68 years. Father was a pilot Grew up in Tokyo and Seattle, born in Hiyama. Kanzgawa. I can live 30 minutes out of Fukuoka Go into the city whenever I want. I can live 1 hour from downtown Kyoto. Japan is tiny compared to America, which is nearly 3x India.
Nebraska seemed grim and monotonous to me during a summer, cross-country drive.
In the winter, I'd find Nebraska unbearable.
@@carpediem44 I only go there 1 month a year In foreign countries 10 months New York 1 month Hard to get bored
@ understandable. Many years it can be extremely snowy, other years it can just be very cold! Ice storms are the worst! During the Spring we get severe thunderstorms and tornadoes! Nebraska “isn’t for everybody.” However, I love being in rural regions, and I can relate somewhat to conservative and traditional people.
I would love to live in Japan's rural areas! 🥺
G'Day. I live in Matsumoto-shi Nagano. When i was young I lived in Kobe; it was perfect, I went clubbing every weekend. Moved to Canada for seven years (with my girlfriend, now wife) and moved back to Japan in 2007. We (I) decided to move to the Matsumoto valley because it is beautiful, and the ski resorts are only an hour away. We live on the outskirts and have 1500 sq. meters of fields, enough to grow whatever we may need. Sometimes I think, living a little bit further from the city would be good, but as Larrikin points out, only a ghost town will await you; it may seem OK now, but you will get old too, in time.
Just came across your videos. I’ve been living in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture for over 33 years now. When our sons were young and we’d be out at a restaurant people sitting nearby were surprised to hear our sons speaking Mikawa-ben. I’ll be 71 in December and I retired April 1st. My oldest son and his family live in Osaka and the youngest lives in Okazaki with his family. I like Okazaki because it’s easy to drive to the ocean (Atsumi Peninsula) or down to Mikawa Bay. It’s also easy to drive into the mountains as well. I’m a country boy at heart, but we moved from California to my wife’s hometown a long time ago. No regrets.
Hi Michael, I don’t know you but I know of you. I taught in Okazaki for 8 or 9 years for the BoE. I moved to my wife’s hometown ,too. I like living here 10 minute drive to Mikawa bay.
@ I hope we have a chance to meet sometime! I’ll spring for lunch. I’m retired so I have plenty of free time.
Sounds like a plan. I will take to that park.
I believe it depends where in japan at least regarding the social integration. Areas like Kyoto ate very conservative while Kochi is really welcoming .
Smaller places are more welcoming I also think it depends on how much effort you put in.
I'm interested in finding a rural place. Ive been looking at properties around Kyushu, mainly looking at Oita prefecture. No reason other than because its remote.
Such a lovely place. I have never been to Japan and I really hope I get to go there one day. Of course I'll look around in the cities, but I really wanna see the countryside there. I'm not worry about a car, I prefer my bike and trains so that fits me perfectly. Only thing I need to do is learn the language and learn to read it.
The only reason I would dream of moving to Japan is because of the urbanism, I've had too much rural life in the states! I do admit, it's beautiful
Fair enough
The only point I would disagree with you on is the music festivals. Plenty of music in the rural areas from spring to autumn, but you need to be in the know.
I am not into music so I’m not sure
As long as there is a significant area or population within a 15 - 20 minute drive, I'm good. Rural area on the outskirts of the city is the absolute perfect setting.
In the American West and Midwest, they have similar issues. In medium-sized towns, they have shopping centers where there are things like Walmart, Starbucks, CVS, Kroger, and Pizza Hut as well as stores like Tractor Supply. The towns might only be 3,000 but the service needs and entertainment for a hundred square miles. This is possible because of cars and pickup trucks. This sounds like a bad idea, but it strikes me such shopping centers might be something that could help with the depopulation of the rural areas in Japan. Planners will hate this as a solution, this is how it works in the real world here.
CONGRATS on the viewership. GAIJIN NO NINZU WA oi sugitara oretachi no daitsuki na nippon ga nakunaru shimpai wa nai ?
I don't think how many of you is concerned but who you are is more important. If you respect our culture and rules, never behave like the curds here, then we have no reason not to welcome you.
@@キジトラたろ gommena imi ga chotto wakaran.
@@adurasarangheyo9597 What I'm trying to say is we don't really have any problem to have many foreigners here if they respect our culture and follow our rules unlike those curds live here. I don't know if you know what they are doing in japan though they have been causing troubles in my country.
@@キジトラたろThere are Kurds there? Or curs?
@@キジトラたろ Ignore or participate in the local culture? Also the only strange social norms in Japan are the gifting culture and age over senority.
The other rules are very basic and universal.
I like living near water, lakes, rivers or the sea. Maybe a community near the sea would be good.
I am about a 10 minute drive to the water
Very informative.
Thanks
That's literally the reason I'd want to live there.
I am a bit confused because the shown areas partially look like rural areas from the region in Germany where I come from 😅
Imagine going thousands of kilometers away just to be someplace very reminiscent of what you already know 😂
Even the vibe of the dialects feels a bit similar to how dialects in rural areas here work.
Not that that's a bad thing but I kind of like it and it is remarkable aswell as good to cheerish comonalities 🙏😊
As long as there is Star Link, cheap food, and 30-40 minutes from a city then its good enough for me.
as Half Japanese I love staying in Rural Areas , Actually we have stayed there in my Grandparents home 🏡
I’d love to spend time in rural Japan to escape North American city life. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome
Isolation was a real struggle for me. People appeared friendly but the inability to understand created a feeling of isolation. And I was miserable. Learn conversational Japanese before moving to Japan.
Maybe different areas treat people differently. My wife grew up here so that probably makes a difference how they treat me.
@larrikinjapan my wife is from Asahikawa in Hokkaido. So I was treated well. It's not really anything they did to make me feel isolated. It's that I didn't take the time to learn to speak. Being in proximity to other people is unfortunately not the cure for feeling isolated. You need to be able to communicate and interact with them in meaningful ways. My wife didn't want to be my full time translator which I can understand. The end result, even though I was surrounded by friendly people, was the same feeling of isolation.
That being said not everyone has this problem. Other people in the same situation as I was in adapt just fine. Since this is such a common problem I suggest, in addition to learning conversational Japanese, move there a few months if you can afford to on a trial basis. If you are young and can live on low wages maybe try out the JET program for a year. Dip your toes in before jumping in the deep end, if you know what I mean.
I would love to live in rural Japan…but I do not have a car…and that makes it very difficult. So I did the next best thing and live in a bigger city in the “Inaka”
It's not for everybody but some say it has some advantages. Such as lower cost of living, more opportunity to learn Japanese. Often in the cities you'll run into Japanese who want to speak English. This is an obstacle for you to learn Japanese so the countryside can be better for learning Japanese. Also for some jobs such as teaching at an elementary, junior or high school, there are more opportunities and better pay in rural areas because there is more demand for foreigners to teach English. In the cities there are many foreigners so supply is not an issue and pay may be lower for some teaching jobs. However the declining birth rate in rural areas may change this and demand for English teachers may drop in the future. I've lived in both rural and urban areas and enjoyed both but the cost of living is much higher in urban areas.
I have been living in rural Japan for almost 25 years (lived in Tokyo for 15 years before that). I think the issue you raise has as much to do with living in a small town as it does with Japan. Obviously if you dont speak the language, you cant expect to have an easy time of it. That shouldnt require explanation. The issues of "isolation" and "social integration", however, are points that need a little bit more context.
Having grown up in a very rural area of the US, much of the social "standoffishness" that you describe has been a far greater problem for my wife -- who is Japanese -- than for me. I guess my expectations about what things are important to my rural neighbors are more in tune with how they actually behave. If you move into a tiny town in Iowa or Cornwall, I bet you find the same sort of difficulties. I can recall how even when I graduated from high school, people in my home town still referred to our farm as "the old Roberts place". Ive had the same experience here - after a quarter century, only now are people in town starting to see us as "part of the community". If acceptance and a busy social life are priorities for you, then certainly rural Japan is a poor choice of domicile.
But those who understand what its like to live in a rural area, and want that slow-paced lifestyle, Japan is one of the best places I can think of, to live. Inexpensive land and housing, good education and a pretty comfortable standard of living, even if all you are capable of doing is teaching English.
It’s not for everyone but as you get older the slower pace is preferable to the crazy pace of Japanese cities.
I feel like jobs and language are the main challenges for any foreign country
True enough
I would love to live in Rural Japan, but need to be near a sort of big city like Nagasaki or Sasebo...things like that.
I wouldnt mind rural Japan living at all. Especially if I can catch a train to Tokyo for the weekend or something like that. I feel like I could import some friends to the area. 😂😂 maybe im just silly.
Beat of both worlds
honestly, it applies to the countryside in any country.
Agreed. I lived in a country town in Australia for a couple of years, and it had many of the same issues; not much entertainment, not a lot of choice in shops, cafes, restaurants etc. You will be especially isolated if you don't have a car. People in the countryside tend to be a close-knit communities and it's hard to be accepted. So in rural Japan you can have all those issues plus the language and culture challenges.
I would like to live in rural japan, but what are the overheads like? Could you live on a farm and be self-sufficient, or would the land rates and taxes be too much?
Depending on how much land you have. My house is about $800 a year.
I would love to live in a quiet peaceful area steeped in tradition.
What would prevent one from moving to a rural area buy some land, and growing crops or cattle. I always thought it would be neat to rear cattle over there and sell/make American steaks/burgers over there. Of course my plan was to retire off of dividends somewhere similar, where my dollar makes a kings.
There is not enough land here to run cattle, crops would be okay.
@ that’s explains the lack of a cattle market from what I’ve seen.
Its rural life, bring in some savings and a spouse. Getting either of those in a rural setting is always hard.
Good points, another major one is outside towns and cities it's common for people treat foreigners as lesser/transient/not a person like them and not normal people, even if you own a house. That kind of thing happens in a lot of countrys but there it is visually obvious when you're a foreigner
Maybe to a point. Once you have been there a long time I think they get used to you.
@larrikinjapan yes, get used to.
But you will always be "other" or a "pet gaijin" in any social setting no matter how good your japanese and knowledge of the culture is. Rural is like that much more that built-up areas.
Still better that what happens in a lot of other countries though.
Not to mention the bears, Snakes, Civets, Deer that eat everything. Monkeys.Fox and badgers. The bears are the scary ones. But I love it all.
Around my area we get pretty of snakes, foxes, good size centipedes and badgers
If I live in an area with a high proportion of foreigners, there will always be some who behave badly. Where I am the only foreigner, the attitude of the locals towards foreigners will soon be shaped entirely by me. Since I am not looking for a job and will be fluent in Japanese in a year or two, the visa issue is the only problem.
I grew up in a farm area here in the US so I tend to enjoy the quiet life. I lived in San Diego for a few months and hated it
I could not live in a city
Two trains an hour, need to drive to get to places, no night life… So like Sydney pretty much.
But a lot cheaper than Sydney
Good video, looks so empty in the streets, I can understand your warning to folks considering moving there. You really need to lean on teaching english locally, and the internet, to meet people.
I would like that. I am 60, and live in a se Asian country, in a small village, and speak the language perfectly, there are perks to living in the country in Japan that we don't have here, but I am too old to change. We also have community obligations, and you must do those things. I have no excuse not to, as I am acculturated, but I think they go easy on new guys. Or they are too new to feel the obligation, and don't care. 😅 We have to clean the small roads in the village, and the ditches, and provide our share of food for those who don't have enough, a lot of different things, but usually it's an excuse to chit chat with the local people.
I like the idea of helping people in need.
My dream is to work and live in peace in rural Japan.
Make it come true. You will like it.
I would like to live in Hachinohe , I guess that is sort of medium sized.
I wouldn't live in a rural area in my own country, especially in a small community. So I woul never do it in an unfamiliar culture.
Trying to fit in such an environment is often way more difficult than fitting in a large cosmopolitan area.
It depends the people in my area are very kind easy to get along with.
@@larrikinjapan It's the ideal situation. Because, unlike in a big town, you have no choice but to put up with the way those few people perceive you.
Not all small communities are so welcoming, and even when they don't see you as a threat or an intruder, they can sometimes breed resentment between eachothers.
Awesome video!
Glad you enjoyed it
As a city slicker I cannot imagine living in the rural areas of my own country, let alone a foreign one and that too a foreign country whose language I'm no good at. More power to those who want to live in the rural areas but a lot of people just plain don't want to do it no matter which country they're from.
I could not imagine me living in a city.
Just two trains an hour! lol where I live it’s one train every few hours.
That’s bad
I would be willing to live in rural japan, if a criteria of prerequisites could be met. These prerequisites would be: Steady employment that pays enough for my needs and desires, a decent place to stay, some form of support structure (friends or family), and a mastery of the Japanese language. We humans are social creatures and rely on one another to maintain our standards of living. Lone wolves don't last long in the wild, and that is especially true regarding foreigners in japan. I would love to connect with a rural community in japan and enjoy the fun and adventures japan has to offer. But, you would SERIOUSLY have to do your homework ahead of time. And most importantly, learn and abide by their etiquette and social rules. People in japan live and die by societal acceptance. So you better be extremely charismatic and respectful. There is also the fact Japan is a very insular and socially tight-nit society. Many Japanese folk do not let outsiders in their social circles that easily if at all. And racism exists there as well. Long story short, there is more pitfalls and difficulties for foreigners trying to integrate in Japanese society than there are craters on the moon. Is it possible? absolutely, yes. Is it easy? No. But if you DID manage to do it and make it work, I bet it could be very fun and rewarding.
It’s no impossible there are many people doing it including me.
In short, the countryside is beautiful but boring and very inconvenient.
It depends on what you want. I like it it’s peaceful.
Sounds like France 😂
@@japanbobtuna I am in 4 countries 10 cities a year, how do I get bored even if in a rural area 80 to 90% of the time.
What do you reccomend for
Sorry i don't understand what you mean
@@larrikinjapan you know...
how is the coverage with high speed internet (landline & mobile) in those rural areas? i might be fine if there's not much going on in the neighborhood, but i can't without proper internet access to stay somewhat connected.
Internet is very fast here
I couldn't live like that. Not only because I've read that you need to be very involved with the community (I am a total introvert), but because of the nasty critters especially huge spiders.
And snakes
@@larrikinjapan And mukade, OMG, mukade creep me out the most.
The word "rural" is a tough one, innit mate? ;- )
When you say rural Japan, how far are you from a bigger city? Do you at least a small grocery store close by?
20 to 30 minutes to a small city a supermarket is about 3 km away.
I think I would like living in rural Japan. I'm a countryside person who loved growing up in a remote town anyway and the city is just too much for me. But it's not an option if there are no jobs. My country has the same issue actually, people are moving away from the countryside because there are no jobs. Me, too, I can't find a job in the countryside, but I would rather live there.
You can find work at the moment there are a lot of jobs in Japan
Depends where, if the colder north that are mostly pest free areas, might be better, yeah?
@@adcaptandumvulgus4252 Kyushu fall or spring Nagano or Hokkaido in summer