# Ibarachi



## Bon Jovi

Hello to all.
I am going over to Ibarachi in 6 weeks time for a 8 months contract.
Will be happy if I get in touch with people to hang out some evenings,going out for meals or just for a beer. or two...
I'm 42, male,with a GSOH.
Georgi


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## larabell

I don't know whether we have anyone on the forum, besides yourself, located in Ibrarki. But once you're here, if you find an opportunity to come down to Tokyo, feel free to PM me and I might be able to meet. You'll probably find that most of the forum contributors who actually live in Japan are concentrated around the Tokyo and Osaka areas.

That said, I've been to Ibrarki before and it's certainly a nice place.


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## Bon Jovi

Cheers Mod,
I am going to Tokyo next Wednesday to sort my driving license out.
Will be staying near Shinagawa train station for the night.
If you are free and are near the station,we can arrange a going out for a drink.
Will be nice to have a chat.
BR
Georgi


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## JamesInJapan

Hey once you get settled in I'd love to hear about your experiences with the transition, if you wouldn't mind.
As larabell mentioned, most foreigners in Japan tend to be around Tokyo/Osaka. 

It's not often I hear about people's experiences outside these areas. Especially not recent ones.


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## Bon Jovi

Hello James,
thanks for your interest.
Well, I work in the RES industry and it involves loads of travelling around,because it is project related.
I went to Tokyo yesterday to exchange my driving license.
Today I am hitting the road back to Aomori.
In a month time we should be moving to Ibaraki.
It is going to be a long project ,so I will settle there for a while.
Regards
Georgi


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## JamesInJapan

Nice! Ok so there are a few things I've been wondering.

Where I live, the bureaucratic infrastructure is pretty good at dealing with foreigners.
Not only the immigration office, but also the smaller offices tend to have staff whose English was good enough for me to go there alone before my Japanese was decent.
Another thing is finding a home, around big rural areas there are some agencies that are used to dealing with foreigners, and there are a decent amount of buildings that don't require guarantors, and I only ran into 1 case where I was flat-out denied because I am "a loud foreigner that will break the peace".

How about where you are? Do you basically need an interpreter to get anything official done? Can a person speaking little Japanese get by?
How was the house hunting process? Was it tricky to find a place?
How about daily life in general? Anything that should be easy but you feel is excessively complex or time consuming?
How about people's hospitality, and strangers randomly talking to you? I expect it is relatively friendly and talkative compared to a bigger town which is familiar with foreigners.

I'll start with that, I have more questions, but I don't want to overwhelm, lol.


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## Bon Jovi

Well,you can consider yourself lucky.
Here in Aomori,English is a problem....people just don't use it and it is a pain to do whatever.
I have a pocket phrase book and sometimes use phone to translate.
Even in the hotel,where I stay at the moment,nearly nobody speaks any English...so chat to the staff is very limited.
In the shops or the restaurants is the same - now and again you can meet some locals,that speak English,but in general is not in use.
About the accommodation,I don't know if it is hard or not,as the employer provides the housing,but what I know is,that they tend to rent unfurnished flats ,which is a bit odd to me,as the problem with finding furniture may be big.
For official needs,we use some of our colleagues to translate or to support when filling out forms...which often costs beer in a local pub in return...hahaha.
My biggest problem is finding european food or at least similar food to what we are used to.
The challenge gets bigger,when all info is in Japanese ,so one has no idea what they are buying.(Like when I got some "plain to be" yogurt and only realized it had sugar added to it,when got home...)
On the other hand,locals are very friendly and supportive,always smiling and very patient - completely opposite to what I am used to...hahaha.
Still no contact to girls thou...the main obstacle again is the lingo....
Best regards
Georgi


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## JamesInJapan

Thanks man!
It's basically along the lines I expected.

I guess this will be a good opportunity for you to get used to new kinds of food! 

I can make one recommendation that helped my family when they visited me, the google translate app has a camera mode that gives instant translation by pointing your phone at whatever, pretty useful since you likely can't type all the damn kanji!


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## Bon Jovi

Yes,I bet most of the newcomers hit the same obstacles.
What is the app you are talking about? 
About a month ago I read about a portable device,size of electronic cigar,that translates speech in real time,like you say something,then press the button and it repeats the phrase in the selected language.Very interesting thou. 
Internet price around 200 USD.
Have you or anyone used them to share if they are any good?
BR


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## JamesInJapan

Well here is the link to the Android version:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.translate&hl=en_US

I don't do Apple, so... if that's your think maybe someone else can help you 

The obstacles you ran into were not really a bit issue for me.
Here in Kobe basically everyone can speak some English, and enough people speak it well enough to get by without any Japanese. So you might actually learn Japanese a lot faster than big-city-foreigners might!

I haven't used that instant translating device, but it essentially does the same as that app above except without delays. With that app you can use the mic also and just have people speak into your phone and it will translate as they talk.

The translations are often broken, and you kind of have to decode the translation based on the situation to figure out the gist of what people meant to say.


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## Bon Jovi

Cheers man,
I will try it to see how well it works.
Being on the link wave,I am looking for a local web site,similar to Gumtree or OLX,for private adds.
Have you happen to come to one?
I was told that this one is good 
https://www.rakuten.co.jp/
but I wondered if there may well be any others too?
BR
G


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## JamesInJapan

Do you mean something like Craigslist?
The Osaka/Kobe/Kyoto Craigslist that I use is a little active, mainly by foreigners though.

This might seem hard to believe, but for real, the public notice boards. 
Even here in Kobe people actually look at that thing!


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## Bon Jovi

I see.
Well,Craigslist was slow in other countries I've been too.
I bet if you are to put some add on the board,it will have to be in Japanese?
So,to me - mission impossible...


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## JamesInJapan

The public notice board seems quite ... unmonitored, to put it lightly.
If it is in English though, I doubt other foreigners are checking it out, Craigslist is probably a safer bet.
If the reason is to buy/sell used items, that's a very tough market in Japan, people basically only buy new.


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