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Everything I Wish I'd Known About Japan Before I Moved There: Practical Stuff
For those looking to live in Japan, this series offers hard-won insights of how to land with a running start and set yourself up for success. Covering everything from how to best get started, dealing with taxes, applying for a permanent visa, side work, Steve explains how to handle the many unexpected challenges of living in a country that is distinctly foreign. Filled with tons of stories and honest firsthand advice, it’s a No-BS collection of wisdom garnered from two decades of living in the country.
114 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 20, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 28, 2023
I won a digital copy of Everything I Wish I’d Known About Japan Before I Moved There: Practical Stuff in the Library Thing lottery. As a long-term resident of Japan (44 years) I was really looking forward to reading the book. Certainly, there was nothing helpful for me when I arrived here, so I basically had to sink or swim. It’s an entirely different world now, and people coming to Japan as tourists, short-term workers, or for the long haul have endless information at their fingertips. Steve Edward’s book is a memoir of things he had to deal with during his 20 years in Japan, with quite a bit of “how to” thrown in. It’s divided into 28 chapters and covers a wide range of topics—some of which you’d probably never find in most other books about Japan, such as chapters on dealing with the never-ending war with dust or trying to get out of paying subscription fees for NHK television.
My favorite chapter in the book, which actually had me laughing out loud, was “Summer Essentials” which offered lots of advice for the suffering, sweaty, gaijin [foreigner]. Here, for the uninitiated, is advice on wearing an undershirt, washing clothes right after wearing them, and even an endorsement for a Japanese brand of deodorant, which is useful not only for sweaty armpits but also for sweaty feet!
What I didn’t like about this book, however, were the stereotypical and negative comments about Japanese people and Japanese institutions peppered throughout many of his experiences. The Japanese driving test is “messed up by design” and “Most Japanese banks are horrible.” Salesclerks counting back change after a transaction were found to be insulting the author’s intelligence, making him feel like “a cultural hostage until their dog and pony show is over.”. The tax accountants helping him file his taxes were said to be “so used to cookie cutter outcomes, their minds couldn’t handle something that didn’t fit into their cookie cutter mold.” The Japanese were often spoken of as “they” as if they were a completely different species from the author.
Despite lots of practical advice in the book (how to furnish an apartment, hiring a Japanese virtual assistant, finding foreign items, etc.) some struck me as advice that would probably best be avoided. Telling readers that “you should be fine” because he managed to sneak his cat into his “no pets allowed” public housing apartment doesn’t mean one should become a “naughty pet owner.” I was also rather baffled by his advice to “shop around for a lawyer before you have a problem” because I (and nearly everyone I know in Japan) have never considered doing this. But then, there is the chapter on dealing with police, so perhaps a lawyer goes hand in hand with that.
Even though there were parts of the book I found a bit jarring, I found the writing to be honest and authentic. Long-term residents in Japan might find themselves nodding along with some of the experiences and their outcome. For those reading this book to prepare for a sojourn in Japan, it might be best to enjoy the stories, but take them with a grain of salt. They reflect the author’s experiences, and everyone’s experiences are different. Instead, focus on the very practical advice offered in Chapter 28. A person certainly couldn’t go wrong with that.
My favorite chapter in the book, which actually had me laughing out loud, was “Summer Essentials” which offered lots of advice for the suffering, sweaty, gaijin [foreigner]. Here, for the uninitiated, is advice on wearing an undershirt, washing clothes right after wearing them, and even an endorsement for a Japanese brand of deodorant, which is useful not only for sweaty armpits but also for sweaty feet!
What I didn’t like about this book, however, were the stereotypical and negative comments about Japanese people and Japanese institutions peppered throughout many of his experiences. The Japanese driving test is “messed up by design” and “Most Japanese banks are horrible.” Salesclerks counting back change after a transaction were found to be insulting the author’s intelligence, making him feel like “a cultural hostage until their dog and pony show is over.”. The tax accountants helping him file his taxes were said to be “so used to cookie cutter outcomes, their minds couldn’t handle something that didn’t fit into their cookie cutter mold.” The Japanese were often spoken of as “they” as if they were a completely different species from the author.
Despite lots of practical advice in the book (how to furnish an apartment, hiring a Japanese virtual assistant, finding foreign items, etc.) some struck me as advice that would probably best be avoided. Telling readers that “you should be fine” because he managed to sneak his cat into his “no pets allowed” public housing apartment doesn’t mean one should become a “naughty pet owner.” I was also rather baffled by his advice to “shop around for a lawyer before you have a problem” because I (and nearly everyone I know in Japan) have never considered doing this. But then, there is the chapter on dealing with police, so perhaps a lawyer goes hand in hand with that.
Even though there were parts of the book I found a bit jarring, I found the writing to be honest and authentic. Long-term residents in Japan might find themselves nodding along with some of the experiences and their outcome. For those reading this book to prepare for a sojourn in Japan, it might be best to enjoy the stories, but take them with a grain of salt. They reflect the author’s experiences, and everyone’s experiences are different. Instead, focus on the very practical advice offered in Chapter 28. A person certainly couldn’t go wrong with that.
April 15, 2023
His advice may be helpful, but it’s delivered in such a negative and racist tone. Yeesh.
July 2, 2023
Bleep would I know how many stars this book deserves? I've never lived in Japan. I give it four stars for being an interesting update to all the other my-time-in-Japan books I've read in my lifetime. The modern Japan where Edwards has lived and taught is a newly, fully socialist country, and it's interesting to see the influence of a socialist economy on a once wealthy country that marketed itself in terms of charm and cuteness.
The people Edwards meets aren't nearly as cute and charming as the people other Americans working in Japan have described. Of course observers used to agree that the elaborate etiquette served to cover and limit ruthless competition among co-workers. Of course it wasn't news that some of the same men whose cultural rules of etiquette discouraged them from so much as saying things like "No, we don't have any more of those" had not discouraged them from screaming battle cries as they...well, that was all over now, everyone hoped. Edwards describes the effects of new rules on blatantly hostile, bigoted Japanese businessmen who just don't want to work with foreigners, on pushy Japanese salesmen who don't mind at all asking questions that are answered with a loud NO and who have to be, in Edwards' experience, pushed out of doors without actually touching them, though he reports a female co-worker's getting rid of one by saying the Japanese equivalent of "I no...eat...television." But in a country that's never been known for demanding displays of male-to-female chivalry, Edwards suspects, women may get off easier than men do when they have to deal with overtly hostile Japanese bureaucrats...
The guaranteed jobs and salaries, while they last, seem to be eroding the "kawaii" cuteness element in modern Japanese culture. However, Japan has always had charm to spare, and Edwards reports that several of his co-workers still want to marry Japanese people and become citizens of Japan, anyway. To them his advice is to apply for a change of citizenship early, before acquiring any undesirable records of things like traffic court tickets.
Edwards has, he admits in this book, learned to understand some Japanese words but he tends to deny the fact after learning that many Japanese people share a delusion, usually pinned on Americans but undoubtedly global, that everyone on Earth understands your language if you speak it loudly and rudely. A single "hai" triggered a blast of Japanese words not chosen for ease of recognition or even slowed down. Would he encounter less bigotry if he'd worked harder on learning the language? It's hard to say; he does met businessmen who seem a it intoxicated by liberation from having to depend on customers' good will, in any case. The old rule that one could gain status by magnanimously forgiving foreigners for things like language errors seems to have been discarded. Still, I suspect that if I were living in a foreign country, after reaching a certain level of language learning, I'd want to go to a different city (with a local companion of course) and find out how well I was really learning the language.
The people Edwards meets aren't nearly as cute and charming as the people other Americans working in Japan have described. Of course observers used to agree that the elaborate etiquette served to cover and limit ruthless competition among co-workers. Of course it wasn't news that some of the same men whose cultural rules of etiquette discouraged them from so much as saying things like "No, we don't have any more of those" had not discouraged them from screaming battle cries as they...well, that was all over now, everyone hoped. Edwards describes the effects of new rules on blatantly hostile, bigoted Japanese businessmen who just don't want to work with foreigners, on pushy Japanese salesmen who don't mind at all asking questions that are answered with a loud NO and who have to be, in Edwards' experience, pushed out of doors without actually touching them, though he reports a female co-worker's getting rid of one by saying the Japanese equivalent of "I no...eat...television." But in a country that's never been known for demanding displays of male-to-female chivalry, Edwards suspects, women may get off easier than men do when they have to deal with overtly hostile Japanese bureaucrats...
The guaranteed jobs and salaries, while they last, seem to be eroding the "kawaii" cuteness element in modern Japanese culture. However, Japan has always had charm to spare, and Edwards reports that several of his co-workers still want to marry Japanese people and become citizens of Japan, anyway. To them his advice is to apply for a change of citizenship early, before acquiring any undesirable records of things like traffic court tickets.
Edwards has, he admits in this book, learned to understand some Japanese words but he tends to deny the fact after learning that many Japanese people share a delusion, usually pinned on Americans but undoubtedly global, that everyone on Earth understands your language if you speak it loudly and rudely. A single "hai" triggered a blast of Japanese words not chosen for ease of recognition or even slowed down. Would he encounter less bigotry if he'd worked harder on learning the language? It's hard to say; he does met businessmen who seem a it intoxicated by liberation from having to depend on customers' good will, in any case. The old rule that one could gain status by magnanimously forgiving foreigners for things like language errors seems to have been discarded. Still, I suspect that if I were living in a foreign country, after reaching a certain level of language learning, I'd want to go to a different city (with a local companion of course) and find out how well I was really learning the language.
November 14, 2023
I lived in Japan in 2001/2, and only served six months of my teaching contract there. If I had read this book before going, I might have had a more successful time there.
I agree with a lot of Steve Edwards' advice, and I think that anyone considering a move to Japan should read this book - but not this book alone, as there are some aspects I would take exception to. The fact that Edwards tried so hard to avoid penalty fees for riding the wrong train or for passing through the wrong toll gate on the highway speaks against the writer and his attitude towards the Japanese - and it is worth pointing out that here in Poland, where I live, the outcome in both situations would have been precisely the same.
Some of the advice is good, and some of it is well-written - but Edwards is a little reliant on cliché and stock expressions - on the already-dated chapter about apps, Edwards writes "Apps come in and out of existence with frequent regularity. They have their moment in the sun, climb to the top of the hill and then are soon replaced by something else that catches on and seems to be the way forward for a little while." This doesn't say very much, but it does take a while to say.
Oddly, then, I shall conclude my review of this book with what might seem a counterintuitive point - it's a short book that should have been longer. It is part of a series of books about life in Japan that Edwards has written, and despite my reservations about the Practical aspects, I would nonetheless be tempted to take a look at the others; what I missed in this book was an expansion of the main points, perhaps more anecdotes at greater length and in greater detail. Edwards clearly lived a full life in Japan - I only wish I'd been able to get a better sense of that in the same book, without needing to look elsewhere as well.
I agree with a lot of Steve Edwards' advice, and I think that anyone considering a move to Japan should read this book - but not this book alone, as there are some aspects I would take exception to. The fact that Edwards tried so hard to avoid penalty fees for riding the wrong train or for passing through the wrong toll gate on the highway speaks against the writer and his attitude towards the Japanese - and it is worth pointing out that here in Poland, where I live, the outcome in both situations would have been precisely the same.
Some of the advice is good, and some of it is well-written - but Edwards is a little reliant on cliché and stock expressions - on the already-dated chapter about apps, Edwards writes "Apps come in and out of existence with frequent regularity. They have their moment in the sun, climb to the top of the hill and then are soon replaced by something else that catches on and seems to be the way forward for a little while." This doesn't say very much, but it does take a while to say.
Oddly, then, I shall conclude my review of this book with what might seem a counterintuitive point - it's a short book that should have been longer. It is part of a series of books about life in Japan that Edwards has written, and despite my reservations about the Practical aspects, I would nonetheless be tempted to take a look at the others; what I missed in this book was an expansion of the main points, perhaps more anecdotes at greater length and in greater detail. Edwards clearly lived a full life in Japan - I only wish I'd been able to get a better sense of that in the same book, without needing to look elsewhere as well.
May 27, 2023
This is very helpful practical information for anyone who is considering a move to Japan. These are things that would be completely unknown to an American moving there, and a fix for every problem is given. It is written in a straightforward, no nonsense fashion, very easy to understand and apply.
May 17, 2023
a real eye opener
Wasn’t planning on moving to Japan, just was planning on going to visit family but this was a really interesting read.
Wasn’t planning on moving to Japan, just was planning on going to visit family but this was a really interesting read.
May 28, 2023
helpful
A helpful guide to follow. Keeps your attention and is fun to read. A good book for finding out first hand knowledge.
A helpful guide to follow. Keeps your attention and is fun to read. A good book for finding out first hand knowledge.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews