So, what's it like? -Welcome to Nagoya-
JC Barnett offers a great view of Japan from an artist's point of view as well as that of a pure gaijin jumping into Japan.
When most gaijin think of Japan and the game industry, Nagoya is probably the last place they think of. As far as I know, I think I'm at the only video game company in the city which is rather odd, it's a nice city. Fukuoka has Level 5, Alpha System and CyberConnect Corp. Osaka has Capcom. Kyoto has Nintendo and Cing(makers of Hotel Dusk Room 215. Great game, by the way!)
I would not go out to say that Nagoya is the greatest city ever but I feel nicer here than in Tokyo. Tokyo is a massive city of around 10 million while Nagoya weighs in at 2.2 million or so. Nagoya still has a lot as far as geek shops(every major nerd store in Akihabara is also in Kamimaezu, the town within Nagoya in which I work.) The population drop is quite noticable. Even during rush hour, I have managed to find seats on the subway. Train personell wave flags and herd disembarkers away from the train exits so people can get on faster but you won't be getting hand packed like a sardine.
Prices are about half of those of Tokyo as far as rents are concerned. I pay a little over 60,000 yen for a rather large 1 kitchen, 1 dining room 1 bedroom fancy apartment with a host of security features, satellite TV, etc. I would easily pay twice that in Tokyo, but I would not earn twice the salary. I initially freaked out after calculating my expenses. But, I have a reasonable amount of money to save or play with as I see fit. I don't know if I would have ANY of that in Tokyo.
I know some folks out there are avid readers of Outpost 9/Gaijin Smash. I am not a school teacher in Japan, I am a video game designer/planner. in Nagoya, you will NOT be the only foreigner in the city by a long shot. Numerous large, world reknowned Universities are attracting loads of foreigners here. Most signs are in Japanese and English. A lot of the signs in the subway are in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Due to the influx of Brazilians working in to Toyota automotive manufacturing plants, I have seen advertisements and official materials in Portugese as well. Children won't flip out, you won't be the first gaijin that the average citizen here sees.
More to come!
Comments
Thanks for the mention.
Yeah, it's still a little amusing how many foreigners come to Japan thinking they will be the one, exciting fish out of water. If you go to any major city you'll see plenty of "dirty foreigners" around. You have to go pretty far into the countryside before you get all Deliverance.
Glad you're liking Nagoya. Got to visit there myself one day.
Good luck with the job and settling in!
JC
I'm about 90% settled in, after this weekend I'll start using my Teiki-ken/unlimited use commuter pass to explore the area.
I have yet to ride this uberfast thing, but ow, it might be a while before I hit up Tokyo since a round trip would smack most of 1 month's free spending money. Eeeeeeek! If I want to hit up summer Comic Market, I better start saving now.
For a place like that, yes, I would not be shocked if you might have been the first non-JP some of those people saw. But for a college city like Nagoya? Maybe you'd be the first if you were delivering babies at the hospital...
Also KODO has their commune set up on Sado ( the guy I was talking to there in fact lived about two blocks down the road from the old school house they're in )
Hope things go well in Nagoya ~
Kamimaezu has a lot of the popular shops Akihabara has. Sakae also has a lot of amazing shopping centers. I haven't explored the city too much since I don't have much money. Sorry for the late reply, I JUST got internet at my place!