Wow. It’s only been 5 days since I’ve been in Japan. Talk about a huge time bend. It’s been feeling like… a crazy long amount of time.

I just finished signing my contract for my 1LDK. It’s in Toshima and it’s pretty big. The initial move in costs a fortune even though they waived the key money which was about 1.3k usd. I think it’s about 6k usd for the whole move in. Monthly rent after will only be 1.4k which includes internet but excludes utilities. The resources I used were gaijinpot, and walking into random places. So I walked into this place… the guy didn’t speak english and the place wasn’t foreigner friendly so he walked me over to leopalace21 which is foreigner friendly. Then the guy at leopalace didn’t speak english so he referred me to the shinjuku branch which is the international branch.

Then I walked into this other branch that showed me 3 places. The best place cost like 9k initial with tons of gift money and key money. That was too crazy. I eventually went to leopalace shinjuku and the guy there spoke english and showed me places. The place we went to was outside the city and also on the first floor. Which made me sad. Even though it was probably the best thus far. But then I emailed him and he found a place for me over the weekened. We instantly looked at it Sunday and then signed the contract.

The Japanese salaryman life is so… rough. I can’t imagine doing it. Plus I’d get paid like 1/3 or 1/4 even of what I’d make in the US. To be treated like a slave and be paid so little. Then again I know that I’m spoiled from silicon valley. I complain about getting to work for 10:30 even though work was just a 10 minute walk for me.

I think English and Chinese are now the two most dominant languages. There’s almost always a local english speaker since only white english speaking people could afford to travel previously. Growing up… my parents said that Chinese would rule the world and that people would learn Chinese but it definitely hasn’t been the case. I think the reason that Chinese is starting to become popular in businesses is all the filthy rich chinese people that are spending money outside their country. I’m still salty that rich chinese people is making it too expensive for me to buy property in Canada… even though they probably only affect the price by like 50%. That’s still alot.

I charged the most I’ve ever spent on my credit card ever. It’s a new record. I wish I had gotten a Chase Sapphire Reserve… could’ve instantly got all those bonus points. Too bad I’m not in the states anymore. I might still do a stint in NYC since I wanna live in Manhattan the same way I’ve always wanted to live in Tokyo. I’m starting to get a hang of the tokyo lines now. An express train in Tokyo that takes you to Nakano is only 3km. I think… The default distances / zoom on google maps that I’m used to in Canada/USA is just different. Tokyo looks big on the maps… but the distances are actually short. I walked 4 subway stops and it was only about 40 minutes with laziness.

I started searching for furniture. OMG. sigh. buying stuff online while being illiterate is hard. and a bed and stuff is so expensive. A bed and furniture is double the price of america. WTF. how do Japanese people earn less than Americans but have everything be more expensive?! that… blows my mind.