Living in Japan as a foreigner is already hard enough, are you thinking about what you can do to make your life a little easier? I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeves for you that make living here a bit better. Here are some money-saving hacks, adventure tips, and life hacks for living in Japan.
If you’re living in Japan, you’re most likely already using this app to connect with your friends and keep in contact for free. But did you know that you can send gifts and use coupons via LINE?
Let’s just say they have saved me in a bind or two when I’ve forgotten to get a birthday gift. They have really nice gifts that range from ¥500 to over ¥10,000. It also helps that people sometimes put gifts that they want in their 欲しいもの
Not to mention that with LINE coupon, you can get small discounts on fast food places and different shopping locations, such as Burger King, GU, drugstores, and more!
I’m only going to mention one credit card that you need. Rakuten. By far my pink Rakuten card has been the best card I’ve ever used in Japan out of all of my credit cards. I’m able to get a lot of points because I get 3% cash back on purchases, so I easily rack up many points each month between paying bills, shopping, and just buying things. I very rarely use cash just because it’s dirty and because it makes no sense to use cash when you don’t get a return on it. There are no annual fees on it, so you’re basically getting extra money for free by using this card. I suggest getting with a Japanese friend to help you fill out the application form to get this card.
You need to have PAYPAY. There is no way around it. As a freelancer, I use PayPay as a method that my clients can use to pay for my services. It’s much easier than a bank transfer, better than getting my hands literally dirty, and it’s great because you have money right at the tip of your fingers after.
I also use PAYPAY to pay for my bills which brings in a 1% cashback every time. You would be crazy not to capitalize on this.
Going off of what I just said (I swear this article isn’t just about saving money), point cards have made my life easier. I am crazy about collecting point cards. Some companies have their point cards on LINE, but many still hand out physical cards and they’ve helped me to get a lot of benefits. And save money.
(These aren’t even all of my point cards that I keep in my wallet, they’re just the ones I carry in my point card pouch lol)
Meet-up apps are perfect for making friends because they have events for foreigners and events for Japanese people and foreigners to meet. You really can’t go wrong by going to one of these events because there are thousands for you to go to. I recommend searching for some in your area. You can use this app, meetup. Many people use it and there are thousands of niches for people of all types, those who want to date, love baking, love sports, love meeting new people, and so on.
Are you looking for a cheap experience or a free experience? I recommend typing in your city (or any city) and typing in free monitor tours. I’ve been on for five now and I’ve enjoyed every single experience. It’s a great opportunity to learn something new and travel. There are many available completely for free and some that will even pay you to go! I’ve been on one where they gave me ¥10,000 just to attend, all I had to do was pay for my own transportation, which was extremely cheap.
Check out this monitor tour website: https://www.deep-exp.com/en
We all know the grocery stores that you can go to. But have you been to in the shopping districts/ nooks in neighborhoods where they sell them for a cheaper price? Definitely one of the cheapest places to get vegetables and I recommend you search for them in your area. You might need to walk around the shopping district to find them!
(The picture is from one I found recently! VERY cheap! Super delicious!)
I use this app to find all of the best things in Japan. Just picture if Instagram and Pinterest had a baby. It’s a really great way to find many fun things to do in Japan, along with different ways to learn about trends going on and on.
I’m always sending my friends videos or pictures of the cafés on this app for us to go on our next adventure. Maybe your next adventure can be on here too~
You’ll find that you can get slightly cheaper movie passes and bus passes, they won’t be extremely cheap, but you can get a discount of 300 to 500 yen which will in turn save you money. A lot of people don’t know about these locations but you can find them in the city. Especially around Kyoto, Nanba, and Umeda. They look like this and are cash voucher shops.
＜Also known as金券店>
You’re probably using a translating app to either get around or learn Japanese. Aside from Google Translate, I highly recommend Deepl.
Google Translate is great for daily conversation and translating things on the go, but for documents that you get from City Hall or an article, you may want to use Deepl to translate it as they have more academic-like translations.
On top of that, if you’re really trying to learn and remember words, I’ll give the link to a dictionary that you can use to type in Kanji and English words. If you’re looking for further tips on how to improve your Japanese, also check out this article on how to improve.
Now that you have tricks on how to save money and go on adventures, make sure you take advantage on living in this beautiful country and try to make the most of each and every day. Happy living!
