Choosing Your Perfect City - Pt 2 KYOTO
KYOTO
Today we are going to talk much in the same way that we did last time about choosing the perfect city for you to live in. This time however, instead of focusing on the sprawling and bustling metropolis that is Tokyo, we are going to be going in a different direction and talk about Kyoto.
Kyoto is by far one of my favorite cities in Japan. I have taken many trips to the city and spent many hours walking around and exploring everything that the city has to offer. Kyoto just has it's own aura about it, making it seem like another country within this already fascinating country. Once you step foot off of the train at Kyoto Station, you may not notice that the city is anything different from anywhere else that you have been to, but once you get out of the station and away from the main city hub, you will start to see all that the city has to offer to you. From traditional foods, a numerous amount of historical sites, beautiful forests, and many unique buildings, it quickly becomes a completely different experience than any of the other cities in Japan.
However, today we are not here to talk about how amazing Kyoto is (I could go one for days about it), but rather what it is going to look like for you to live there. So without any further rambling, lets get into it.
Before we start however, lets make a few ground rules.
When discussing all the various costs of living in Kyoto, we are going to use the same rules as we did for Tokyo. We are going to assume that you moved to Japan to work in the teaching industry, primarily the English teaching industry. So here we are going to assume that your monthly starting salary is going to be 円250,000 / month and that you do not have a car so will have to rely on public transportation to get your from place to place.
Now that we have made that clear. Lets jump into it.
Housing
We are going to use the same housing assumptions that we did when we took a look at living in Tokyo. That is, living alone in a 1 bed apartment that is within walking distance to a train or subway station.
If we are wanting to live in the city center or a more expensive part of Kyoto, according to expatisan.com, the cost of a single bed (85m2 / 900sqft) fully furnished apartment is going to cost you around 円151,000/month. If we are going to look at a place more out of the city center and into the more residential suburban areas the rent is going to drop down to about 円105,000/month.
I know that this amount may seem like it is a lot more than whenever we looked at Tokyo, however these apartments include all of your furnishing in them while the Tokyo apartments were just bare bones apartments. So we do need to keep that in mind when looking at the prices of these apartments versus the ones in Tokyo.
Now if we are wanting to go with something smaller and considerably cheaper there is always the option of living in a studio apartment. There would be the 1R apartments that I talked about in the last post about Tokyo. If you are unsure what the differences between a 1R, 1K, 1DK, and 1LDK are then please check out my last post or do a quick google search.
When looking at studio apartments, measuring around 45m2 / 480sqft, the rent in the city center is going to be around 円85,000/month. However if we are willing to get outside of the city center and back into the suburban areas, much like with the normal apartments, the rent is going to drop down. In this case our rent is going to drop down to about 円58,000/month. These prices are also for fully furnished studio apartments.
Utilities
Here they come again, those unavoidable costs of being an adult and just surviving. No matter what city you move to these will always be added into your monthly budget, so lets just get it over with and take a look at some numbers.
These costs are going to include everything that you will need to keep yourself feeling comfortable during the year while you are at home in your new city. Electric, water, gas, and any other utilities you may be required to pay from your apartment company.
Looking at the larger apartments in the Kyoto area, we can expect to pay around 円17,000/month on average for our utilities.
Of course, when talking about the smaller studio apartments the costs are going to go down. In this case it is going to look something like 円11,000/month on average.
Transportation
Much like in Tokyo we will keep the same budget here. Assuming that you are working at multiple school locations during the week and will be reimbursed for your monthly travel expense, we are going to budget in at least 円10,000 a week. This cost will include not only our work expense (which we should be getting paid back at the end of the month) but also our personal travel costs.
This will bring our monthly total for transportation to 円40,000.
Entertainment and Enjoying life
Alright so we have arrived to the fun part again! Congratulations, we survived the month and paid all of our bills and costs. Now it is time for us to get out there and start enjoying everything that our city has to offer us! But just how much money do we have left to play with?
Lets see where we stand:
- Salary - 円250,000
- Rent - 円(100,000) approx
- Utilities - 円(15,000) approx
- Internet - 円(4000)
- Transportation - 円(10,000) x 4
- Total after expenses - 円91,000
That is going to leave us with close to $900 at the end of the month to do what we want with. But once again, we are going to need to keep in mind that this money also needs to pay for our food, health insurance, and any other expenses you may have during the month aside from the ones we talked about today.
Conclusion
Kyoto is a beautiful city that offers its' residents a wide variety of entertainment and sights to see. It will definitely come at a price however. With a booming tourist industry, many of the restaurants and shops have increased their prices to take advantage. Also, speaking of tourism, we will have to deal with the waves of people that come from all over the world year round to visit the city and see all of the wonderful sites. Everything will be more crowded and travel times could possibly be affected.
However, if you are someone who doesn't mind crowds of tourists, is okay with taking some extra time to get your daily travel done, standing on crowded trains, and loosing a little bit of that "living in Japan" feeling, then Kyoto may just be the spot for you!
The apartments that we looked at today are fully furnished and decently priced for such.If you are willing to do the extra leg work and get all of your own furnishing, then there are bound to be cheaper apartments available to suit your budget.
If you are still unsure on whether or not Kyoto is the city for you, then keep checking on the updates as I talk about other great cities to live in during your stay in Japan.
Until the next time, as always, thank you taking the time to read this post, have a great day and live your best life!
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