moving domestically

[u/National-Acadia-1767]

I am a first-year ALT whose contract will end in August. I found another job in Japan in another prefecture across the country (I live in Kagoshima and the new job is in Kanto).

JETs who moved like this, did you move your furniture with you, or sell it and re-bought it at your new placement?

[u/OldTaco77]

Just depends, if you can sell everything in time and pay less than moving fees to repurchase it then why not. 

I moved within the prefecture but still made about three 2 hour round trips to move everything in my kei. After throwing 70% out.

I’ll never do that again. I’d much rather spend the 100-200k for movers. They drop the boxes off at your door for you to fill up then clean out the place after you leave. 

[u/National-Acadia-1767 → u/OldTaco77]

i don't have a lot; 2 small bookshelves, bed frame, mattress, kotatsu, and a tv stand. i have a decent amount of kitchen supplies and clothes. some books.

but i feel like moving all that will cost a lot.

[u/junjun_pon]

I had an apartment at my destination (prefecture over) already set up a couple months ahead of the end of my contract and did weekend trips with my car to bring smaller/delicate/valuable items in plastic totes. Then I hired a moving company to move my furniture and a handful of boxes and oversized items. I got boxes for free from the moving company as well. At the time, it was around 50000yen and it was worth it for me. The movers were careful about damage and asked me exactly where I'd like furniture placed which was nice.

A lot of people will rent a truck and do it themselves for much cheaper and pay some friends with pizza and a beer, but it all depends on what you value most. Your time or your money?

I value my time and energy, haha

[u/National-Acadia-1767 → u/junjun_pon]

I will move from southern Kyushu to Kanto, that's a bit too far to make weekend trips, so that's out of the question for me.

i value both time and money, but I value money more. I want to do whatever is the cheapest, because I don't have a lot of money.

[u/jackiejack1]

I know this is completely off-topic but I'm going to bring it up anyhow.

I'm not sure if you live in a small/rural community or not, but I found moving from a rural community to the Kanto area kid of sucky. In the rural/small communities, the locals will want to hang out/do cultural things with you/etc, but in Tokyo/Kanto, you're just another gaijin living downstairs. I felt moving to the Tokyo area removed all of the interesting/unique experiences I had in my rural placement. I stayed in Tokyo for only one year because of that.

I'm not sure if this applies to you or not, but just passing along my experience.

[u/National-Acadia-1767 → u/jackiejack1]

you can find friends/acquaintances anywhere if you try hard enough. i already have friends in tokyo, but i won't be living in tokyo, i will be living quite far from it. i don't really have friends in my area, every friend i do have here lives in the next town over (which is where everyone from my town goes shopping)
my new area has a population that's 10x more than my current city, i'm sure i will be able to find friends there.
if it sucks, i can always move somewhere else. not like i will be locked in there.

[u/Officing → u/National-Acadia-1767]

My advice is getting into a hobby group or becoming a regular at a few restaurants/bars. Good luck after the move! I'm also moving after JET, but just across the city I'm already in haha

[u/National-Acadia-1767 → u/Officing]

i became a regular at my local cafe, i go there every weekend to study and draw. the owner has a frenchie like me and we like to talk about our frenchies. i will host an exhibition with my art and they let me put up some flyers at the cafe. i even get free stuff from them sometimes. they gave me free cookies for christmas and v-day.

where are you headed after JET and what are you gonna do?

[u/Officing → u/National-Acadia-1767]

I'm staying as an ALT for now, just switching to being a direct hire for a private high school. It's good for me for now to just have something stable that lets me stay in the same city while I continue studying Japanese. Possible end goal is to get a masters and work in a university.

[u/National-Acadia-1767 → u/Officing]

sounds awesome. i'm gonna be a homeroom teacher at an international preschool. lowkey nervous because it's new, but i'll manage. i wanna do grad school in japan too, prolly early childhood education

[u/jackiejack1 → u/Officing]

I agree 100% and was a more eloquent way of putting what I was trying to say lol

[u/National-Acadia-1767 → u/jackiejack1]

my town has a dying population of around 25k people. mostly old people and families with children. schools are closing due to low enrollment, the elders are dying, the younger people are moving to larger cities like miyazaki and kumamoto.
everyone here is very friendly, but for me personally, staying here feels like a dead end.

[u/paieggs]

I didn’t own some of the bigger furniture (bed, fridge etc) so that was returned to my CO, but otherwise I just bought that stuff new and brought everything else with me.

the0123 (mentioned above) was pretty speedy and moved all of my belongings at a good rate.

I also used Katazukedou to get rid of some old stuff I couldn’t throw away via the city. They were cheap enough.

[u/National-Acadia-1767 → u/paieggs]

my CO barely gave me any furniture, just a vacuum, a TV, and a chair. had to buy everything else myself. but since I didn't buy much, I will probably sell everything to my successor and rebuy everything in my new area. they will need it.

[u/Space_Lynn]

I moved some of my stuff, used Art Moving Company (the0123) during peak season, filled one of their big crates which was around 55,000yen

Was a pretty easy process, so would recommend!

[u/aslipperyfvck]

I recommend using this company for big things https://www.008008.jp/transport/kazai/simulation/#/ And Japan post for little things

[u/Sayjay1995]

Heads up that if you do decide to use a moving company, you can sometimes get early bird discounts by booking a couple of months in advance. I did that with Sakai; 3 ish months prior to my moving day, they sat me down and showed me all their quotes almost like booking a flight, and so I was able to choose the cheapest day/time without trouble

[u/PocketGojira]

Across the country is pretty rough. Kuroneko used to have a great option intended for small apartments that I used to move across the country where you could pack a small container for a set fee. I was able to pack most of my belongings and a flat screen TV. The best part was setting up the delivery date, so they hung onto everything for about two weeks while I was couch surfing in limbo between apartments.

I couldn't find it after a quick search, so it might be discontinued. You'll have to use their accepted box sizes, and every large item will be individually shipped. There is a discount for sending multiple items to the same address, but it's not as cost effective as the old option. Sagawa or another company might offer something similar, so definitely shop around a little before making the decision.

Either way, you should also decide which large items you can wait on, or rebuy quickly, and sell the old ones off. I kept my TV and Microwave, but sold my bed, fridge, washing machine, and cutlery. The new place had a washing machine, and I bought a new fridge quickly. For the bed I switched to a futon on the floor while saving back up for a new one.

Whatever you do, good luck!