My friend is going to relocate to Chiba, Japan for a while. It is said the small port is near Tokyo. Does any body in Japan can help to describe what the city looks like. My friend is very intereste in to know:
- What about the meal cost of this city?
- Is there anything that need to put into consideration before accepting the offer?
Thanks!
Chiba is a prefecture(like province in China) in Japan – The New Tokyo International Airport (NARITA) is also located here. Living costs in Chiba are lower than in Tokyo. A typical meal (lunch) would cost JPY 600 – 750 yen and dinner around JPY 750 – 1000 yen. Rental costs are in the region of JPY 40K to 60K per month. If the company is providing accommodation (shataku in Japanese) then no problems – else accommodation is one thing which is a cause for concern.
I think you are talking about Chiba City in Chiba pref.
I’m now working in a factory in the center part of Japan, which belongs to the Sony group. I have not been to Chiba, but I’d like to introduce some information of Chiba from what I heard and some experience of life in Japan.
Chiba City is located in the center of Chiba pref which is adjacent to Tokyo and about 40 kilos far from Tokyo (less then 1 hour by 電車, which is like QingGui or subway in Shanghai). As you said, it is a small port.
Price of food in Japan is a little expensive, but not too high. A normal meal in the dining hall of my company is about 500 Japan-yen, and as I know the same meal in Tokyo is about 700-1000 Japan-yen. (100 Japan = 7.5 RMB) Eating outside is above 1000 Japan-yen(I mean normal, not the cheapest). Life in Japan is convenience, don’t worry about it.
wow, congrats to your friend. hope he likes Japan. :) Japan is nice, and clean.
Hi, I’m from Tokyo.
I guess the most famous thing in Chiba pref. is Tokyo Disney Land!! Why is it located in Chiba? Oh, I don’t know, but you can find many nominal “Tokyo” staffs in Chiba.
Chiba is surrounded by the sea, Pacific Ocean on its left and Tokyo Bay on its right. So it’s good for marine sports, such as surfing, swimming.
In Chiba City, the prefectural captal, there is a Sogo department store, which you can find it also in Hong Kong and Taipei.
Tokyo Bay is located between Chiba and Kanagawa (and Tokyo). Yokohama (the center of Kanagawa pref.) is looks like Shanghai Bund and has China town. I’m sure that Kanagawa is more comfortable to live than Chiba is… sorry
I forgot to mention about food (I lived in Hong Kong before and visited Shanghai).
Overall, it’s quite hard to find a good Chinese restaurant in Japan. Chinese food in Japan is expensive, not so tasty.
With cheaper price, the variety of Japanese cuisine might be much narrower than Chinese cuisine, such as Ramen, sushi, Katsudon… Well, on the other hand, it might be good for foreigners who can’t really understand the language. It’s easier to order. And eating alone is common in Japan. So lonely guys don’t have to feel so lonely.
How is weather over there? How cold is it in the winter? thanks.
Thanks everyone for the information. It is very helpful! I am very happy that I have so many great readers almost everywhere in the world.
Hi I’m a french and japanese “half” who are just arrive in Shanghai,
The weather of Tokyo and Chiba is very good. It is not well-known but tokyo is one of the city around the world where there are the most days with sunshine. Even during winter almost everyday is sunny. The unique exception is during the rain season from the midle of june to the midle of july (sometimes longer).
Concerning Chiba I will add several comments:
– Chiba is considered as a surburb of tokyo : most of the time when you talk about chiba it means the huge surburb of tokyo which is located in chiba prefecture and which is closed to tokyo. It is in this area where “Disneyland” is located. As yokohama Chiba is “scotched” to tokyo (there are no countryside between the two cities, buildings and houses everywhere), that’s why chiba city is not considered as a town but as an extension of tokyo.
– If your friend wanted to work in tokyo he have to live in the surburb area of chiba and not in the rural part of chiba (too far from tokyo)
– Chiba surburb is convinient because it is quite close to tokyo and the appartmens is cheaper.
– but Chiba has some inconvenient : chiba surburb have a bad reputation for criminality (but japan is on of the safer country in the world so compare to france for example chiba is very secured), and it is also quite borring compare to tokyo : it is mainly a residential area, there are almost no history, the districts are not “charming” as tokyo’s districts.
My message appear two times sooooooryyy for this >< !!!
I just wanted to ad for the weather : in winter it is not very cold : around 5° in average. The best season is spring (with cherry flowers everywhere) and autumn : mild temperature with beautiful nature.
88 !
Thanks guillaume. I have helped to delete one of our post. It always happens since the comment processing speed on this site is slower (about 3 seconds) and it is common that people click twice. Don’t worry.
I’ve been there 2 years ago in summer and I think in general whether there is better than Shanghai, and I loved the food there. Depends on the location of his(her) office and house, the transportation in greater tokyo area is convienient but not anywhere. I guess he has to take train somehow, thus staying closer to the station is important.
weather, not whether, sorry for the typo
moving to Chiba on an assignmen with an international company. looking for information on housing shopping etc.
Hello, I, too am moving to Chiba soon. I’m going there basically to help my sister out who had just given birth. I’ve been researching about what to do and see in Chiba and I am very excited about going. My sister is planning on going back to work so I’ll probably end up sitting with the baby daily.
Hi everyone, I am planning to go to Chiba by the end of august 2008 to attend a conference of physical therapists. Can you suggest a place where I can stay near the Makuhari Kesse which is cheap preferably lower than 50 US dollars per night?