Sometimes, no matter how much you prepare yourself before a big move (especially out of the country), there will be something you wish you had brought along. That something could be as ordinary as your favourite snack, or as important as a certain type of document. At times, you never really know what it is you need until you’ve actually made the move and have stayed there for a while.
Unless of course, you were super lucky and had gotten firsthand pointers along with the research you had done.
For me, I had done as much research as I could before moving to Japan. I had read articles, watched videos and asked around for opinions. Once I’d made the move, I was especially thankful for some of the things I had brought, and a bit regretful I hadn’t brought along certain things.
For the most part, though, I had managed to cover most of the bases. So Malaysian to Malaysian, I’m going to share a list of things that every Malaysian should bring when moving to Japan.
Medicine
Not because Japan doesn’t have any medicine on its shelves (it does!), but because the medicines here are in Japanese. If you can understand Japanese, though, then that’s great, but if you’re like the majority of us, then not so great. You’ll have enough of a headache from settling into a new country without attempting to read Japanese labels or trying to explain your symptoms in poor Japanese (or worse, zero Japanese) to the store employees.
You catch my drift? So stock up on medicines for stuff like colds, fevers, stomachaches, etc. Just make sure the medicines you have in mind are allowed in Japan.
A LOT of money
This one was an unpleasant surprise for me. I don’t know how things work for those who come here on a work visa, but I’ll share my experience as a person who holds a Japanese student visa. As opposed to my relatively fuss-free experience in Australia, where I could set up my bank account in a single day (or at least I was able to about 7 years ago), I could only get my Japanese bank account almost two months later.
So yeah. Unless you don’t mind paying the extra fee in order to withdraw your money from an ATM, bring over a lot of money when you move to Japan. I would say about 3-4 months worth of cash should be okay.
Please note that the waiting period apparently differs from student to student. Some had to wait ages like I did, while some only had to wait for as little as a week. It all depends.
An unlocked phone
Make sure to bring an unlocked phone when coming over to Japan. This is important because if you decide to buy a new phone prior to moving and it turns out to be incompatible with Japanese providers, you’re going to end up spending a lot of money. Thankfully enough, my phone is unlocked, so I didn’t face this problem. Even then, my choices of Japanese providers are extremely limited as a foreigner, which is among one of the many reasons why getting a Japanese sim card is a plain headache.
I’ll tell you exactly why in another post. For now, let’s move on to the next item on the list.
Laptop
Again, yes, there are laptops in Japan, but as one would expect, they are in Japanese. If you don’t mind conversing in a very technical fashion in Japanese with the store employees in order to purchase and later fiddle around with a Japanese laptop, then by all means. I was lucky enough to know a Japanese person who was happy to help me buy a new laptop. He helped translate his conversations with the store employees, and then helped set up and changed the language settings of my new laptop to English.
Even so, a lot of messages and notifications on my laptop are in Japanese, so it’s still not completely in English.
(That said, I’m forever grateful to him for helping me out. I cannot thank him enough for it.)
Appropriate clothes
Two points. First one is that in Malaysia, we have a mix of Muslims and non-Muslims in the country. Muslims more so than the other, so this might sound a bit strange to some, but hear me out. In Japan, you are allowed to show off your legs. That is fine. What is not fine is showing off your cleavage. Actually, even showing your collarbones is considered a bit too much. So if there are any clothes you’d like to bring over from Malaysia, bring ones that would cover up till your neck. Doing otherwise would make you stand out and therefore attract shock from those around you.
Second point. Japan has four seasons, so bring along season-appropriate clothes. At least enough to last you for the current season. You can buy the rest in Japan if luggage weight is a concern.
Surprise bonus: Clothes are fairly reasonably priced in Japan. They’re not dirt cheap, but you can get something fashionable and of decent quality at a good price. If you’d like to save even more money, check out secondhand clothing stores. Clothes there can go as low as 108 yen! You just have to know where to look.
And yes, more often than not, even the 108 yen clothes have alright quality. 🙂
Comfort food
Japanese food is wonderful. The thing is, though, we Malaysians are used to eating a variety of cuisines and flavours (especially strong, spicy ones) on a daily basis. We’re spoiled for choice when it comes to food; it is not unusual to find Malay, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Western, Korean food and more under one roof. As most Malaysians like to say, Malaysia is a foodie paradise. But if you come to Japan thinking you can find the same thing easily, you have another think coming.
Stock up on stuff like Maggi instant noodles, sambal belacan, white coffee packets and other Malaysian food products to help keep homesickness at bay. It’s not easy to find Malaysian food products at grocery markets here. Believe me, I’ve tried.
