So much to bring, so little space! This article is meant to focus you on a few items it is wise not to leave your home country without. Plus a few it might be better to leave behind.

What To Bring

Information About Your Home Country

You’ll be expected to know everything from population to how many tic-tacs are eaten per annum in your native land and you might be shocked over how little you really know. This can include maps, picture books, and videos.

International Driving License

With so much to worry about, put off the Japanese driver’s license worry for a year or so.

Key money

When you move into your apartment, you may have to pay a lot of money up front. This key money usually refers to a combination of one month’s advance rent, one month’s rent for the letting agency, a three month’s rent deposit, fees for renovations and repairs, or possibly a present of gratitude to the. Bear this in mind when planning how much money to bring with you for the first month but it is always best to check with your predecessor. You may be one of the lucky persons who never has to pay key money or lives in a low rent home (or even free).

Omiyage

These souvenirs (omiyage) can be as mundane as bath soap and are just a way friendly way of meeting your neighbors and colleagues. They are very common in Japan. For neighbors, give them a knock when you first move in with a token of your country and humbly say, “Tsumaranai mono desu ga.” This literally means, “This is a boring thing, but…”. Don’t be too scared when strange people show up at your front door with sponge dishes as they are just curious to meet you. Omiyage for your colleagues should be a little more substantial and is recommended to give a good first impression.

Photos

Pictures of friends, family, pets, food, your home town, etc.. Your co-workers and students will be really excited by them. These are some of the most useful things to bring when introducing yourself.

Reading Material

It’s not just for you but for your school too. Magazines, books and comics that you’ve finished can easily be donated to a library in your school or be auctioned of at the monthly book club! Forus Department store has English books available as does Amazon.co.jp, but expect to pay full retail price, there are no cheap books here!

A Smile

A smile goes a long way in this country and really makes a difference in communication.

Sticky Tak (or something similar)

For a country that has everything, the Japanese have bizarrely never discovered this wall saving household substance. Use to fixate posters and maps to your apartment walls. Save your walls from nail holes and tape marks and you might even see some of that key money deposit returned when you leave.

Summer Clothes

You’ll be arriving in the middle of the summer and the heat and humidity is often very high, so don’t waste that precious weight limit stocking up on wooly jumpers and sweaters. Instead bring your work clothes and some summer clothes too. You can rest assured that your box of winter clothes can be safely shipped later.

Teaching Aids

Don’t go overboard but consider stamps, tourist pamphlets, game idea books, maps, flags, stickers, money and things which are small that you can bribe your students with to work harder.

Toiletries

You can find most things here easily as there’s a Body Shop as well as other familiar brands, but the last thing you want is to be hunting around town for them when you first arrive. So bring things like condoms, tampons, deodorant, toothpaste (until you figure out the kanji for fluoride), and essential medicine. In particular, only the weak spray variety is found and Western style deodorant is nearly impossible to find.

Your Sized Clothing

It’s not impossible to find clothes that fit, but it can be difficult depending on your size. Sizes here generally run a size lower by Western standards (i.e. a Japanese large is a Western medium). You may want to bring some essentials like bras and shoes in your own size.

What Not To Bring

Drugs

This issue will be pounded into your heads an infinite number of times before and after you arrive in Japan, but each year the JET Program always dismisses at least one person due to drug related reasons. Some medicinal drugs that are fine in your home country are not legal in Japan due to the different dosage measurements. Check with your embassy or the JET Program before coming with a prescription and bring the required paperwork.

DVDs

Unless you own your own player or computer, you will not be able to play your country’s region encoded DVDs in Japan (region 2). For UK citizens, Japan has the same code but DVDs are on a different format (The UK uses PAL while Japan uses NTSC). The Japanese XBox may be an exception and reportedly plays some.

Game Consoles

Like DVDs, compatibility issues arise with different regions. Some consoles are region free so check into it. If you plan on playing English language games you might want to bring a console with you and import your games.

Mobile Phones

Unless you are using it for address purposes only, your old cellular system will definitely not work in Japan. Instead, choose a nice new model and plan from the three major Japanese retailers: Docomo, Softbank (used to be Vodafone) or AU. You’ll find that they work quite well.

Porn

Western pornography is illegal in Japan. Who knew? Might be embarrassing to get caught with.