The Gaijin Survival Guide

The following is a repository of links to information specifically for gaijin in Japan. I plan on expanding this list as much as possible. So, if you have any suggestions, leave a comment or twitter-ify me.

If you're a recent permanent arrival or just on holiday, you'll hopefully find some decent links to satisfy your ravenous appetite for knowledge. You hungry, hungry foreigner, you.
Dave's super-useful list of Stuff for gaijin.

Language

  1. Basic verbs (go, learn, drink etc.)
  2. More extensive info on verbs and usage (will need to know Hiragana to read the verbs themselves)
  3. “Wa” and “ga” (when to use which)
  4. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu (what it means, when to use it)
  5. “Let’s Learn Japanese” series 1 on YouTube, in a playlist
Mobile apps specifically are listed below

Transport

  1. Inter-city/nightbuses
  2. Train timetables (tells you where to change trains, prices etc. Make sure you scribble down the kanji for the station you’re going to and your train’s final destination before you leave!)

Shopping/Money

  1. Amazon in English
  2. Receiving money from overseas into a JP Post office account (this cost a set fee of £30 when someone did it for me, so only really worth it for larger sums)
  3. Costco (imported food)
  4. FBC (more imported food)
  5. Multilingual Living Information (general info about tax, alien registration etc., quite extensive)

Mobile Apps

Android Apps

  1. JA Sensei (Hiragana/Katakana learning app)
  2. JED (Japanese-English dictionary that saves all its data locally, so you don’t have to be online to use it)
  3. Kanji Recognizer (draw kanji to figure out what it says - good for roadsigns etc. Make sure you get WWWJDIC too, as they work in conjunction)
  4. Read kanji using your camera (it’s a bit of a faff to crop the image around the specific kanji you want to read, so not great when you’re on the move and trying to figure things out quickly)
  5. Google Translate (type or speak, it translates and spits it out in Japanese and vice-versa, in very well synthesised voices. Requires a connection, but works well over 3G, and can even work with romaji. Some versions also have conversation mode, which basically turns real life into Star Trek)

iPhone Apps

  1. Google Translate (see above)
  2. Human Japanese (very well presented language learning app, more interesting than just flashcards. Full version is pricey to try the lite version first)
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