My resident card allows me to stay in Japan, but

musicisgood · 21 Aug 2016

johnnyG said:
Have you considered Vietnam?
VietNam
Interesting enough that I might give it a try sometime.

From what I read, you can get an apt there for $2-300/month and getting work is easy--common advice is that it's better to show up and look around. Pension would go a lot further than in Miyazaki. You can retain PR here, I think for up to a year (?), longer if you file paperwork saying you're going to be gone longer.

I've been to Oki several times. Low salaries, lots of competition (tho I never found it expensive). I guess your phone and health card would still work as expected, too.

(Whether you're aware, tho there is the US-Japan pension agreement, in the fine print it says that that does not qualify you for Medicare--ouch!)

Hi Johnny
Thanks for your kind suggestion about Vietnam. But that place is not going to work out for me. If I had loads of money, I hit Vietnam or Thailand these days.
I know my govt. pension (US) won't go far in Japan or even in the States, even if I got govt. housing, so I kind of feel maybe staying in Japan is my best bet. I'll be taking a train ride down to Miyazaki soon to check things out. Hopefully I find it where I would like to live. Of course, I have Japanese health insurance which at the moment is not too expensive on a yearly basis.
Again many thanks.

musicisgood · 21 Aug 2016

WonkoTheSane said:
I just recently got back from doing some volunteer work in Vietnam. It's a gorgeous country, though I'm not positive I'd want to run into serious medical problems there. My purpose for being there was to teach doctors and other medical professionals and I learned that doctors educated in Vietnam have about half of the schooling that doctors educated in the US have. Probably something to consider at retirement age. Don't get me wrong; they're smart, capable people doing amazing things with what they have to work with, but under certain educational and financial limitations.

I could definitely see being able to get an apartment for a few hundred dollars per month in Danang where I spent most of my time, though I didn't look. Seems an entirely reasonable proposition considering hotel costs are about 10 - 15 USD per night for a reasonable place. A Vietnamese friend I met there just built a very nice two story house in town for about 35K US. It's quite an inexpensive place to live. One might not find as much of the refined feel of Japan, but the people are friendly and the food is good.

One of the few places I've been where I thought I'd be just as happy in as Japan, though for entirely different reasons.

Thanks Wonko, much appreciated. I was stationed in Thailand many years ago, but never made it to Vietnam. At the university here, there are a couple of girls from Vietnam, although they don't speak any English, they are friendly. Again thanks.

musicisgood · 21 Aug 2016

cocoichi said:
I assume the ones you found are especially catering to American families? I heard from a marine back in '08 that military personnel above a certain pay grade is allowed to live off-base, and receive a generous allowance to rent something. This has caused landlords of apartments near bases to ask a high price. Don't know if this is true, but sounds plausible.
My Japanese is not good enough to search in Japanese for suitable apartments, but I do know Suumo.

【SUUMO】那覇市、宜野湾市、浦添市、名護市、糸満市、沖縄市、豊見城市、うるま市、南城市、島尻郡の賃貸(賃貸マンション・アパート)住宅のお部屋探し物件情報

I prepared it for you(Rental --> Okinawa --> every location --> cheapest first), but that's as far as I can help you. Maybe someone else here can help you select the appropriate filters that target what you're looking for.

Another option is to permanently live in a cheap guesthouse. I've seen some older Japanese guys do that. My sleeping neighbour at Kerama guesthouse was a permanent resident so to speak. I think he paid around 30.000 per month, but you won't have much privacy. It might be a nice temporary solution though.

Good morning coco
Hey, thanks for the above information. Wish I had all this to go on 6 months ago. A guesthouse with them giving me an address would really work out fine for me. Would be nice if I can find something closer to the mid 25000yen range.

Again, thanks for your assistance, much appreciated.

Mike Cash · 21 Aug 2016

If you're a military retiree and have base and PX/NEX privileges you might want to consider Sasebo as an option. Living costs should be fairly reasonable. The base there has a long established presence but a rather small footprint, meaning they're used to having Americans around but don't have the level of resentment or enmity that many Okinawans do. I know in the past at least it was a common place for Navy retirees with Japanese spouses to retire to. You could probably find a good network of fellow retirees there, which could only be a good thing.

musicisgood · 21 Aug 2016

Mike Cash said:
If you're a military retiree and have base and PX/NEX privileges you might want to consider Sasebo as an option. Living costs should be fairly reasonable. The base there has a long established presence but a rather small footprint, meaning they're used to having Americans around but don't have the level of resentment or enmity that many Okinawans do. I know in the past at least it was a common place for Navy retirees with Japanese spouses to retire to. You could probably find a good network of fellow retirees there, which could only be a good thing.

Morning Mike
I never thought of Sasebo, although I was in the Air Force, I didn't retire, nor am I on disability, so the PX stuff won't apply. Really appreciate the help you are offering. I plan on taking the train to miyazaki some time in early sept to check things out. It's primary all about cost and weather, I don't like the winters here in Yamaguchi, too long and sometimes a bit too cold. But Sasebo, can be something I "should" check into. Again many thanks.

cocoichi · 21 Aug 2016

You certainly don't have to tell everything about you, but if I haven't missed anything, so far we only know that you're "older". I think if you tell more about yourself, like:
- age
- skills
- hobbies / interests

People on this forum can help you better, for example by giving you options to supplement your pension.

Just to give you an example:
Yamaguchi is not well known to foreigners I guess (neither would be Miyazaki). Maybe you can sell yourself as a local tourguide, or organise a two or three hour cycling/walking tour through the area.

But for now I would really focus on your Japanese. I'm sure that you have a lot of "hidden Japanese knowledge" built up in those 20 years that you don't even realize.

Mike Cash · 21 Aug 2016

I was under the impression before that the pension you referred to was the Japanese equivalent of Social Security. When you were working here, were you enrolled in the pension scheme? If your wife has passed away and she was enrolled, you may be eligible to receive her pension benefits (albeit at a reduced rate). If you're divorced, probably not.

musicisgood · 22 Aug 2016

Mike Cash said:
I was under the impression before that the pension you referred to was the Japanese equivalent of Social Security. When you were working here, were you enrolled in the pension scheme? If your wife has passed away and she was enrolled, you may be eligible to receive her pension benefits (albeit at a reduced rate). If you're divorced, probably not.

Mike, how do I send a message to you?

Mike Cash · 22 Aug 2016

musicisgood said:
Mike, how do I send a message to you?

Click on my name and then "start a conversation"

HanSolo · 1 Sep 2016

What made you choose Miyazaki?

musicisgood · 1 Sep 2016

HanSolo said:
What made you choose Miyazaki?

I'm not really sure, but probably because of the warmer winters there. I haven't move yet, it's all in the workings. A couple of events have to happen first and then I'm on the go.

My resident card allows me to stay in Japan, but

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