Originally Posted by
IberianAlex
Hmm, well. For me I vastly prefer South Korea and wouldn't mind living there, Japan is cool to visit but from the people I know who tried living there it isn't the greatest for a westerner.
(Incoming wall of text, but you're interested in moving there so I guess you want to read this, no)
The public transportation is vastly more expensive in Japan, do not be shocked to spend $20 on trains to go around Tokyo on a given day, buses are twice as expensive as in SK, taxis are significantly more expensive than in Korea. Literally everyone raves about Japan's public transportation, but I can only assume that they've never been anywhere else in their lives, lmao. The trains in Japan are perpetually late, and on top of that, I never experienced the kinds of daily commuter traffic in Seoul that I experienced in Tokyo. Every day is misery on those fucking trains, Christ.
The people in Japan are incredibly polite, but not in a necessarily likable way. A robot can be polite too, if you catch my drift. In SK, someone may be having an awful day and you'll know it, but most people are incredibly friendly! If you visit the same places every day, Korean staff will warm up to and remember you.. In Japan, this will never happen and when you visit a place it will always feel like the first time unless it's a locally owned business where the only person is the owner and they will not speak to you like a human.
South Korea is truly the land which never sleeps while Japan is the land of the 8pm sleepy time, hahahaha. Unless you're in Shibuya or some shit you are going to get bored. But, Tokyo obviously has way more to do than you could ever dream of. Finding out about everything is a challenge, as with any city
The cost of living is about the same for most things, but according to some of my friends who lived in both countries, in SK, you give a huge deposit and you pay less rent and you get your deposit back. In Japan, you pay a huge deposit and you pay almost double the rent and you don't get the deposit back. On top of that, if you're not Japanese, your housing options are limited, since people often discriminate against foreigners.
Japan is a much more beautiful place than SK though, because there really is not a lot of respect for nature in SK. When you see a beautiful valley, it is probably accompanied by some shitty high rise apartments. Also, there is fucking garbage everywhere in Korea while Japan is generally spotless, air quality is better in Japan, too. The weather is more temperate in Tokyo, I think Seoul is generally more extreme. Japan is very peaceful while SK is much more chaotic/frenetic, especially in Seoul. There are just more young people in Seoul, while Japan feels like a nursing home sometimes. South Korea is a great place to actually live, Japan's very polished, SK is very rough around the edges. To me SK is like a mixture of the worst parts of China (from how I've heard it described) and the best parts of Japan.
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