A Fulbright Family's Survival Guide to by Melinda Pash

To Do Before Leaving Home:

Schools: If you have kids, the first thing you will want to do is begin working on school applications. While Tokyo has great public transportation, it will be an easier year for you if you live close to your child's school. But, there is a large international community in Tokyo and the more popular schools fill up very quickly, so get your applications in and begin the process as soon as possible.

It is difficult to get advice on international schools as most of your Japanese colleagues will either not have children or their children will attend public schools in Tokyo. Likewise, all expatriates have different ideas about what they want their kids to get out of an international experience, so an opinion is only that, an opinion.

Some of the more popular international schools are:

American School in (ASIJ)—ASIJ covers grades K-12, follows the American curriculum and grade structure, and requires testing before a child can be accepted. ASIJ enjoys a great reputation, but it is quite far from the rest of Tokyo and sending your child here will likely require an hour to an hour and a half bus ride to and from school. ASIJ also gives preference to students whose parents work for a company that will pay all fees and tuition in full at the time of acceptance.

British School—The British School covers grades K-12 (the high school is only recently added) and follows the British curriculum so if you choose here, be careful about placing your child in the appropriate grade. Second grade in the U.S. would be the third year at the British School. The British School has a good reputation among expatriates. Academically, the British School is well known for working hard to prepare students and teachers will work individually with students to get them to the appropriate skills level. There are two campuses (based on grade), so be careful about that if you choose the British School. Also, the British School does not have a bus so you need to get your child to school yourself.

Tokyo International School (TIS)—TIS covers grades K-8 and has a "new age" approach to education. All children are issued a Macintosh computer and all work is submitted via an electronic site called Manabi Mon. TIS has a nice campus, including a playground and a private pool. TIS is very popular for the lower grades and it can be difficult to get into those, but many students leave in grades 7 or 8 to transfer into one of the international schools going up through high school. TIS is also open to working with Fulbrighters on fees and tuition so that the stipend covers most of the school expenses.

Sacred Heart—Sacred Heart is an all-girls Catholic school and enjoys a good academic reputation.

Nishimachi—Nishimachi has a really good acadmic reputation and often wins the city spelling bees.

Jingumae International Exchange School (JIES)—This is NOT a well-known international school, but I wanted to mention it because this is where our youngest son went when he did not make it off the waiting list of another school. JIES is an international school (all classes are conducted in English), but is located inside of a Japanese elementary school. The two schools hold "exchange activities" where the Japanese and international students get together for events such as Undokai (Japanese sports day). The school is small, class sizes are small (no more than 1:12 teacher:student ratio). Our 2nd grader really came to love school here. To be fair, though, I have to mention it is not particularly rigorous academically (you might want to put your child a year up from where he/she was in the US) and it was originally established as the Turkish school so about a third of the students have a Turkish background. But, the teachers work hard (are mostly British or American), after school programs are free and interesting, the school bus (within a limited range) is free, and the other kids are really nice. Also, we loved the exchange aspect and our son learned to speak Japanese better than we did!

There are many, many international schools in Tokyo, many more than I could list here. The key is to research early and apply early and to find the best fit for you and your family (not necessarily the best school).

Housing: The best place to start looking for housing is through your faculty contacts at the schools where you will be teaching. Some of the schools have housing (Sophia, Waseda, Todai, for example). I will note, though, that if you are a family (rather than a couple or a single), on-campus housing is perhaps not your best bet. In addition to having to apply for them (and no guarantee you'll get on-campus housing), the apartments are tiny (around 40-50 meters or 400-500 square feet). We are a family of 4 (2 adults, an 8 year old, and a14 year old) and we ended up with a 70 meter 2LDK (2 bedroom, living room, dining/kitchen room). We felt a bit crowded and stressed. But, convenience of location will matter once you are here, so better small and a bit cramped than to be located an hour or hour and a half train ride from your school or your children's schools.

Finding housing is tough here—Japanese apartments often require key money, deposit money, and an agent fee. And, Japanese cleaning standards on apartments tend to be a bit more stringent than in America. Looking online before you come can give you an idea of where/what you might like, but try to enlist the assistance of one of your faculty contacts if possible. (I might also mention that faculty contacts are much busier here than in the US. The teaching load is incredibly heavy as are other college duties. So, it may be difficult for them to get back to you as soon as you would like them to or to help as much as you would like).

Moving: Moving to Japan can be very expensive. The US Post Office no longer offers sea mail and the air mail can break your budget. I urge you to explore other options for getting your things to Japan. In our case, we used a Japanese shipping company called Yamato Transport. They offer both air and sea mail at a rate far below that of the USPS. They were also very helpful. If you do sea mail (tanshin), with enough notice they will deliver boxes and packing material to you and pick up the boxes at your home. I will also note that Yamato does have English speakers on staff who are very helpful (in both the US and Japan). You can check out Yamato online at: http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/english/. Actually, I am noticing that this is the Japanese website—there is also an American website and a toll free number you can call to speak to someone.

Items To Bring With You To Japan:

MagicJack—This was one of the best purchases we made before coming to Japan. At Best Buy for about $20 you can purchase this device (I advise paying the extra when you set it up to get 2 years of service). It hooks up to your computer and a regular telephone (bring a phone with you to Japan) and gives you a phone number (you choose the state/country) and unlimited free calling to the US (or whatever country you chose). Skype is great, but this device allows you to call about bills and allows family to be able to just dial you up as if you were still home. Also, you can purchase international minutes for a cheap rate if you want.

Slingbox—If you have kids you might consider this option (though it does come with certain frustrations). Also at Best Buy, this device hooks up to cable or dish back home and allows you to get American t.v. via your computer. Unless you download the software to hide your true IP address you can't access the full episodes available online at sites like Hulu in the US or Netflix. None of those sites will work here.

Computer/keyboard—You undoubtedly are already planning on bringing your laptop. It can get old after a while, though, typing on the small keyboard and you will long for the comfort of your desktop. Before we left we purchased a plug-in keyboard for our laptop (you can also purchase cheap cordless keyboards at Best Buy). It was a good decision. The keyboards in Japan are different. In addition to switching into kanji at the most inconvenient times, the keys are in a slightly different formation, making it difficult to type. We bought a printer here at Bic Camera and it has been okay, but at times we had driver problems mixing an American computer and a Japanese printer.

Personal Items: Japan is a wonderful place and you can buy most of what you need here, but bringing a few things from home can make your life much more comfortable. Here is a list: toothpaste (in Japan you can only buy Aquafresh or Japanese toothpaste and some of the Japanese kids' toothpaste is rumored to have sugar in it), toothbrushes (most toothbrushes here are very narrow, not like the ones back home), birth control (whether pills or something else, best to bring it with you!), tampax (you can find pads and tampons in Japan, but the choices are limited and, in my experience, unsatisfactory), medicine (you can get prescription antibiotics here, but for cold/pain medicine and especially kids' medicines, you should bring it with you. There are no dissolving strips or chewable Tylenols or Advil here. Don't wait until you need medicine to try and find it here!), deodorant (really tough to find in Japan!), pillows (you can find pillows here but not so easily as back home and they tend to be a little pricey. Also, many of them are "bean" pillows, cases full of beans), electronics (If you buy an iphone, ipod, etc. here it will be not only expensive, but zone specific—when you go home you'll have trouble using it and most of the features will be in Japanese. There is a language feature, but…), Kindle (I really regretted not bringing a Kindle type thing with me. I can't remember now which one allows you to download books in Japan, but I really recommend that you find it and buy it. English language books here are really expensive—a paperback John Grisham can cost 1500-2500 yen or about $17-$30), items you can't live without (If you love your coffee maker, toaster, expresso machine, whatever, bring it with you. Postage is high but so is buying electronics in Tokyo. The voltage is compatible so you may as well bring what you want).

Do not bring your DVD player. DVDs are zone-specific so an American player won't play Japanese DVDs. I think the same applies to DS games and such (we found some DS games work okay but others do not).

Do bring good clothes with you. You can find clothing here even to fit American sizes, but clothes are sort of expensive here and the Japanese tend to be thinner so it's tough to find things like jeans to fit. Also, shoes can be a problem. We found that it was hard to find men's size shoes (our 14 year old wears size 11 and we looked for two months before finding a pair of Vans at the ABC store to fit him) and kids' shoes (our 8 year old has wide feet—we had real problems finding shoes for him). Also, leather is really hard to get here and even brand shoes back home that would be leather are fake leather here and much less comfortable. If you are busty, bring plenty of bras with you. If you are heavy- set, bring plenty of clothes with you. We had some trouble finding comfortable underwear also and cotton socks.

Once in Japan: Japan is a great place, but even so you will suffer some culture shock here and it can take some time to find your special (restaurants, stores, markets, etc.). Until then…

Places to look for familiar items: There are many places to get American products (like breakfast cereal or snacks) if you know where to look. If you want to go in person, you can go to National . NA stocks things like American cereal and candy, American meat, American frozen foods and t.v. dinners, American fruit, Sargento shredded cheese (even the low fat stuff if that's your thing), etc. It is expensive, but can help you get by with a few staples until you find your way in Tokyo. National Azubu also delivers—really great especially in the hot summer! National Azabu is located at on the Line. Take exit 1, curve to the left after you leave the station (walk past bakery, McDonald's, Starbucks), keep walking for a few blocks and it is on your right (there is a light to cross at). The link to NA is: http://www.national-azabu.com/e_index2.php .

Flying Pig—Tokyo actually has two Costco stores, but they are a long, long ride by train. But, there is a middleman service, Flying Pig, that will deliver Costco goods to you. This is a great way to get juice boxes for lunches, big jars of peanut butter, American cereal, etc. The link for Flying Pig is: http://www.theflyingpig.com/tfp/Shop.ASP .

Foreign Buyers Club—FBC allows you to get even more American products delivered to you. FBC can buy things in Hawaii (larger selection than Costco). We loved this to get the transfat free Skippy peanut butter and special cereals for the boys. The link is: http://www.fbcusa.com/cs/index.php .

ExPat Express—Through Expat Express you can order from any store in the US with online ordering. The goods are shipped to a land address in CA and then EPE ships them to you in Japan. It is pretty expensive, but we found this a great way to get Christmas gifts for our kids. There are toy stores here but it was hard to find kids' paint, games, flashcards, etc. The link here is: http://www.expatexpress.com/Expat/ .

Seiyu—Seiyu is a grocery store in Tokyo affiliated with Walmart. It's a good place to pick up American shampoo and such as well as American junk food. It also has good vegetables for a reasonable price. The one we go to is at Sunshine City. Take the train to Higashi- and exit at the Rise City exit. Turn right after you come out of the station (after going up the escalator to the street) and the store is on your right (along with a TsuTaya Video—Sunshine City is across the street. It has a good food floor with a great Italian restaurant—AGIO—and a Toys R Us in the basement)(Sunshine City also has a couple of shoe stores which have kids' shoes as well as adult shoes). In the little area by the station is a Daiso (100 yen shop—a great place to pick up cheap dishes and kitchenware, school supplies, paper, folders—we love the Japanese plastic folders!, toys, stationary, everything—it is like the dollar stores back home) (There is a larger Daiso at Takeshita in —three or four stories of cheap things. The one at Takeshita has socks and linens).

Hanamasa—A large store with lots of food products. It has more in Japanese than English but usually someone there speaks English. The one we go to is near Station.

Don Quixote—This is a go to place for almost everything from American sunscreen, makeup, candy, and chips to Halloween costumes, electronics, furniture, and ear buds. Don Quixote is relatively reasonable on price and is quite an experience. To get to Don Quixote, go to Hills Station (on the Oedo and Hibiya lines). I can't remember the exit, but I think you follow the signs and exit out near the Tsutaya and Burger King. At the street you turn right and then make another right at the big street. Walk a couple of blocks and Don Quixote will be on the left (the other side of the street). This area also has an Outback and a couple other American restaurants as well as a branch of Citibank.

Doctors and Dentists and Such: There is a network of providers who service the expat community in Tokyo and who speak English. You can look around, but I will give the providers we used here.

For family medicine, we used Joe Kurosu at Primary Care Tokyo. He is Japanese- American and was educated at Yale. Not only is his English good, but he accepts the National Health Insurance!! I will mention here that shots are done on a schedule in Japan and "unnecessary" shots are really expensive. We were going to Thailand and and wanted the kids to have typhoid shots—it was very expensive. Get your shots before you come! Anyway, Primary Care Tokyo can be found at: http://www.pctclinic.com/engaboutus.html .

We also found a really good dentist, trained at UCLA. But, a warning, it was not cheap and she did not accept National Health Insurance. The dentist's name is Yukari Ueki at Tokyo Clinic Dental Office. The office is located just across the street from . The link is: http://www2.gol.com/users/tward/clinic.html .

Entertainment: Tsutaya Video—With a passport you can set up an account with Tsutaya video. Tsutaya has a ton of American television shows and movies for rent and there are locations all over Tokyo.

Roppongi Hills—I want to say right off that we are NOT Roppongi Hills people. Roppongi perhaps has the most westerners in Tokyo and it can be distinctly unpleasant if you are looking for an authentic Japanese experience. But, Roppongi Hills has a great movie theater showing American movies in English (as well as some Japanese movies). The popcorn is great. (If you want to see a movie, go early to buy your tickets!! You choose your seat when you buy your ticket and seats sell out fast at Roppongi. Do NOT accept a front row seat. It is terrible—much closer to the screen than in the US and you will have to sit with your head slanted into your shoulder for the whole movie). And, there are a ton of wonderful restaurants there. My favorite is Diya in the basement under the theater. It is Indian food and the chicken is breast meat (a rarity in Japan). Also at Roppongi Hills is the Mori Tower. I highly recommend a trip up. I liked it better than Tokyo Tower because you look out over the Tower. There is a sky deck where you can go outside and look out over the city. We went at sunset. It was lovely.

Asakusa Shrine—The largest Buddhist Shrine outside of China this is a really cool place to go. But, as much as seeing the shrine I like to shop for people back home here. All around the shrine are little Japanese junk shops where you can purchase things like magnets and dolls, coasters and fans.

Yoyogi Coen—This park has bicycle rental from 9-4. There is a training area to teach your child to ride a bike (our 8 year old trained here) as well as a very pleasant bike path. The rental is very cheap (100-200 yen an hour). They also rent tandem bikes which are really fun. To get to Coen, take Chiyoda Line to the Yoyogi Coen Station and exit out.

Oriental Bazaar—This is a landmark shop in Omotesando. It sells both junk items and nice items. We purchased some very nice dishes here to take home with us and sent lots of fans and wood block prints back to friends from here. It is also in a great location, near Omotesando Hills (across and down the street). Just down the street from OB is another, more expensive, Japanese pottery/craft shop for nice wares. This is a great Saturday or Sunday hangout because you can window shop the big, glitzy stores like Harry Winston, Swarovsky, Chanel, etc. and eat at some good places. If you go down the street from OB, turn left just before Chanel, turn right at Starbucks and walk up a block you'll see the sign for Kaffir Lime, a really outstanding Thai Restaurant. The cooks and many of the staff are Thai and someone always speaks English (the menu is also in English). The food is excellent. Next door to Kaffir Lime is an Ear/Nose/Throat Clinic that takes National Health Insurance if you have a cold or need a prescription. They also speak English. (Just a note—Kaffir Lime is the upstairs place). Also next to Kaffir Lime is a gyoza restaurant that I have heard is really good.

Jourdan Train Finder—There is an online tool to help you find where you want to go in Tokyo in Japan. Try this like to see how to get from one station to another: http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/ .

Nice Day/Weekend Trips: If you are lucky enough to have gotten Tokyo as your assignment, you hardly have to leave at all because there is so much to do and see right at home. But, there are also wonderful places only a short distance away. Some of our favorites were:

Enoshima—Hands down this was the favorite day trip for all four members of our family. Enoshima is attached to Kamakura by a bridge. It is a beach place with a shrine. The shrine is for romance and so the papers are pink. You walk up a little mountain and look down over the beautiful blue water and white sailboats. If you go here, don't miss the lighthouse. We did this and stayed until sunset and were lucky enough to get pictures of the sun setting over Mt. Fuji with the blue water beneath. We also had really great tempura at one of the local restaurants on the way back to the train.

Kamakura—Kamakura is home to one of Japan's Daibutsu (great Buddhas). This one you can pay 100 yen and walk inside.

Hakone—Do the pass with the Odakyu Line (you can buy at ) and this is a great trip for a reasonable price. Hakone is beautiful. There is a ropeway (I hear in winter you can see Fuji), a boat ride, lots of onsen (thermal baths). If naked onsen aren't your thing, there is a very cool onsen here called Yunessun. It has sake, wine, tea, coffee, and other baths as well as water slides. For those you wear swimsuits. There is a naked side, too, but we did not visit that. The kids really liked this onsen. We were here during hydrangea season and there were blooms everywhere. It was interesting to try the various hydrangea flavored foods like ice cream. Here is the link for Yunessun: http://www.yunessun.com/english/yunessun.html and for the Hakone pass: http://www.odakyu.jp/english/freepass/hakone_01.html

Nikko—Nikko has a little bit of everything—mountain vistas, river boating, shrines, and (for kids) a place called Wonderland. At Edo Wonderland, the people dress like Ninjas and people. It was very interesting. The kids loved it, especially the crooked house.

A few last tips: Buy a Pasmo as soon as you arrive. You can purchase this at any train station at the machines (you can also attach it to your phone and address and have your name put on it so that if you lose it you don't lose all your money—all that can be done right at the machine in English). It is much easier than tickets and is good on trains, buses, and at some convenience stores and drink machines.

Eat out often—especially at lunch. Almost every restaurant offers cheap lunch settos that are delicious. Enjoy the city.

Take a taxi when you first arrive to get the lay of the land. We did not do this until after the earthquake (more than halfway through our visit) and really regretted it. We saw how close some places were that we had been taking the train to (it would have been faster to walk). Also, it's nice to see the city from above ground.

Do not take a taxi from the airport!!! Whether you are coming into Narita or Haneda, a taxi will cost you an arm and a leg. Take the Airport Limousine (really a big bus) to the hotel nearest where you need to be. Also, have your luggage sent from the airport, don't lug it yourself. Various shipping companies will deliver your luggage to you. It is well worth it. Keep out a few things you will need (it takes a day or so to get the luggage to you).

Get some yen. Japan is very much a cash society and your credit card will only work at touristy places, so change over some money before you come or at the airport when you arrive. You will want to have some cash.

Enjoy your time here. It will go so fast and before you know it, you will be writing a Fulbright Family Survival Guide to Tokyo wishing that your time wasn't up!!!

(July 2011)