Originally Posted by Jay[neX]

I've had many people ask me how expensive it is to live in Japan. Here are a few differences between tokyo and its surroundings and Okinawa

Prices in Okinawa are actually very cheap compared to tokyo

- you can eat in many good restaurants for about $25 / person. In tokyo, good luck if you want to eat good for less than $60 / person. Food that blows your mind is around $40-60 / person here, an incredible bargain.

- there are many izakaya (japanese style pub) where you get beer for less than $1 (draft beer buck, bigger than a bottle), but in tokyo when a bar advertises the first 3 drinks for $5 each you feel it's a bargain

- there are a few karaoke places where it's $9 for 2hours, with unlimited drinks. We tested it, drank as much as we could in 2 hours, and they never refused to serve us more drinks. Around tokyo (Chiba), it seems that normal prices for 2 hours with unlimited drinks is closer to $30-40

- We have the 100mbits internet (fiber to home) in Okinawa too, but only in tokyo was I ever able to actually download at 9-10 MB / sec. Here I mostly do under 2MB/second (FYI a 100mbits connection costs less than $40 per month, and is unlimited. I have a web server here pushing a steady 3-5mbits)

- Naha (capital of Okinawa) is as cramped as other cities around tokyo. 8000 people per square kilometer... This really makes me wonder why the hell they didn't use more of the land available around okinawa. There are tons of free land, yet when there's a city, it's so packed that there's no grass or trees. Might have something to do with the American bases everywhere

The only thing that seems to be as expensive as the mainland is land itself. I've seen a few $500k - million dollar houses on LEASED land. They pay monthly rental fees to the land owner.