Hello very broard posts about your experience of Yokohama, Areas and school?

it has been months and years I'm trying to move to Japan and decided that Yokohama, would be a nice place for my kids (10yo and 7yo) I have been there 3 times but I can't say I know everything about Yokohama, but I felt like it would be a nice choice for family, I thought it would be calmer, less touristy and with always a choice to go seaside or Tokyo regularly.
Also I thought Real estate would be cheaper, to my surprise it's not really the case.

For now we are still wondering if kids should go YIS or Saint-Maur, we visited both, It seems both are great, but almost opposite vision, YIS is very liberal while Saint-Maur seemed almost "extremely" conservative. Someone maybe has some experience here?

In term of living, we didn't explore everywhere, there are a lot of nice options near kawasaki, and seems that its closer to Tokyo which is nice, but indeed very far from school 😞

In Naka-ku options for house are extremely limited, Naka ku on the hills itself, or maybe around Shinhonmoku Park. Is there something I'm missing?
I'm looking for a detached house, doesnt need to be huge, but our dream is to be at walkable distance from school, as we currently suffer to have to use our car every single time.

I wanted your experience about Buying vs Renting, I'm considering both, but renting seems extremely complicated, especially since we have two small dogs. I was wondering if someone has a great experience with a local agency when it comes to renting a place and arranging everything? Or just to tell me I should be ready to face hell to rent a place?
Buying on the opposite side, it seems I will buy something that is extremely illiquid, I see house sitting in sell for months and months, of course it would be problematic to no be able to resell at some points lol

I'm accepting any general advice or feedback about anything, yokohama itself, school, place/area to live with kids/dogs as foreigners, renting vs buying etc. I'm still on time to change my plan, we are going to visit Yokohama one last time before living there on December. So still "plenty" of time, but moving in is so complicated I'd like to get it right on my first shot.

Thank you all!

I'm moving to Japan from the US Midwest for a 1 year international work assignment at the end of Oct. I'll be living in Minatomirai and work is in Center Kita area. I'm so excited and nervous at the same time as I've never been to Japan (only airport layover). I'm looking for tips, food/shopping/social life recommendations and any advice is welcomed! TIA!

Hello everyone, I’m hoping someone can help or share their experience.
I currently have a Spouse of Permanent Resident residence card, and my current card is valid for only one year. It expires on October 3, 2026, and my renewal is currently being processed.

Unfortunately, I have a family emergency back home and need to leave Japan next week at the latest.
The difficult part is that I’m not sure when I’ll be able to return to Japan, and it may be quite a while.

I’m planning to go to Immigration tomorrow, but I wanted to ask if anyone has been in a similar situation:
If my new residence card is issued after I leave Japan, can someone else (for example, my husband or a lawyer) collect it on my behalf?
What happens to my renewed residence card if I leave Japan before receiving it?
In the worst-case scenario, if I stay outside Japan for a long time, what could happen to my visa/status?

I would really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thank you!

Hello everyone,

I will be moving to the city in March 2027 for a 6-month exchange program at Yokohama National University (YNU). I am a university student from Brazil and am currently preparing for this transition.

I would appreciate any practical tips, advice, or recommendations for someone newly arriving in Yokohama. Any information regarding daily life, student tips for YNU, or navigating the city would be very helpful.Additionally, if there are any Brazilians or other exchange students currently living in Yokohama, I would be glad to connect. Feel free to leave a comment or send a DM.

Thank you for your time.

Hello,

we plan to immigrate in Japan next years, with 2 kids (5 and 9 years old).
We went in holiday in Yokohama and I thought it was super nice to raise kids, the city has a friendly size and a local vibe in some streets. I guess Tokyo have a lot of that too if you don't live in hyper touristic area, but anyway it so close that you could easily go to Tokyo when you want.

So recently I was checking at school and it seemed that Yokohama have really good schools. I was wondering what are the pro and con about Saint-maur and YIS?

Saint-maur seems very good, and small (500 students), which I think is more appropriate for my kids.

Maybe you have more ideas about international school?

At the end, if I'm making this post is to have your feedbacks about the city with kids and about schools.
For us it's super important if we can live close to a good school, and have a local life.

Seems for us, we would like to buy or rent a house in Naka-ku, but maybe there are areas not far that are nice too, we are looking for a house with a small garden for our dogs.

Would appreciate any feedback from you guys!

Hello everyone, we (2 adults and 2 little children) will move to Japan in April. Our son will go to the german kindergarten (Tsuzuki Ward Yokohama) and we are looking for a flat in this area for 2,5 years.

1. Could you please recommend any agency that works with foreigners? my husband has a japaneese passport, but his japaneese is not so good anymore, so we might need someone who speaks English. Is it possible to have a 2 year contract and to extend it for a couple of months?

2. How high would the rent of an apartment with theo bedrooms?

3. Where can we get all the furniture? We don't want to buy everything new since we will leave in 2,5 years. Could you please recommend any websites or shops for second-hand stuff?

We would appreciate any recommendations since it is our first experience moving abroad, and we have a little child and a baby with us.

So I left my job in April and in the same month I passed the interview for a new job and they started my online visa change process immediately. Now it's May and I don't yet have an income source until I start my new job with new visa so I applied for Housing security benefits at my City Hall. I Just want to ask, can it have a negative impact on my visa application?

Hi there, I will be moving with my husband because of his work to Yokohama and I am quite excited 🥹😍

Could you recommend places where I could

• learn Japanese
• take yoga classes in English
• meet foreigners
• take photography workshops
• take jewelry making classes

Thank you guys so much in advance 😍🥰

As the title mentions, I'll be soon moving to Yokohama on a dependent visa (made a mistake in the title). My wife will be working in Japan and I will be joining her. However, despite having been in Japan several times and knowing some tiny ins-and-outs, I still have a few questions about things I couldn't really find anywhere.

1- I'll be doing a part-time unpaid internship as a teacher, part of my teacher training. However, it would be nice to have a bit of extra income, but I can't really find places to work part-time either teaching or as a data scientist. I've heard nightmare stories of eikaiwas, but it would be nice if someone could share their experiences with similar jobs. Mostly I just don't want to stay at home doing nothing outside of my internship hours. I'm also happy to volunteer somewhere that could help with integration.

2- I've been learning Japanese at home already for quite a while, but I would prefer to take lessons there as well. I've heard that often community centres offer free or very cheap Japanese lessons, but so far I haven't been able to find much about them. The only thing I've found is this https://yokeweb.jp, but I'm not sure if there are more resources. We are aiming to stay somewhere in Naka-ward, so anything cycling distance would be nice.

3- Gyms or sports. I like to swim, dance (ballet, modern), yoga, aikido and so on. The problem is tattoos. As mentioned, I've been to Japan a lot, and sometimes when I forgot to hide them, I had a few problems (even in an izakaya once). I can hide the sleeve and my back by wearing long sleeves, but I have one on the back of my neck which is hard to hide. Any suggestions of pools, gyms, yoga, aikido, and so on that are tattoo friendly? I've found a few gyms which asked to hide the tattoos but that was it. Some allowed them but they were terribly expensive.

Finally, if there's a guide anywhere, beside the one here, please let me know as I'm more than happy to give it a read. Thank you a lot :).

Edit: changed spouse to dependent visa.

Hi all, I will relocate from China to Yokohama for work in November. Office location is at Center-Kita station on Green and Blue Line, will be in office ~3 days per week I guess.

Couple in late 20s, housing allowance will be around 200,000¥ monthly excl. fees.

What I thought about so far: Ideally no transfer commute - so something on the green or blue line in close proximity to a station (really not a morning person, want to keep commute as hassle free as possible).

Good connection to Tokyo? Maybe Hiyoshi: both on green line and Toyoko Line?

Ideally a supermarket or at very least konbini in walking distance.

Even though I probably won’t need a car in day to day life I’m thinking of getting one for road trips - didn’t drive in 3 years in China and miss it a bit - so an area where rentals are likely to have the option to rent a parking space?

Been in Yokohama 5 or 6 times before so I’m not entirely unfamiliar but would like to ask for any recommendations. Thanks!

We are moving to the Kawasaki-shi area in a few weeks. I am new to Japan, and am considering the Japanese classes at Kawasaki International Centre (morning & evening options, nearby home & reasonable fees).
Website:

https://www.kian.or.jp/len/kic/004.shtml

If you are attending, how is your experience? Does it help with settling in or meeting people? Any tips welcome! Thanks!

I've got some knee issues that I need sorted and can't seem to find any. Please and thank you in advance!

We will move from Frankfurt to Yokohama (soonish) (Egyptian/German couple) and I need to know what is the norm in the housing market over there!

Are furnished or unfurnished apartments more common?! Which area is the best connection to downtown Yokohama and to Tokyo and lively neighborhood with cafes and such?! What’s the chances of getting a nice 120 sqm apartment in that area?

What are the things that we need to know about before renting in Yokohama?!

A friend of mine is moving to Yokohama, and asked me for help with info on the best places to live in the Naka ward, as she'll be working there, and her kid will go to the International School of Yokohama.

She's mostly searching for somewhere walkable, family friendly, and if possible not super noisy. I saw some really nice places closer to the water, but I remember that there were a few highways passing around and I don't remember how noisy it got.

It would be nice to have some supermarkets or konbinis nearby but the most important thing is really not having train tracks or massive highways making a lot of noise.

Any experiences or suggestions?

Hey everyone, does anyone know if there are companies in Japan that can act as emergency contacts (kinkyu renrakusaki) for apartment rentals?