I visited Okinawa on two separate occasions. Once was to Ishigaki via Naha, and another time was to Miyakojima via Naha around mid-October and early November. We had a great time both times. There weren't as many local tourists as most folks are working or at school. We still booked early to secure cheaper prices of course, but none of the places we stayed at or went to felt overly crowded.
Ishigaki
But both times I was struck with typhoons. In Ishigaki, I was almost hit by two typhoons back to back, but thankfully we had left for Naha in the nick of time and was not caught under the gale winds!
So, I want to discuss the pros and cons of traveling to these resort destination during the fall months.
Crowds? Wait Times?
Generally, we rarely had issues with crowds. In Naha on the main strip called "Kokusai Dori", there were a lot of locals and tourists out on the streets to grab a bite or enjoy the nightlife, but we never really had to queue up at restaurants. We really weren't all that picky with food, and as long as they served Okinawan specialties, had decent google reviews - we were game.
Public beaches weren't crowded at all. We never had trouble looking for parking spots as we usually started our day early anyway. In Ishigaki, there was one beach that had a smaller parking lot and it did fill up by afternoon, but it didn't really seem like people stayed long. Most tourists seem to be in the mind of beach hopping or needing to leave to find food before doing another stunt at the beach, so people came and gone in a few hours.
We took a ferry to Taketomi Island from Ishigaki, and the ferry there wasn't too crowded either. We bought same day tickets with no issues.
Taketomi Island
Unpredictable Weather
Typhoon season in Japan is typically around August and September, but in more recent times, there are typhoons hitting Japan all the way up until November. Typhoons can vary in severity; some are not more than just rain and heavy wind, while others can be extremely destructive. The thing that makes typhoons so scary is that you can never truly know how severe it turns out to be. While there are measurements for how strong typhoons are, it can change at any given moment. Making landfall often decreases its severity, but that's never a guarantee.
Either way, no one should be out in the ocean in any typhoon. And for places like Miyakojima where its selling point is its water activity, being on the island during a typhoon can be rather miserable.
There isn't much to do to pass time on the island. Miyakojima doesn't have a lot of tourist landmarks or indoor museums to visit. So in turn, you really just need to ride out the typhoon in your hotel room.
Ishigaki has a small shopping street you can visit and there are some viewpoints and landmarks to see. I personally felt being on Ishigaki during the typhoon was much more bearable, but perhaps I wasn't really looking hard enough on Miyakojima (though trust me, we have tried).
I've been using Twitter for as long as I can remember. And I remember it well. A bunch of my livejournal friends had migrated to twitter, abandoning their home on livejournal for many reasons. Mostly due to privacy reasons once it was bought out.
I started Twitter in 2008. I used Twitter similar to how I used my livejournal. I wrote about my fandoms, ranted about life, wrote about my frustrations and shared any laughs with friends. I even made new friends along the way. It was fun, close-knit and while I have had disagreements with friends, we would often agreed to disagree or simply choose to part ways. Life on twitter was simple then.
Private twitter was and will always be a bliss.
While I was in Japan, I began this blog and I wanted to try my hand at gaining some public audiences.
A good move? Bad mistake?
I don't know, I honestly have to say it's a bit of both.
At first, I didn't truly un-private my twitter. I only added some Japan twitter folks to gauge the audience I was dealing with. My twitter friends then all lived in a different time zone and I wanted to find more people that tweeted in the same time zone I was. But I was cautious. After all, if the cesspool on reddit was anything to go by, twitter folks might be a shadow that follows behind their footsteps.
I was happy to find out that it wasn't...... well, at least not quite as bad. In fact, I found a lot of good honest folks that took life one step at a time, ranted when it got rough and we shared similar frustrations living in the same country. There was some series of confusion and heart wrenching moments, when people I thought I had good conversations with simply unfollowed me and disappeared without any closure (which I understand I am not owed, of course). But overall, it was still fun, lighthearted and easygoing.
So I thought, why not? Let's try this public twitter thing.
I geared up one of my dummy accounts I always had and reworked it to link it to my blog - which you all now know as "kansai_beyond", or some variant of it.
In timely fashion, I gained followers in no time. This was during the start of 2020, when COVID hit and everyone was stuck at home with not much else to do but to be online. I was finishing a leg of my trip in Kyushu after the new years so I had lots of photos to share, gaining the audience I needed. At the same time I was heading back to work, unsure of the situation that it would bring - a sentiment that was shared amongst everyone at the time. A common talking point. Lots of great conversations had happened then. Lots of uncertainty. Heartbreak. Shared frustration. The foreign communication in Japan seemed like a banded crew at the time and it was really nice...
...until the cracks started to show.
Being "friends" and "acquaintances" online isn't all that different from real life friendships and relationships at all. The only thing that's truly different is that you never get to the meet the people you tweet at face-to-face. And that there really is no true commitment to any online friendships you make. If you wanted, you can disappear at any time and at any moment. No one will be able to find you unless they really tried. But everything remains the same.
The popularity contests.
The two-faced individuals.
Those who talk too much and never listen (in this case, read).
The situations where shit hits the fan and then your mutual friends begin to take sides. Either against you, with you or not at all.
In this case, it was truly one where everyone went against this person all in the span of 24 hours. He had somehow finally arrived in Japan (all his mutuals were very excited and anticipating this with him), but he did not follow quarantine rules. Twitter turned on him so quickly. I wouldn't say I was heartbroken (again, it's online - there isn't the same commitment), but I was more shocked to see just one man get yeeted off twitter so fast. I wonder if any of those on twitter still remember this?
Then, those who nitpick on your choice words and expressions to pick a fight with you.
My personal favourite was the lady who saw my tweet and my photo of my breakfast at work and decided that this was her hill to die on.
Or the lady who thought I was trying to falsify the crowdedness of Osaka JR station to gain... sympathy?? Basically she thought I purposely took a photo of many people walking out of the train to demonstrate how crowded it was when honestly it's not that rare of a sight.
Then there's the trolls of course.
Now, it seems like that has snowballed into a lot of things being "not ok to tweet".
Somehow, even if you decide to be negative, even just a little (because life isn't always fair), someone will take offense to this.
I mute and block very generously these days. I even went back to private. But the way algorithms on twitter work these days doesn't give you 100% protection against the tweets and users you don't want to see. It seems like if you make a mistake liking a tweet that, was logical, other similar illogical tweets may follow suit. Or the simple fact that you liked that tweet, it will show you other tweets from different people that person follows (and those people aren't always the kindest).
Quitting X would be logical. But I really think I'm in it for the long haul. It just feels too lonely without it...
Furniture and household item disposal can be... a pain in the ass. This is the case also in Japan, as proper avenues and quick disposal often means you need to pay to get someone to pick up your things. You need to register for the pick up, then purchase a sticker (or many, depending on how many items you have) from the convenience store. Each piece of furniture you dispose is likely to need a sticker, with prices ranging from 200 yen to 1000 yen.
Sodai gomi shoriken 粗大ごみ処理券 in Osaka
This is good if you're strapped for time and need to get rid of things FAST. But you'll still run into other problems.
One being, you cannot dispose of refrigerator nor washing machines this way. At least in Osaka, you cannot put these two items outside and they need to be collected from the home or resold. (rules may vary in different prefectures so please check it yourself)
So you may still need to try other avenues of disposing furniture. Which I'll talk about today!
Facebook Groups & Marketplace
This is a very common way amongst the foreign community to get rid of furniture whilst trying to recoup back some of the cost (or none at all if you decide to give it for free).
Each big city or area in Japan should have their own "Buy & Sell" facebook groups that you can join. They're exactly as the title entails... you can either buy from others trying to get rid of something, or you can also sell your things.
Another is the "Mottainai" groups, which are strictly for people willing to give away things for FREE. So if you still intend to recoup some costs, this isn't the group for you. However, this is also a decently quick way to get rid of things you on't want to throw out and don't care to get any cash value back.
The biggest downside to this is that...
...foreigners are SO FLAKY.
Sorry. Clearly, this isn't everyone. But a majority of people are. There are especially some who would agree to meet, and decide on the day of it's not worth it and just completely ghost you. Imagine if you are still working full time, you make time for this person in your schedule just for this person not to show up! And imagine that with multiple items, not just one!
People also often completely ignore your instructions or selling prices, despite you writing very clearly that you are only selling X item for 10000 yen and no less. Or that your pick up location is at XYZ only, and people will still ask if you're willing to meet at a location you didn't specify despite saying you will only meet at this station or nothing.
One person sobbed about how my 1000yen appliance plus transport to my station (it was 10 minutes from Namba station in Osaka, btw) was too much and she couldn't afford to come to my station, asking me to go to hers (it was 230yen one way). No ma'am, I'm moving out, busy packing and I don't have time for this shit.
Another person kept asking if I could meet them on Wednesday when we told her countless times that we would be out of town. And she still begged to get the items on Wednesday no matter how many times we told her we wouldn't be there. Like every day was a brand new reset day for her and she'd ask almost every day like I'd suddenly not be busy on Wednesday? I was extremely tempted to tell her that yes we'd be there just so she'd shut up, have her turn up and not have anyone there.
A few people kept asking for things we didn't even post about. For example, we'd post about a kettle, some pots and maybe an iron... and then we'd get people ask if we have a microwave and whether he could reserve it. No, no you may not. One dude even asked if we had an oven to give to him for free or something. Yeah we'd like one too! Look, I get that it doesn't hurt to ask... but we specified in the post that these were the only items we were selling, and people just... don't read. Or don't care to read.
This site is sort of Japan's kijiji, but specifically for household items only. It is a Japanese-only site, but nothing a little Google Translate and ChatGPT cannot help solve.
Signing up is quite easy, but you do need to verify your identity with two types of ID. The second verification is to allow you to sell items over 10000 yen. So if you just want to give things away for free, you don't need this. The steps are quite simple and fast at every step of the way, and you can list an item almost immediately after the first level of verification. If your item is of high value, you can list it, but you will not be able to respond to any interested buyers until you verify to the second level.
The listing process is straightforward and its categorization system is very useful for you and the buyers too. It gets quite specific so you can check to see what others are posting and their prices before you post yours.
Even though it's a nationwide system, they can sort very easily by location. Each user also needs to state their own location, so you can easily check to see if your buyer made a mistake messaging you or not. We had a buyer out from Nagoya for our TV and we thought he had made a mistake, so I confirmed with him and found out he drove to Osaka often. He did actually come! I mean, it was a nice TV for a bargain so I think the 2 hour plus drive was still worth it. Haha.
At first, I was actually quite nervous using Jimoty because while my Japanese is ok, writing in Japanese and communicating in Japanese can still be very daunting. But we mostly used ChatGPT to translate everything. It was no problem at all!
We sold a total of 5 big items on Jimoty and everyone who initially messaged us all came.
One lady was late, but it was kind of understandable. She still made sure to message us in advance her ETA and communicated during her trip as much as she could. Not just her, but most of the buyers were quite good to update us and communciated quickly. Which is almost not a thing on facebook. A few on facebook were quite good at telling me they were running late, but some just straight up said they were going to late like... 30 minutes after the meeting time. I really did like my experience on Jimoty.
The great thing about Jimoty is that the buyers are mostly locals, which meant that most if not all had cars of their own to purchase big items and carry them. I still put "bring your own car, we don't deliver" as a disclaimer anyway, because... as expected, some folks despite the disclaimer still asked me if they could have me deliver it because they didn't have a car.
And not to discriminate, but these Jimoty users are very often... foreigners.
Why is it so hard read? And to be polite and just text someone you're running late?
I don't get it...
Another really great thing on Jimoty is that there are a lot of private scalpers -- the people who own second-hand household item resell stores or storage facilities, who try to scour Jimoty or other sites to pick up free items so they can profit. Now, you may be wondering what's so good about them if they're trying to profit off your free shit? Remember that washing machine I wasn't allowed to put outside? Well, these guys literally saved my behind since my washing machine is just too old to sell. Not only that, but they were willing to pick up other items of furniture we couldn't sell or throw - all for free (which would otherwise cost us)!
All in all, I do recommend Jimoty if you can get yourself set up to use it.
Everyone we communicated with was polite, mostly on time and were really good with responding and updating you of changes.
The downsides to this is that if there are a lot of posts of the same categories of items in the same location, and your item is being lowballed by others, your listing can be buried very easily. You have an option to bring your item back to the top once after a day or so without making any changes, but if the pricing isn't optimal, you may not get any messages at all.
On the flip side, you may get a lot of messages for the item. At which point you can unlist it to stop the messages from flowing in, chat with everyone interested to see what their deal is and if they meet your pick up requirements, then you "designate pick up" of one buyer. There is a button for this and it's a great function because the buyer also gets notified that you've picked them for pick up. You can change the designted pick up person at any time without penalty, so you aren't locked into someone if they seem sus after all or is flaky.
Once the transaction is finished, you each leave a review for each other and that's it!
Final Thoughts
I've heard that a city in Osaka have their own sort of mottainai programs, where you may be allowed to leave items you don't want outside your house or your apartment complex for a few days before you need to purchase a sodai gomi sticker for pick up. I think that's a great way to encourage people not to throw away items, and a good way to save money.
And although rare, I have seen a garage sale before in a neighbourhood I used to live in. It seems like some neighbours all kind of just band together at one conveniently located house to sell things they don't want.
Alternatively you can also drop your things off at a Book Off or any other second hand store in the area, though you will probably not recoup much at all... and you need to take the item there yourself. Great if it's close by, but not so great if it is far.
So Jimoty and even Facebook can be additional tools for those that have the time.
If you're moving out, make sure you figure out what items you need to sell early on and plan if it's something you want to recoup decent money from. Plan at least 2 months in advance and start listing things that are low priority. Not only does it decrease the amount of stuff you have, it also gives you a rough idea of how long it takes to make a sale and what kinds of people you're dealing with. And whether it's worth the effort to post something online just for flaky people to not show up.
I hope this helps someone moving out!
Anyway, have you tried to sell on facebook or Jimoty before? Share with us your horror stories in the comments or twitter me @kansaibeyond!
