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Japan "wins" again:

 

Tokyo was ranked the world's most expensive city based on housing, transportation and other costs.

10 COSTLIEST CITIES

1. Tokyo, Japan

2. Osaka, Japan

3. London, England

4. Moscow, Russia

5. Seoul, South Korea

6. Geneva, Switzerland

7. Zurich, Switzerland

8. Copenhagen, Denmark

9. Hong Kong, Hong Kong

10. Oslo, Norway

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Transport: what you get for you money in Tokyo is very good and unit-for-unit, very inexpensive relative to #3 on the list. This applies to taxis as well.

 

Housing: The reverse is true in the housing stakes. For approx equivalent cost in #3 I find that you get a much better deal: better construction, insulation, solid materials, some garden or usable balcony, more floor space, more aesthetically pleasing inside and out (subjective)

 

Food: There way better value in Tokyo in terms of quality 'street level' food. Much bigger choice as well. Supermarket food is expensive, but again, the quality, freshness and lack of processed tinned food (YUCK!!) is far superior

 

Clothes: Tokyo is as inexpensive (or expensive)as you want, particularly in the shoe department. I can buy tshirts for 500 yen, denim jeans for 2,000 and leather jackets for 30,000. When I where them I don't get questioned on my appearance even once. Try that in other cities and you will look like a guy that works in kwiki-mart who decided to get trendy one weekend.

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Osaka, No. 2? wat a load of bollox... If you are comparing renting a house from an ex-pat agency with a two to three times markup on market, maybe. Could be cultural bias creeping in here, who's to say what the 'standard' is.

 

My partner has just arrived in Hobart, Tassie, and can't believe how expensive many things are, esp. compared to Osaka!

 

And let's not talk aboout internet connections (an important part of many people's lives)... I get a 48 MB connection here for AU$60 a month... compared (how can you even) to over $100 for a 1MB (like it ever hits that speed) in Oz.

 

These surveys are crap, and serve such a tiny minority of people as to be useless to most.

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Just a disclaimer before I get shouted at.... I'm not from England.

 

>>>>>

 

England has the best supermarkets there is.

 

I have lived in many countries and food is a big part of what I do (it's my business), and the size, choice, freshness and quality of food in the big supermarkets in England is very hard to beat. I don't know anywhere that beats them anyway.

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Hobart is a lovely little city that is surrounded by some of the best natural features a city can have.

 

;\) With recent info about your partners line of work.... I could make jokes about how I am not surprised that she has found demand for her skills in Tassie (joke aimed at Tassie, not your partner)

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Business hotels in Tokyo are now cheaper than the love hotels used to be. You get cheap parking, Internet, and early check in and out too.

 

Lost in one of the many articles about Australians skiing abroad, it said a trip to Japan cost half a trip to N. America.

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'The Economist' puts something like this out every year, it's purely for expats and based on standardized criteria i.e the same style house in each city. Doesn't really tell you anything. London is more expensive than Osaka as far as I can tell from living in both cities. Over the last 10 years Japan has become a cheaper place to live, while other countries have become more and more expensive.

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Not surprised to see the UK in there, it seems to get more and more expensive every time I go back. I remember when I first came here I was thinking it was so cheap when I went back home, now it's often the other way round. How did that happen then.

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