View At Home:Utilities
When you move into a new place, your landlord/lady, or agency if you have one, will probably take responsibility for contacting the electricity, gas, and water companies for you. If they don’t, you need to inform them of the date you are moving in so they can switch everything on. The utility companies must also be contacted when you leave your apartment.
Electricity voltage in Japan is 100 volts AC and the plugs are flat with two pins or prongs, as found in Canada and the US.
Japan’s tap water is safe to drink, although it has a higher chemical content than that of Western countries and plays havoc with your hair and your teeth, so who knows what it does to your insides.
Payment of utility bills
You will receive telephone, gas, water, and electricity bills separately, in Japanese, with about three weeks to pay. Reminders usually state as such in English, which is handy. Payments can be made at post offices, banks, or the relevant company’s office, but most convenient are designated convenience stores, funnily enough. Look for the symbols on the backs of the bills that tell you which convenience stores accept utility bill payments. You can also arrange to make regular payments directly from your bank account, in which case you should take a bill and your bankbook to your bank.
Telephone
A new telephone line costs about ¥70,000, but you can buy a secondhand one from somebody leaving Japan for about ¥35,000. If you are buying a telephone line from a person instead of from NTT, both of you have to go to the NTT office. You need to show NTT your alien registration card or passport and another official item with your name and address on it, such as an electricity bill. There is a small subscription and installation fee. Should you move, you may transfer this phone line to a new address for a charge of about ¥13,000.
There are several telephone companies that provide long-distance domestic calls; check them out for the most competitive rates. Public telephone boxes accept coins, but some only accept telephone cards. Phone cards are available at convenience stores and sometimes from machines right next to public phones.
The post office has a really useful detailed English pamphlet explaining all services provided. If registered mail or a parcel is delivered to you and you are not there to accept it, then there will be a delivery notice (all in Japanese) with a telephone number to call. Most post offices are open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, but some are open later or on weekends for undelivered mail collection and regular services. It is sensible to write all the names of your household members on your post box. There are several companies other than the post office who will deliver parcels, often within 24 hours.