Comments by "redfish337" (@redfish337) on "Top 10 Most Expensive Places to Live" video.

TheInspire96 Tokyo is huge. Some areas the land is still so valuable that they pretty much build 2 meter wide buildings at the edge of the property of other buildings. If you want land in that area... or that apartment on the 50th floor of some fancy building, yes, it can be ridiculously expensive. But there's affordable housing- and as I said, all of Tokyo is relatively safe- so there's no huge penalty for choosing a "bad" area even though the prices will be a fraction.
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jojag5 It's because it's all horror stories. It's expensive... if you you're trying to make it that way. If you cherry pick electronics and movies and taxis and city center housing it can definitely look that way. On the other hand, Disneyland is about half the cost of the US... there's no tipping almost anywhere, there are 100 yen stores all over and cheap $3-6 meals at 24-hour shops. As I say, there are 100 yen stores all over... and 300 yen stores... and then the next price point is 1000! It's not exactly true, but for the most part things seem to go dirt cheap --> cheap --> expensive -->$(*$ expensive without a lot of middle ground.
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DCMONSTERARMY Singapore should generally run about 70% of the cost of a coastal city of America. And if you're desperate for deals you can just cross the border to Malaysia and it drops down to like 30-40% and is a "I can't decide, I'll just get both!" zone.
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***** That's a lot of bests for one country. Anyway, as for me as a foreigner, easily of biggest concern to me is the crime rate, which consistently rates poorly, even when just compared to South America. How can the "best people" have the 18th highest murder rate in the world? And heck, 15th once we cut out the little islands with under 100 per year. Of the true world player countries, Brazil is the worst by murder rate. So it just comes across as the gloss of Carnival and Rio over the truth of grime and crime.
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Again, it's really not that bad. Very few necessities cost much at all. It's better than a lot of large cities. Now, when you start getting to basic UNNECESSITIES, that's where it starts to add up. Cars cost a fortune to maintain. There's a lot of "giri" expenses if you're involved in society... stuff that you technically don't HAVE to pay, but it'd be socially awkward or worse if you don't.
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Χριστινα Σπυριδου Yes, those places are expensive. Lots of people live in New York- but Manhattan is very expensive overall. Washington DC is... actually pretty bad and dangerous downtown... I wouldn't recommend it if you don't have a reason to be there (job related to government/NGO/lobbyist). Hawaii is nice- but if you look at it on a map- you'll see how isolated it is- Honolulu is the biggest city farthest from any other big city- that obviously depends on what is meant by "big"... but again, just look at a globe with Honolulu dead center. That's why stuff is expensive there. The coasts are most expensive, but they're also the most welcoming to foreigners. If you just want a nice place to live... San Diego is nice? Well, (realistically) follow your dream- where you go depends on what you want life to be like.
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(Just make sure you really bother to research the place... like I said, Washingon DC or Miami or even LA have some nice areas- and sometimes that's all you see- but I wouldn't really recommend people live IN those cities if they have a choice. Unless they have the money to live in one of the better areas- but I think all of those have some nice things out in the suburbs- but someone just trying to stake out a new life...? Not recommended really... Other cities are nicer downtown, others are boring. Just don't get caught up in the image without doing research about real life.
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Χριστινα Σπυριδου It just depends on the area. New Orleans is pretty dangerous overall, and another Katrina is basically inevitable- it's in a hurricane zone and below sea level.., buyer beware (not a bad place for holiday though). Anyway, just basically assume that every downtown area in the US has safe and dangerous areas. Do your research before you rent/buy- but once you live there it's easy enough to avoid the bad areas. That includes Honolulu. But yes, Hawaii is a great place to live, despite the prices. The food is sooooo good, and even though it can be a bit humid with tropical bugs around, somehow the beauty of the place just brightens your day. The preponderance of guns is unlikely to be a problem if you avoid the bad areas. I have never ever, not even once, seen a gun fire a real bullet. Maybe twice I've heard one fired. In terms of other forms of crime- robbery, etc... no different from Europe. Some areas are like the Nordic countries where you pretty much expect no issues- and others are like some of the southern or Eastern countries where you better hug your bag in front of you in certain crowded areas. So again, research, research, research! =)
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VertigoBlue Haircuts are weird. If it's a barber then it's $5-20. If it's a salon it's like $40-80. ie, using "average" haircut price is pretty useless because we're talking about totally different standards- if most people want to go to salons, the average would be like $60... if most people are content with barbers, then the average is like $10... but most of what you'd ask a barber to do, an untrained person can learn to do for free.
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Matt Josh Again, get that "apartment" out of your mind. Think 50th story in a fancy building in the heart of the city. It's the same as trying to get something like that in Manhattan. Normal people pay rent in the $1500/month range for a large (ie. 2-3 bedroom family size) apartment, or just around $500 or so if they're renting out a tiny room, which is typical, or even good, for a large city.
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ie, if a CEO or Kobe Bryant wanted a place to stay in the city. Since you probably aren't a CEO or Kobe Bryant, then that price comparison is worthless- cuz who the hell cares if a multi-millionaire buys a $25 million house- were you going to? Does the fact that he bought it in your city ACTUALLY make the city any more expensive to anybody? No. It's way off the scale for normal people and has no factor to the true affordability of a city.
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When you'd guys make this? You get +120 yen to the dollar now... sales tax is 8%... no tipping. It really wan't as bad as San Francisco even when you only got about 80 yen to the dollar. Sure, there's expensive stuff there- such as if you want a place in certain areas or want a car, but there's also lots of cheap stuff. There are $3-7 USD meals all over the place... there are high quality 100 yen stores (~88 cents USD) all over the place... and apartments are like 500 USD per month. You get a tiny room, but it's Japan- it'll be clean, safe, and very likely to be your own room (room share is uncommon). In America if you pay bottom dollar you'll be in a slum with iron bars over your windows. Bottom dollar in Japan is no biggie- you often just get an older area with lots of old people. You can easily live there WELL for $3000 a month... and if you're actually trying to be budget conscious then you can go far lower. Yeah, it CAN be expensive. But it can also be cheap. The most expensive place in the world has got to be somewhere where even basic day to day living expenses in a safe area fleeces you.
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Rei And as far as Japan is concerned, there are some really crappy dirt cheap areas there that may be the only place in Japan I may have some concern for my safety (can get a bed for maybe $300 or so a month maybe?). But really, once you move outside Tokyo the prices go down considerably for housing for the normal average areas. Osaka has the bothersome 240 yen metro though... yeah you can technically so somewhere cheaper, but pretty much anything worth using the metro for starts at 240 yen whereas you have to go pretty damned far on the Tokyo subway to get the cost that high.
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