When I told my idea of moving to Berlin to my friends and family, literally everyone asked me “WHY THE HELL BERLIN (or Germany)!?”
Their reaction was really interesting, because when I told them that I was going to the UK 3 years ago, they were all like “Oh London! So cool! I’m jealous!” (even though I said I was going to MANCHESTER), and they were arbitrary dreaming in their head that eventually I bump into a good old English Gentleman on the fancy street, he smiles at me, and nicely invites me for a cup of tea. (Never happened to me AT ALL.)
The point is, London and Paris are two big popular destinations for Japanese. These places are well advertised, and they successfully generated good impressions. There are tons of travel guides for these two.
But, how about Berlin? You will find only a very few guides for Berlin at bookstores in Japan, and not so many people know what is going on in Berlin. We don’t even have direct flights from Tokyo to Berlin even though Berlin is the capital of Germany!
So, I’ll tell you 3 reasons why I chose to move to Berlin!
“Poor but sexy” = Cheap and exciting
Berlin’ mayor Klaus Wowereit said “Berlin ist arm, aber sexy” (poor but sexy) in his interview in 2003. Since then, Berlin has attracted creators and young people who have no money like me. If I say the reason why I moved to Berlin in one word, it would be “cheap and exciting!”
I visited Berlin 3 years ago as a tourist when I was studying in the UK, and I loved it. I loved it, because the entire city was chill. There were so many independent projects going on in any kinds of field; art, music, theatre, etc,…and most of them are really cheap and easy to join as well. My hometown Tokyo has so many attractive shops and place to enjoy, but they are operated by big businesses, and very often everything looks the same. To me, Berlin is opposite to that. People are willing to support small businesses, and lots of things are happening independently.
It was February when I first visited Berlin, so the sky was gloomy, and it was bit depressing. However, I did felt that something is happening in this town. I’m passionate for art, music and stuff like that, so I wanted to explore the city more in depth and get to know more people. Berlin is really good for it.
The rent is cheap!
Berlin, the town of “poor but sexy” has lot more to say. Next, I’ll tell you the cheap part. What I really like about living in Berlin is that the rent is so cheap! Some people say that Berlin is getting expensive compare to 10 years ago due to the gentrification, but it’s still way cheaper than living in London or Paris. I only pay 300 EUR including gas, water, electricity and internet per month. It’s WG (flat sharing), but the room is spacious enough to work from home and the ceiling is high, so I don’t feel I’m cramped for space. Only the problem with my flat is, it’s a little far from the city center. But that’s what people say, and I never felt that I live far away from the center, because it only takes 20 min to 30 min to go to any major areas. My flat is located in East side, so I love it how quickly I can go to Ostkreuz, Boxhagener Platz and other dirty hip places.
This really helped me in deciding to move to Berlin. Because at the beginning, I didn’t have much clients as I do now, so paying rent was my big concern, but I already knew that I could make at least 400 EUR per month through the jobs from crowdsourcing, so I could decide myself to move here right after graduation.
Also, food is cheap. I normally spend about 100 EUR for groceries, and that is enough. I even don’t spend 100 EUR sometimes.
The transportation is cheap too. I usually buy “10 Uhr Karte” which allows you to travel anytime after 10am until the next 3am in the morning. It’s a monthly ticket, and it only costs 59 EUR. So, basically if I earn 600 EUR per month, I won’t die.
You can socialize in English
Berlin is a melting pot of many races and different cultures. It’s very international, and most of the young people speak perfect English. To be honest, that is sometimes a problem for me, because I don’t have much opportunities to practice my German. (I know it’s an excuse tho!) I didn’t know anyone in town when I moved here, so making friends was one of the crucial things to settle down. I could meet so many new people here through my job - I did several interviews, attending the meetup events, networking and so on, and everything was done in English.
Of course you need to learn some basic German, and level it up at least to the point you have no problem with ordering things at restaurant and buying stuffs at the supermarket, but that’s not so hard.
I’ve studied German when I was in uni, so I already knew how to read and speak the basics, but now I am wanting to improve my German more, and understand its culture more in depth. Actually, that has been stuck in my head lately.
I’ll still be based in Berlin, but I will travel around Germany this year to have better understandings. I’ll keep updating where I go and what I see.
Tschüss!
