What advice would you give to someone who is moving to Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan?

Hamamatsu is a big area, covering from the sea, to the mountains.

I’m assuming you want advice on weather, whether you should get a car or not and maybe something about earthquakes (please correct me if I’m wrong).

Weather:

TL;DR: Varying temperature. Bring clothes for layering in winter.

Hamamatsu is hot in the sumnmer, and not-so-cold in the winter (most of the winter cold and snow gets stopped at Nagano’s mountains before getting to Hamamatsu proper), so it’s quite bearable. If you’re living up near the mountainous area, though, it can get quite cold (about -13 degrees in winter at night), since the winds still blow through the mountains.

Summer in the mountains can get extremely hot (about 42 degrees), but nearer the sea, it is much cooler, with the wind from the sea blowing in.

Transport:

TL;DR: Get a license and a car if you’re going to be in the suburbs, but the public transport works fantastically well in the city.

Public transport in Hamamatsu is made up of a network of trains and buses, as well as taxis. The JR line runs through the width of Hamamatsu (also with Shinkansen to make going to Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka easier), while the Akaden runs in a semicircle up to Hamakita and back down to Nishi-Kajima.

The various bus companies do provide a network where the trains don’t go, but if you’re going to be living further up in the mountains, a car would be best to get around in, but take note that Japan has zero tolerance for drink driving, and Hamamatsu is no exception.

Earthquakes:

(This is where it gets scary.) The Median Tectonic Line in Japan goes through Shizuoka to Nagano, which means it runs right through Hamamatsu itself. Hamamatsu. The Tokai Earthquakes which happens regularly every 100–150 years, the last of which happened in 1854, which makes it overdue by current calculations.

When I lived there in 2010–2011 while on the JET Programme, we were given a crash course in earthquake preparations, from an emergency bag, to what to do during an earthquake.

When the Great Tohoku earthquake happened in 2011 (yes, we felt it even though we were so far away), we evacuated the entire school’s students and faculty in 5 minutes. Within 20 minutes, every single person was accounted for, and over the next few weeks, we were vigilant about earthquake evacuation procedures, and made sure the students were in known locations.

In other words, if you learn about evacuation procedures, and what to do during a time of natural disaster, you will be perfectly safe. Maybe shaken. But safe.

Housing:

Most people live in apartments in the city, but landed housing is also available in Hamamatsu’s suburbs, and the rent is very much cheaper than that of Tokyo. Up where I lived (Sakuma, near the northern-most part of Hamamatsu), the rent was cheap - about 50,000yen a month for landed property, or 12,000yen a month in teacher’s housing.

Other than that, Hamamatsu City is vibrant, and the countryside isn’t very far away, so a quick escape for nature in the weekends is always easy. There’s a decent nightlife, and also manga cafes for those who’ve missed their last trains/buses home. Supermarkets are easy to access even in the suburbs, and because of the large proportion of foreigners living in Hamamatsu city, foreign groceries are also easy to get.

It’s a very comfortable city to live in. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

If I’ve missed out anything you’d like to know, just holler, and I’ll do my best to answer it. :)