This is excellent advice, thank you. My total allowance is $9k per month and so from what you are saying I will be able to live very comfortably. I think I will stay in the city for the first 3 months or so then move into a more rural setting for the remaining 15 months. I have heard that traffic jams are quite torturous and so a drive into Yokohama might be an obstacle for living outside of the city. Is that something you have any experience of?