Moving to another country for a week, a summer, or even a year, is not as difficult or unreachable as it sounds.

Many people believe that traveling to another country requires months of planning, thousands of dollars, and a stable financial situation. These beliefs are not always true. Sometimes spontaneity makes trips especially memorable and fun.

The cautious, wary traveler often warns that traveling is too expensive when you are young. How can students afford to buy airplane tickets and support themselves in another country?

Money was one of my biggest concerns when I contemplated traveling to Japan. I reasoned that I could work in Tokyo. I was staying for two months, after all; no doubt I could find some part-time gig. Still, what if I couldn’t get a job? How would I cover the expenses?

I was convinced that I could handle the costs when my Dad informed me that living in a foreign country for a couple months is often cheaper than staying home and paying for car insurance – especially if you’re a teenage male.

Cancel your car insurance for the time you are gone, and your wallet will suddenly grow much fatter. If that doesn’t cover it, ask your parents if you can borrow from them. In my opinion, it is better to spend, enjoy, and travel now, rather than saving those pleasures for retirement. The world only grows smaller as you age.

Life may never be stable. The future usually holds stages of school, work, marriage, children, and eventually death. The best time to travel is when you are young, you do not have as many pressures, and you can enjoy the world.

Deciding where to go can be difficult. There are, no doubt, many countries you want to see. Good thing you’re starting while you’re young. To narrow the list ranging from London, Rome, Tokyo, and Paris, talk to family and friends to find out if you have any connections your countries of choice.

I traveled to Japan with a list of contacts in hand. My family was great friends with a family in Chiba, which wasn’t too far away from Tokyo. If, for some reason, I couldn’t stay with them, my Mother had a good friend living in Tokyo that I could stay with. Living in Japan would be a cinch. Fast-forward a few days – I was wrong.

Housing is one of the first issues that travelers need to solve. Hotels are readily available, but are also quite pricey. The best option is to stay with family or friends, mainly because there is usually no price, and the hosts can act as tour guides. Even if you think you do not know anyone living in a foreign country, your family or friends probably know various people you could stay with. However, sometimes things do not go as planned when staying with a family.

My family friends in Chiba owned a two-story house and supplied me with my own room. They prepared homemade meals and treated me like an honored guest. However, Chiba was small, and only Tokyo held future friends and job opportunities. So, I would commute.

The average travel time was two and a half hours and cost around $30 each way. Living in Chiba would not work if I wanted to look for a job, go to work in the morning, come home late, or even make friends and live independently. I needed to live in Tokyo.

So, I moved into my mother’s friend’s apartment in Tokyo. The apartment had one room, which was occupied by my Mother’s friend, her husband, and her nine-year-old son. I would sleep on the floor in the living room, and I had to curl my legs to fit.

Apartments in Tokyo are infamous for their miniscule size and hefty price tag. It was too crowded, and I definitely was not ready to live with a nine-year-old child. So, I needed to look for my own place in Tokyo.

If you’re out of families to live with and find yourself needing an apartment, be warned: it will not be easy. Search carefully and patiently, for the scams never end, pictures of housing are unbelievably deceiving, and finding the place of your dreams is nigh impossible.

The Internet was a good friend when I was searching for a cheap and convenient place to live. I Googled countless apartments and guest houses and sent out dozens of inquiry emails. Craigslist Tokyo was bookmarked and refreshed more times than I could count.

Yet my searches, for the most part, were not fruitful. Rooms were expensive and far away from train stations that would take me downtown. Host families, families that had extra rooms to rent out, had all of their rooms filled.

The first apartment I inspected was the definition of the underbelly of the city. It reeked of cigarette smoke, and the shared lounge was a couch facing the wall. The “kitchen” was a dinky table and some broken appliances. An older woman seemingly covered in dirt was washing her dishes.

My room was three feet by three feet. It had enough room for a chair and a piece of wood sticking out from the wall. The agent called it a desk. But wait, where was the bed then? The agent told me it was called a “capsule room.” The bed was literally in the wall. I would crawl into the wall/bed every night to sleep. In all seriousness, I would prefer the openness and space of a prison cell. Needless to say, I walked out.

You will, hopefully, not have experiences as traumatizing as this one. As far as I know, the “capsule room” does not exist outside of Tokyo, and is only inhabited by those who need a cheap place for a couple nights or less. Long-term residents are generally people going through tough times.

The “capsule room” experience taught me that the Internet was as much my enemy as it was my friend. The true key to finding a good apartment was direct communication. An e-mail was not enough. Sometimes the message went to junk mail, or the recipient did not check their mail for weeks at a time.

If you are looking for a place to live in any country, call the rental agencies rather than emailing them. Talk to a person. Better yet, go into the office and talk with someone one-on-one. The best apartments are gone before they even reach the Internet. Tell the agent what you are looking for and let them find it for you.

Another method is to ask for help. Ask any friends or acquaintances if they know of any rooms for let. People are friendly and will look just as hard as you for a room. The more people looking equals better results.

The golden rule to getting an apartment, or anything for that matter, is: you get what you pay for. You did not find a spectacular beach house for $50 a month. That $50 translates into $500 after deposits and utilities, and that beach house turns into a room with sand in it shared with three other people.

Great apartments and cheaper prices can be found, just remember that the prices will remain in the general market and anything outrageously cheap isn’t worth your effort.

Finding a place to live can be difficult, but once you have a place to call home, you are one step closer to exploring whatever country you are in to the point that you want to call it home.