Due to the vagaries of the stock markets, foreign currency exchanges, Abenomics, as well as the plain old unpredictability of life itself, it appears that Tokyo has been (perhaps temporarily?) dislodged from its place as the number one most expensive cities for expatriates.
If I was to guess which city had taken its place I might well have picked Hong Kong - surely one of the most glamorous cities on the planet - and reputedly with living and accommodation costs to match. If not Hong Kong, then where? Hmmm ... I know petrol's cheap in Dubai but friends who recently returned from a stint working there were full of stories about beers being £10 a pop at the hotel as well as fairly humble snack meals also being steep in price too.
But no - according to a cost of expat living survey that's been released recently, Hong Kong only makes 38th for expat cost of living while Dubai is in at the positively budget-friendly placing of ... 174!
So where's the most expensive then? You probably guessed from the title of this post. Oslo is a beautiful and compact capital in Norway, the country which has Scotland on one side and Sweden on the other. Northerly, but due to the happy geographical accident that's otherwise known as the Gulf Stream, it's a city with pleasantly warm summers, and winters where the temperature doesn't usually dip too far below zero celsius. Which for somewhere that's located so much futher north than, say, Moscow, is a weather plus indeed!
For an interesting look at Norway from an expat blogger perspective, check out The Adventures of C Squared - which is an entertaining and well-written blog with loads of great pics of Norwegian countryside.