After deciding to live in Japan, the next step is to find accommodation. I wouldn’t want to move around my heavy stuff in Japan. So I need a steady place to live from the start. You see, I should’ve seen the dorm first. The dorm was very cheap. If I remember correctly, only around $200 per month. But my mom wants a big new room, so…
Thankfully, my father’s friend in Japan helped me in finding the place. Meanwhile I also search around the internet for places around my university. Well, the stations that are close to the campus. It’s best to have a place near the station, right? Later it was decided that a furnished ones is preferable, as buying them would be too troublesome as I’d have to move to another place in less than a year time.
I looked at so many websites. But asked for like 5 apartments. But they’re all impossible to have contract with. Some of the reasons are I have to be in Japan already, the apartment’s not yet done, least contract is 2 years, some didn’t give me any email reply. I’m actually not sure if it has something to do with me being a gaijin. But to do a contract from abroad is difficult. I actually have some contact with this company, he seems nice, but since dad’s friend is helping me, I decided to stop the process.
The secretary then advised me to looks at leo palace. It’s actually a pretty good place, furnished, flexible, and a relatively nice price, also has Teppei. Normally you’d have to pay those bulky unrecoverable amounts when you sign the contract, but not for this. But, apparently I can only do the contract after meeting the person in charge directly in Japan. And I was told that the wall is so thin. I was beginning to get scared if I can never get an apartment before I reach Japan.
Then, my friend told me there’s this monthly apartment that’s pretty good. I thought monthly apartments are normally big and expensive, for the foreign expats. This one is well, still expensive, but considering I’m living for less than a year, it costs more or less the same with normal apartments (considering the thank you money, etc). There’s a cheaper one nearby, but the room’s too small.
So finally I could secure a contract. Yay. I had to pay the whole amount in front, though. But I can still change one month in advance, if I want to leave the place earlier. Mine costs 4500 yen per day. I think it includes the electricity and such. I’ll recheck when I get there. But it definitely includes a cable(?) tv and an internet connection. I accidentally ordered a package for sleeping/living. So I don’t need to buy/bring a new fry pan etc.
Timeline:
January 2009 Started searching Apartment
March 2009 Finally get an Apartment Contract
April 2009 Revised Apartment Contract
- Fudousan Archive, contains addresses of apartments
Filed under: Apartment, gaijin, leo palace, monthly apartment
