Finding a place in Japan in proving to be harder than I thought.
First of all, I need to have a bank account. An interesting fact with the banks here is that you have to register at the bank closest to your current address. I was told that it might be better to wait until after I officially move (and have a new address) to make a new account, rather than opening and the closing the account, since my card wont arrive in the mail until after I’ve moved (to the wrong address). I tried to get an account in the area I am moving to, but they refused. It seems like my option for now will be to make an account and close it later. That way I will have somewhere to transfer money to, for the time being. Unfortunately, today is a public holiday so it will have to wait until Monday.
The other issue is money, or work. Since I don’t really have a way of proving that I’m working in Japan, or have an income (that the real estate people will accept, anyways), this puts me in a bit of a bind. However, there is one company, UR, that has an option. I can move in if I can pay the rent for 12 Months + 2 Months (fee / deposit) in advance.
That means if I want to rent a place that is about ￥60,000, I need to have about ￥1,000,000 in a bank account, after you include all the fees and taxes. That’s about $11,000 CAD. I’m glad I saved up before leaving. Since I don’t currently have a bank account, I’ve been withdrawing ￥80,000 per day from ATMs, which is my limit. After I get a bank account, I can transfer $2,500 per day, which can speed things up a bit. It seems like by Thursday or Friday next week, I should be good to go. Still a bit behind schedule, but I think I know what to do now, its just a matter of waiting.
I’ve heard similar stories from others who have tried to get apartments in Japan. Best of luck!
When I went, I got a job first, and the conversation school I worked for set me up with an apartment. Up-side was not having to jump through all the hoops of doing it myself. Down-side was having to pay for staying at business hotels for a few weeks while I was job hunting.
BTW, what kind of work are you going to be doing there? Teaching English? Software development? Developing English websites?
If you’re there on a working-holiday visa, I know the program has offices specifically set up to help visa-holders get apartments and jobs (or at least they did 17 years ago). May be worth checking out.
Stay cool!
I’m actually continuing to freelance for Cineplex in Canada remotely, which the landlords won’t recognize. This presents an extra difficulty, as I’d like to have at least a 2DK apartment since I’ll be working from home, but a lot of the things they offer for working holiday/students/etc are very small, or are room-shares, etc. After talking to a real estate agent (who was really nice), I think my best course of action is to just pay up-front. It’s going to set my plans back by a week before I secure the funds, but I think once I get that dealt with, my I shouldn’t have any other problems. Plus, it will be nice not having to worry about paying rent for a year.
Also, I’m luck to have a friend who is hosting me until I get settled down!
I walk 20 minutes each way to a 7-11 to use the ATM every day, at around sunset when its cooler. I still am totally gross by the time I get back, this heat is unbelievable. I better get a place with good AC 😉