And moving is finally over, 24 hours of driving there and back, with 5 hours of break for sleep (from 5 to 10 A.M. ;-) ), more that 200 km done that day.
New apartment is awesome so far, it’s really messy now but slowly we get it organized, ordered furnitures already are here, assembled and put in place, on saturday we will have normal internet (up to 100Mbit fiber for abour 2500 jpt monthly – unbelievable price ;-) ).
My experience with renting apartment:
The owner of building is lord (especially landlord, or lord of the land) and master of the world, didn’t even see this person, everything is getting done using rental agency, for day-to-day building management they have special company (in mjy case it’s called tokyu community), even during rental perion all thins have to be dealt with using those 2 companies. Everything that landlord wants or wishes MUST me done (at leat that’s what they expect from japanese people because foreigners like me are so impudent that they negotiate and can get what they want ;-) ) etc. etc.
Whole procedure of renting apartment could be called applied bureaucracy, at the beginning visiting apartment goes pretty smoothly (agency takes us with their own car to the place, shows everything, explains) – then booking apartment (which muse be done immediatelly because they have another people in the line) takes maybe an hour, involving filling a bunch of papers where most interesing field is birthday and next to it they have field to put age (as if they couldn’t subtract 2 numbers) (next time i see such field i will enter some mathematical formule to calculate my age from today’s date and birthday ;-) ),
Then all of surveillance information, where do i work (i think that if one is unemployed there is no even chance to rent such apartment), my salary etc. I was so impudent that crossed out field for salary and said that it’s confidential and won’t reveal it, people from agency say – but we need that information to estimate whether you can afford apartment – but they gave up after a while. (And by the way it’s my company paying for apartment so it has nothing to do with my credibility). Generally i could say that all of those institutions like (a lot) to know too much (way too much), even if information is totally useless and stupid they will keep asking (without any special reason, maybe because that nobody refuses them). And after a while truth comes and it shows that information is not important at all.
Interesting info – keeping any animals forbidden, playing piano too (only piano, they didn’t forbid me to play electric guitar ;-), contract may be ceased immediatelly if they say i am yakuza or motorcycle gang member ;-) ;-)
Costs –
- monthly rent,
- monthly maintenance fee,
- one-time fee for the agency (in our case 0.5 of mothly rent ,
- deposit(2 rents).
Sometimes bigger deposit is required (biggest i’ve ever heard is 3 rents), and key money which is money for the landlord (gratitudefor renting us an apartment – this money is gone) – sometimes even up to 3 rents, and depending on agency starting with fixed fee up to 1 month rent just for mediation.
In the worst case just at the beginning it requires 8* rent of money.
Besides that after expiration of contract it may take to pay renewal fee (0.5 or 1 rent), cancellation fee sometimes may also cost some money…
All this is perfectly designed to stop people from changing apartments too often…
That’s crazy.
Comparing all that to poland – it’s much different, set-up a meeting with the owner (directly because nobody wants to pay agency fee) to see apartment, bring case, pay and can even stay immediatelly in it, sometimes even no formalities at all, no unnecessary questions, it could not be more simple, even deposit is not commonly seen, more often it just required paying in advance for next month…

Co do ogladania to tez za duzo nie mozna. Mnie po 5 wizytach w roznych lokacjach odmowiono kolejnych widzen (sic!) i musialem wybierac z tego co juz widzialem. Nie wiem na ile to effekt gaijina a ile fakt ze mieszkam 40km od Yokohamy, czyli na prowincji.
Do 5 nie probowalem, 3 mieszkania wystarczyly nam zeby sie zdecydowac. Mysle ze ani efekt gajdzinski ani prowincja nie maja tutaj znaczenia, moze agencje sa nieprzygotowane na az taka wybrednosc – jak ci 5 mieszkan nie pasuje to juz ci nic nie pomoze.. – a przeciez oni z takim wielkim trudem obsluguja wynajem tych mieszkan wiec moze wg nich nie doceniasz ich pracy ;-)
Najgorsze jest to ze ilosc agencji jest ograniczona wiec teoretycznie po 5*ilosc agencji razach mozna byc spalonym na rynku mieszkaniowym.
Prawdopodobnie tak jest, czemu sie nie dziwie zbytnio. Ale jak musze swoja kase wylozyc za kwadrata, to naprawde robie sie bardzo dokladny i wybredny, gdyby nie to, nie szukalbym tak dlugo pewnie ;D Najwiekszy problem kiedy budzet trzeszczy a czlowiek chce wynajac domek z ogrodkiem i widokiem na Fuji ;-D
No tak, agencje jako specjalisci zdaja sie tego nie rozumiec ze wybor mieszkania jest wazny a z uwagi na koszty moze nie byc to prosty wybor.
Ja jako zamiennik ogrodka mam widok na pole kapusty z okna ;-)
a widok na fuji mam w pracy z biurka wiec nie jest tak zle.
szczesciarze :) tez mam widok na Fuji..tyle za na widokowce :(
Moj ogrodek tez nie calkiem wypalil, wszystko wokol domku wybetonowane. Widok na Fuji z kuchni i pokoju alka na pieterku.