The Room Hunt Begins! - Part 1

I AM not offered the best of contracts for this job in Japan. I'm an Independent Contractor, so that means I have no benefits of a regular employee and that means I will not have a regular income. The terms of the contract and visa sponsorship is, I have to finance everything on my own; there's no additional allowance.

What do I mean by everything?

- Accommodation

- Utility bills

- Transport

- Opening and maintaining a bank account

- National Health Insurance for if I'm sick and need to visit a doctor

- Taxes

- Mobile phone & Internet bills

- Daily living subsistence

I guess that is one sad fact of being an Asian trying to experience living and working in Japan in a particular field that I want to do. There are many places that do not accept me because I'm not a Caucasian. And because I do not have enough experience in that particular industry, I can't apply for a work permit. So the only way to get there is through a visa sponsorship. If those are the terms, beggars can't be choosers.

Precisely because those are the terms, there's much information I've acquired in my search for an accommodation and other important information necessary to survive.

What I'll mention in the following can be found in the Helpful Tips section in this blog.

Step 1

Before you start searching for an apartment, download the Apartment Search Guidebook. It provides invaluable information from the different kinds of fees when renting an apartment, various rental agreements, move-in procedures to advising you to dress well prior to meeting a real estate agent.

Even if you cannot afford to rent an apartment, it is a good guide to read as most house-rules / move-in procedures are similar. It provided a useful tip of getting a floor plan ready of the place you wanna rent and paste photos on the floor plan, of any areas that are already "damaged" / "problem areas" before you move-in, to avoid any misunderstandings on the day you move out.

Step 2

Check out the Rental Glossary and Types of Apartments in the Helpful Tips section to get you acquainted with the terms and floor plans.

Download Railway and Subway maps of the Prefecture you'll be residing in (You may find the link in Long-Term Accommodation for Kansai maps only). Or if you know anyone travelling to Japan to help you grab a tourist map of the railway and subway lines and whatever maps there are of the region you'll be moving to. With a physical map on hand, it'll definitely help you in mapping out your journey between your work and residence. I've tried to do most online, but it got worse for me... I think it's 'cuz I've yet to know where I'll be posted so I have to search the entire Kansai area concurrently.

Step 3

It is important to know what you want when searching for a room / apartment / mansion and list down the criteria. For me, I'm only able to afford renting a room. As I might be posted to either one of the following branches in the Kansai region (i.e Chayamachi, Umeda, Namba, Kobe and Kyoto), the most that I can afford renting a room including paying utility bills is JPY60K (~SGD$1.2K) per month.

Monthly utilities bill in Guesthouses is usually JPY10K (~SGD170). In some apartments, depending on the room size you're renting, there's additional charge to the electrical bill if you use more than the monthly rate fixed by the landlord.

For example, your monthly room rental is JPY50K and your monthly utility bill is JPY5K. If you exceed the JPY5K, you'll have to pay additional to what you used. If your monthly room rental is JPY65K, your utility bill might be free but you'll need to pay the excess if you exceed JPY5K.

Most apartments and Guesthouses offer shared facilities. Based on my research thus far, shared facilities are the bathrooms, toilets, washing machines & dryers, kitchen and living room. Most apartments and Guesthouses charge at least JPY200 per load for use of washing machines and JPY100 for dryers. Some do not have dryers.

You may find really good deals of about JPY50k (including utility bills) per month for the entire apartment to yourself, but the catch is, it is extremely inaccessible. My contract states that I have to rent a place that is not more than 45mins away from any of the branches that I might be posted to as I'll be "on-call" basis.

My wishlist for renting a room is:

- WiFi / LAN access

- Hot water supply

- Heater

- Washer, Dryer, Ironing Board

- Accessibility

When Nat told me during her visit to Japan in 2010 that WiFi is extremely hard to get, and most places still use LAN, that was a surprise for me. When I first visited Japan in 2005, it was one of the pioneers in 3G technology and I remembered Singapore mobile phones were not compatible with the telcos in Japan.

So in just 5 short years, Singapore managed to advanced in this area of technology to have WiFi easily accessible anywhere you are in the country. I attribute this to infrastructure since Singapore is considerably smaller than Japan. So, I'll be packing LAN cables (at least 3 metres needed) in my luggage.

Another factor that makes me appreciate Singapore regardless of where I travel in the world is the easy and free access to drinking water... and the free use of public toilets! In some Guesthouses that I've searched, they'll charge JPY100 for 10-15mins usage of the shower in the bathrooms.

I've actually set my eyes on a particular Guesthouse in Osaka but my 先生 helped me suss out and showed me that it is pretty far from Umeda/Chayamachi. So I've to re-look into all the places I've searched thus far. However, those that I've listed in Long-Term Accommodation are the ones with the better deals and facilities.

If you know of any places offering good deals for Long-Term Accommodation within a 5 train-stop radius to Umeda/Chayamachi, please do not hesitate to leave a link in the Comment box! It'll be much appreciated!

I want to thank しみず先生 who have provided me with much information and additional research, and grabbing a Map of Kansai & a Kansai Guidebook for me during her trip back home for the holidays, and continues to allow me to approach her for help in the coming months in regards to the move.

I also wanna thank Linus for giving me a head-start in this by recommending Sakura House (Tokyo), which led me to its sister branches in Osaka called - Apple House, Melon House, Lemon House, Orange House, and Banana House... It was pretty amusing but most of them charge for using the shower.

My next post will be of Banks & Mobile Phone contracts.