Posted by cloneofsnake on August 5, 2009 at 11:05am
Sorry for the posting this off-topic question on the Japan group.
My wife and I had just landed in Tokyo on Monday and begun searching for apartments / mansions. Just thought there may be foreigners in this group that can point me to good resources on the web or in real life.
My office is at 五反田, so I was searching for places along the 東急池上線 on sites like http://realestate.homes.co.jp/. Budget is under 120K but slightly over is OK... preferably without 礼金.
Looking forward to meeting up w/ the local Drupalers!
Thanks,
Nick
Comments
西馬込
Hi, welcome to Tokyo.
Though Im not a foreigner, I think 東急池上線 is a good choice, though expensive. You might also want to consider 西馬込, the end of 都営浅草線, subway, relatively cheap (but not so cheap). It takes only 8 minutes from 五反田.
http://transit.map.yahoo.co.jp/search/result?from=%E4%BA%94%E5%8F%8D%E7%...
Hope this helps.
Thanks for all the
Thanks for all the responses! Drupal community has always been very helpful and friendly all over the world! :)
We actually went to look at a mansion in 馬込 yesterday, but it was next to a busy street so kinda noisy.
I saw something in 千鳥町 that seems to look good so we're going to go check it out later today. The cost of travel on 池上線 is even a little cheaper: http://transit.map.yahoo.co.jp/search/result?from=%E5%8D%83%E9%B3%A5%E7%...
Any opinions about that neighborhood?
千鳥町
If you'd like 千鳥町, then you would also like 御嶽山 (ontakesan), my neigherbor actually. Yes they are even nicer and less noisy than 馬込. Also the food is relatively cheaper than centeral district.
Brother, you really should
Brother, you really should have got the housing situation figured out before you touched down in Narita, I think…
As for housing "for foreigners," though there are buildings specifically for foreigners/tourists and such, I wouldn't imagine those sorts of digs would be appropriate for married couples. Or anyone, really…
A good site for questions and answers about Japan is the Let'sJapan forums. It's mostly centered around eikaiwa teachers/teaching, but has forums for more general discussion about living in Japan as well.
The Boise Drupal Guy!
Welcome to Japan
Welcome to Japan!
heard about this site recently,
http://apartments.gaijinpot.com/agent
http://www.gaijinpot.com/
My personal favorite in Tokyo is Yoyogi-Uehara 代々木上原。
You might want to live in the city, maybe at the clean new high-rises.
I'm not an expert but maybe between Gotanda and Daimon?
Or maybe even around Azabu Jyuban until you figure things out.
Hmm, figured someone would
Hmm, figured someone would mention GP eventually. Well, if you're the type of person that uses GaijinPot for anything, you're… well, I guess the type of person who would use a site called GaijinPot. Personally, I can't recommend it.
The Boise Drupal Guy!
My Way
You know, every time I have found a place is just by going to the different housing agents by the station of where I want to live. Looking at the places, then negotiate the terms.
Key money and Thank you money, I have never paid that. They always list it in the ad, but with the lowering population of Japan, most housing area's have open areas and you can easily get them to not make you pay this. I also never pay that 2 year re-sign thing either. That one is even more stupid. I just tell them I will move and they can find someone else to live here. They always wave that too.
So I would tell you to just look at the area you want to live, go to a couple of different housing companies, and work them against each other. Don't worry about the agent, as he is just an agent, there is an owner of the housing area behind him. So tell him that you will take the apartment or whatever, if they wave the key money and thank you money and you just do one months deposit and tell them to ask the owner, the agent will not be able to say yes or no to that. It has always worked for me.
Good luck,
Shaun
Thanks for the advice...
Thanks for the advice... That's what we used to do in New York too, but the people at my company are advising me to visit the real estate agents near the company at Gotanda.
We just came back from seeing a couple of places, one of which is near the 荏原中延 station. We really like that neighborhood, so I think we'll go check out the local real estate agents by ourselves. (The language thing is a bit of a challenge, but I think I can manage...)
What we may end up doing is to rent a place for a month here - http://www.cheaphousingtokyo.com/apartments/ I spoke with the guy, Morris, yesterday and although he doesn't have anything in my size + budget, he said he has places available and I can just rent from month to month while I search for a place I like. I think that's a win-win.