Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Adventures in apartment hunting...
This past weekend, I went to Tokyo with my gf to start looking at apartments that we had listed down. Gotta say, it was one of the craziest, most tiring weekends I've ever been through.
1st day: took the overnight bus to Shinjuku. We arrived there at roughly 5:30am and nothing was open save for the Yamanote line in the train station. Since we were cold and exhausted from the bus ride, I suggested that we should get on the loop line and just rest in the train for an hour until places were open. Turned out to be a great idea and we were feeling better already. We arrived at Shibuya, ate some soba for breakfast, had some coffee and tea at a cafe, then went on our way to the first appoinment at 9am, in Onda. We arrived in Onda about a minute late, but I could already see that living in Onda would be far too inconvenient. The express train does stop one train station away from Onda, but the actual train to Onda arrives once every 20 minutes! Upon arriving in Onda and meeting with the real estate agent there, we walked to the apartment that we had listed. The apartment sounded pretty good, on paper. 9 minute walk from the station, 3 rooms, large kitchen (with a kitchen counter!), and very pet friendly (eventually may get a dog here). Only problem is, on the way to the apartment, there's nothing but cemetaries and speeding cars tearing down the rural area. The nearest market (or anything for that matter!) was at least one station away. This place would have been great if I had a pet and a car, but since I have neither and I'm not THAT obsessed with having pets, I turned down that apartment offer without a second thought.
On to Chuo Rinkan: This area reminds me so much of a mini version of Ashiya. Seems like an upscale type of community with many rich folks. Very convenient area and express trains do stop there. We met with the real estate agency called Able over there and looked at a few apartments there. Note on Able: according to my gf, Able has a reputation for being high pressured and aggressive on customers. The staff there seemed to fit that reputation like a glove. Though I really like the Chuo Rinkan area, the apartments they showed us were good, but all had glaring weaknesses. The best apartment we looked at was very tempting indeed, but I would have been forced to join the apartment community (paying an extra community fee) and woud have to help out in cleaning the premises. Another apartment we looked at over there was overpriced and had one extreme weakness, no freaking closets! Somehow, that 2 room apartment was looking more like a 1 room apartment without closets. Reluctantly, we decided that Chuo Rinkan wouldn't be a good fit and moved on to the next place, Ayase. Ayase seemed quite similar to some parts in Osaka, but the apartments that the real estate agent showed us just weren't very good at all. Both places were about 15 minutes away from the station on foot and we could hear EVERYTHING in the apartments. It was frustrating to not find a good place on the first day.
2nd day: We left the hotel in Shinjuku at around 10:30am and headed up to the Chiba area for our next meeting with CLC (real estate agency). Now, it's important to note that Chiba is known by everyone to be a rural area with lots of farmland and not much else. I really wasn't looking forward to it, until we got there. The area was actually really cool and very convenient for me. The first apartment we looked at was definitely a keeper! There was an Aoki store close by, so I can buy good cheap suits for work, a coin laundry place, 24 hr supermarket, 35 minutes away from work by train, and most impressive, 1 minute away from the station on foot! The deal was an absolute steal too. Getting a 2DK apartment 1 minute away from the station and close to a lot of good stores, the rent was only 85,000 yen. Finally, I had at least one apartment that met all the criteria of what I wanted, but there was one more place that I wanted to go check before I sign with this one. We ended up going to Kumin real estate agency, on the Mita line. Now, I gotta say, this was the worst place to deal with. The real estate agent there didn't want to help me at all, looked absolutely uninterested, and was just damn rude to me and my gf. We left there with no hesitation and decided to sign with CLC for the apartment in Chiba. Overall, the trip wasn't much fun, but I felt so relieved that I could find a good apartment on time.
We took the overnight bus back to Osaka that night, but to our surprise, we ended up getting stuck in the middle of a snowstorm in Sekigahara! Our bus was smack in the middle of a traffic jam that didn't move for an hour. We were able to make it to a rest stop and after having some breakfast, started to feel much better. Only problem was, the traffic was so bad that the bus driver said it would take a couple of hours before we could even move on. On top of that, one of the passengers on the bus seemed to be getting crazy, spouting incomprehensible words in a maniacal manner. Cabin fever was my first guess. Luckily, we could call a taxi to take us to the nearest train station in Gifu and took the train all the way back to Osaka. A very tiring experience indeed.
So, to recap for the real estate agencies, it would be helpful to know which ones can help foreigners and which ones won't. Able seems to be ok, as long as you can handle the pushiness of the sales staff. Apamanshop was actually ok, even though they have a reputation for refusing to deal with foreigners. Taisei will not serve foreigners at all, it's their policy. They did treat us professionally though and the agent there did try to make it work. Stay away from Kumin! Just an absolute waste of time and the agent was a smug asshole. CLC is very good. They deal with foreigners all the time and are very helpful.
1st day: took the overnight bus to Shinjuku. We arrived there at roughly 5:30am and nothing was open save for the Yamanote line in the train station. Since we were cold and exhausted from the bus ride, I suggested that we should get on the loop line and just rest in the train for an hour until places were open. Turned out to be a great idea and we were feeling better already. We arrived at Shibuya, ate some soba for breakfast, had some coffee and tea at a cafe, then went on our way to the first appoinment at 9am, in Onda. We arrived in Onda about a minute late, but I could already see that living in Onda would be far too inconvenient. The express train does stop one train station away from Onda, but the actual train to Onda arrives once every 20 minutes! Upon arriving in Onda and meeting with the real estate agent there, we walked to the apartment that we had listed. The apartment sounded pretty good, on paper. 9 minute walk from the station, 3 rooms, large kitchen (with a kitchen counter!), and very pet friendly (eventually may get a dog here). Only problem is, on the way to the apartment, there's nothing but cemetaries and speeding cars tearing down the rural area. The nearest market (or anything for that matter!) was at least one station away. This place would have been great if I had a pet and a car, but since I have neither and I'm not THAT obsessed with having pets, I turned down that apartment offer without a second thought.
On to Chuo Rinkan: This area reminds me so much of a mini version of Ashiya. Seems like an upscale type of community with many rich folks. Very convenient area and express trains do stop there. We met with the real estate agency called Able over there and looked at a few apartments there. Note on Able: according to my gf, Able has a reputation for being high pressured and aggressive on customers. The staff there seemed to fit that reputation like a glove. Though I really like the Chuo Rinkan area, the apartments they showed us were good, but all had glaring weaknesses. The best apartment we looked at was very tempting indeed, but I would have been forced to join the apartment community (paying an extra community fee) and woud have to help out in cleaning the premises. Another apartment we looked at over there was overpriced and had one extreme weakness, no freaking closets! Somehow, that 2 room apartment was looking more like a 1 room apartment without closets. Reluctantly, we decided that Chuo Rinkan wouldn't be a good fit and moved on to the next place, Ayase. Ayase seemed quite similar to some parts in Osaka, but the apartments that the real estate agent showed us just weren't very good at all. Both places were about 15 minutes away from the station on foot and we could hear EVERYTHING in the apartments. It was frustrating to not find a good place on the first day.
2nd day: We left the hotel in Shinjuku at around 10:30am and headed up to the Chiba area for our next meeting with CLC (real estate agency). Now, it's important to note that Chiba is known by everyone to be a rural area with lots of farmland and not much else. I really wasn't looking forward to it, until we got there. The area was actually really cool and very convenient for me. The first apartment we looked at was definitely a keeper! There was an Aoki store close by, so I can buy good cheap suits for work, a coin laundry place, 24 hr supermarket, 35 minutes away from work by train, and most impressive, 1 minute away from the station on foot! The deal was an absolute steal too. Getting a 2DK apartment 1 minute away from the station and close to a lot of good stores, the rent was only 85,000 yen. Finally, I had at least one apartment that met all the criteria of what I wanted, but there was one more place that I wanted to go check before I sign with this one. We ended up going to Kumin real estate agency, on the Mita line. Now, I gotta say, this was the worst place to deal with. The real estate agent there didn't want to help me at all, looked absolutely uninterested, and was just damn rude to me and my gf. We left there with no hesitation and decided to sign with CLC for the apartment in Chiba. Overall, the trip wasn't much fun, but I felt so relieved that I could find a good apartment on time.
We took the overnight bus back to Osaka that night, but to our surprise, we ended up getting stuck in the middle of a snowstorm in Sekigahara! Our bus was smack in the middle of a traffic jam that didn't move for an hour. We were able to make it to a rest stop and after having some breakfast, started to feel much better. Only problem was, the traffic was so bad that the bus driver said it would take a couple of hours before we could even move on. On top of that, one of the passengers on the bus seemed to be getting crazy, spouting incomprehensible words in a maniacal manner. Cabin fever was my first guess. Luckily, we could call a taxi to take us to the nearest train station in Gifu and took the train all the way back to Osaka. A very tiring experience indeed.
So, to recap for the real estate agencies, it would be helpful to know which ones can help foreigners and which ones won't. Able seems to be ok, as long as you can handle the pushiness of the sales staff. Apamanshop was actually ok, even though they have a reputation for refusing to deal with foreigners. Taisei will not serve foreigners at all, it's their policy. They did treat us professionally though and the agent there did try to make it work. Stay away from Kumin! Just an absolute waste of time and the agent was a smug asshole. CLC is very good. They deal with foreigners all the time and are very helpful.
