In the states, the hardest part about moving seems to be the actual physical act itself. Having to pack, rent a truck, load the truck, drive the drunk, unload the truck, unpack the boxes...blah blah blah. It could take multiple days or even multiple weeks to complete the whole process. Before moving to Japan I had done this 23 times. Most of them were small moves from one location to another (often out of my parents house, back into my parents house and repeat). Since I didn't mind the packing, moving, unpacking, I found the rest of the process actually pretty easy. Look in the paper, find some ads, call said ads, look at said ads, and then decide. The process to sign a contract took a matter of minutes and usually nothing more than the first months rent and a deposit, that was pretty much guaranteed to be returned.
Moving in Japan is a whole other nightmare. To recap my previous moves:
1. Moved from US to Japan with the 3 largest suitcases I could take on a plane. In order to maneuver these by myself, I had rigged a unstable, bungee cord stack...of course this wasn't elevator tested, and as soon as I hit one in Narita airport heading to the train tracks, the whole thing toppled. This was the first time I realized that Japanese people rarely stop to help. Three people behind me all walked around me, others just stood and waited for me to rebuild my tower, which was difficult as all three suitcases weighed over 50 pounds. Fortunately, a nice Italian guy helped me get them on the train (again the Japanese just stood and waited for me to attempt to lift them onto the suitcase cart). Fortunately at my stop, my boss was waiting to help me get them back to the house I would spend my first month at.
Looking back this might have been the easiest move so far.
Luggage: 3 suitcases, 1 purse, 1 backpack, and 3 large boxes awaiting me at my final destination
Cost: Plane ticket $450, Shipping boxes $500, move-in fees $0 (the teacher was extremely nice and let me just help with utilities!).
Time: 2 days
2. Move from Gyoda to Omiya...This was probably THE WORST move of my life. I spent a day looking with a Japanese girl for a place. Because she didn't have much time off, I had to do it around her schedule. She didn't want to spend much time looking and had very high expectations. It was difficult from the start to find a place that we both agreed upon. Once we did, I then had to wait for her to do all the paperwork, which was slow...because again she didn't have much time off. Being rather independent, I decided to try and move myself. This consisted of taking my goods by suitcase to the station, on the train and to my apartment. Dumb dumb dumb. The stuff was heavy and the walk from the station to the apartment wasn't a quick one. At one point one of my suitcases, topping out at a whopping 115 pounds lost both its legs leaving me to physically drag it for 5 km. This was the second time I realized Japanese people don't normally stop to help. I walked past DOZENS of people who watched me using all my power to drag the monster behind me on the gravel sidewalk. About 30 minutes away from the station, a very nice foreigner stopped to ask if I needed help. He then helped me carry it the rest of the way. I thanked him profusely and we went our separate ways.
On a side note...I later ran into this same guy at a birthday party for a friend. I had never told the other teachers what happened and was absolutely EMBARRASSED by the situation...so when the guy gave me the "I think I recognize you look" I had to do everything I could to convince him that NO I was NOT the crazy foreigner that made you carry an overloaded suitcase 30 minutes to the station :-/ I'm a horrible horrible person. The poor guy insisted, and I just kept pretending like I had NO idea what he was talking about.
With three big boxes left to move and no idea how, my coworkers finally told me about Takkubin, which allows you to send boxes through the convenience stores (that would have been nice to know sooner). Takkubin is very fast (usually overnight) and CHEAP! With this, my move was over.
Luggage: same
Cost: 5 train tickets - 2250Yen, Takkubin - 3500Yen, 180000Yen to move in, and a whole lot of dignity
Time: So ridiculous I'm not even going to mention it
3. From Omiya to down the street. This move was a bit easier as I really didn't have many choices. I either searched for someone who really wanted to live in the middle of nowhere, or I searched for someone looking for a roommate in the middle of nowhere (ok Omiya really ISN'T the middle of nowhere, but that's how it felt when I was trying to find something out there). I only found one person. I moved in with her as it was literally a 40 minute walk from my current location.
For this move, a friend rented a truck and we hauled my stuff up the street. Having been in Japan for 6 months, I had started to accumulate a lot of stuff!
Luggage: A regular sized pick-up truck full (including fridge, 4 futons, all 3 suitcases and newly added bright green storage containers)
Cost: 13000Yen for 2 hours!!! So ridiculously expensive!
Time: 2 hours (I didn't have a choice)
4. This move was a bit more planned and I spent days searching the web for roommates in Tokyo, as well as guest houses. I sent dozens upon dozens of e-mails and made appointments to see 4 places and a couple of individual apartments. The first place I saw was beautiful, but seemed ridiculously expensive for the price. After seeing the other 3 I realized it was an absolute gem.
However, not wanting to jump on something, I convinced a friend to come with me to look at apartments. After an hour in the office we finally found a few places that would rent to foreigners around Shinjuku station. Not being able to decide which place would be best, my friend and I went to lunch to discuss. 30 minutes later we returned with a decision (which was come to with some rather harsh words as my friend felt I was being stubborn and just saying the opposite of everything they said...which might have been true). The agent drew up the contract and when I saw the move-in cost 350000 yen, I freaked. I couldn't do it. My friend offered to loan me the money, but I didn't think I could afford to pay them back (I wouldn't be making that much more money). After spending most the day searching, I backed out. And decided to move into the guest house.
This time I found a company that moves foreigners. I carried my stuff downstairs and a guy helped me load his truck and drove me to Tokyo and unloaded everything and carried it up to my new apartment for DIRT cheap!
While not the easiest, this was probably the least stressful.
Luggage: By this point a year had passed and I had acquired a bike, fridge, and tons and tons of sh$t. I don't know what better way to call all the crap I'd accumulated in a year.
Cost: Truck 9000Yen, Move-in fee was 1 months rent plus 10000 yen, and one slightly banged up friendship
Time: 2 days spent looking, 3 hours spent moving
5. So why move again? Well...now I have a better job, make more money, and work much much longer hours. I'm starting to break out in acne from stress and yet don't feel like I have enough time to get to the gym. So I'm hoping to move closer so that I can walk/jog home (depending on the kind of day I've had).
After 2 full days of apartment hunting (and countless hours making spreadsheets to compare the specs on each place), I've narrowed my choices down to two:
Choice 1)
Location - Shirokane
Cost - 150000/month
Size - 40.5m2
Layout - 1LDK (1 room, living room, dining room and kitchen...though dining only means there's room for a tiny table in the kitchen)
Time from work - 25min walk
Time from gym - 20min train+walk
Pros: Fantastic view, very bright, separate room.
Cons: Older and is just plain normal looking...plus I noticed there's no designated place for a fridge
Entry closet
Choice 2)
Location - Shibakoen
Cost - 150000/month
Size - 39.8 m2
Layout - 1K (1 room and kitchen)
Time from work - 25min walk
Time from gym -20 min by train and walking
Pros - In a neighborhood with tons of restaurants, close to great lines (Oedo, Mita, JR, Namboku), never been lived in before, and very trendy look.
Cons - Business area, the 1R thing is a bit...weird and may start to feel cramped, lack of closet space
So I've decided to go with Kamidanomi (let God decide). We'll see how that goes. My agent has suggested putting in two aps and see who responds first.
May the best apartment win!
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