Ok, where to start. First things first, obaasan stalker.
Friday I did a demonstration for about 20 ol' folk. At 5pm, my obaasan stalker came to the place where I'm staying to give me 300 yen to pay for the entry into the pool. My housemate told me that I should use it to buy some snacks for the meeting afterwards. So I hurried to the grocery store and purchased fruit (I'm not yet hip on what old people like to snack on around here). Having my fruit bowl in hand, I hurried off to the pool.
When I arrived, most of them were already warming up. All of them were 50+ years old (one woman was 80) which made the speedos kind of creepy (one man's came up past his belly button). Old man with 6 pack led us in a strange set of stretches (lots of bouncing and twisting and bending backwards in unnatural ways). Then I got in and they had me swim 2 lengths of each stroke slowly, I tried pointing out the important things about each stroke, "but there's NOT ENOUGH TIME!" So I quickly swam slowly so that everyone could do "image training." Then I helped a bunch of people work on their butterfly and breaststroke. Nothing is more awkward than thrusting your hips back and forth in front of a bunch of old people who have no idea what you're saying. But I did it...and for some people it worked. For others...well they definitely got their butts out of the water. After this I was ushered upstairs to what seemed like a financial meeting. They provided me with a translator who proceeded to tell me how much money the group spends each week. Then they introduced "new" members, some had been with the group for a year. One of them introduced herself in English and then I got to sputter out an introduction in Japanese. A lot of the people spoke to me very quickly and then starred like I was supposed to understand them even though I said I didn't really understand Japanese. But a couple were really nice and tried talking to me in English. Overall it was actually kind of fun. I think I might try again this week.
Okay, onto the more pressing news. For the last week I have been talking with a girl who I will call "mini-me" as we very much alike, but she's shorter and Japanese. We want to room together. She wants to practice her English and get her certificate to teach foreigners Japanese. HEY! That's me! Today we finally got the chance to get together and go look for places. I pity anyone who doesn't speak Japanese, who is left to try and find a place on their own. Japanese people make finding an apartment extremely difficult. Maybe they think it's easier, but it seems to be a pain. So the process:
1) Find an Apamanshop (usually located near a train station, but not always). Note that not all Apamanshops will show you the same apartments (some will tell you that those apartments will not rent to people who want to share or to foreigners).
2) Find a sale associate willing to work with a foreigner (even though Mini-me is clearly Japanese, we kept getting passed off to someone who wanted to help).
3) Don't try and give them suggestions for what you want, because most likely that don't have any available to rent. Plan for 2 hours as this is the amount of time that it will take 3 of them to go to their giant filing cabinets and pull out legal size color print outs on various apartments that DO NOT fit your request.
4) At this point, they will show you a computer to put in your requests. A map will pop up with tons of locations, but NONE of them will be suitable for you or will rent to you (apparently they're all owned by obaasans and ojiisans that are just not hip to the times).
5) UnlucklyApamanshop worker will drive you to no more than 2 destinations, park illegally in the middle of the road and then ask you to wait while they prepare the apartment for you (doormat, slippers and flicking all the lights on).
6) You'll walk around, trying not to act disappointed, especially when said Apamanshop worker tells you that it will cost $4,500 to move into a 3k apartment that will cost $850 a month. Be polite and bite your tongue, because they still have to drive you back to the shop.
7) Once back at the shop, let them know that you will need to think about it and you will get back to them. Using phone, call another company and start the process again.
8) Pick a place, fill out a form and wait two days while they do a background/ credit check. In Japan you have to have someone else sign for you, in case you fail to pay your rent, then someone else will do it for you. Then you have to give them your bank information so that they can make sure that you can afford it (kind of like a credit check). Also, most places don't come with ANY appliances (AC/Stove/Fridge/Washer, etc), so you have to make sure to check or be prepared to purchase all of those items.
So in America, this really wouldn't work because apartments are usually in complexs. But in Japan you have Apartments (which are really more like what we'd call duplexs or triplexs). Apartments are usually only 2 stories tall and have maybe 4 rentable spaces. Then there are mansions which are 3+ stories tall (more like a complex). Both of them are comparable in price.
After 5 hours of searching, we finally found one we liked. It was odd because we went to 2 different Apamanshops and they showed us completely different properties that were available in the same square mile! The 2nd guy was not as efficient and considerate (he was actually kind of spacey), but he was nice enough to drive us to the same apartment twice and then drive us from the apartment to the station (so we could see how long it would take - less than a minute drive) and then drove us back to the apartment to look again. The apartment is called TreeTop apartments and it has a small "backyard" that faces two buildings...but there's grass...which is green...but will probably never grow anything. It's a 3DK so there are 3 rooms plus a very large kitchen. The closet space takes up an ENTIRE wall in both rooms (it's amazing - the closets are literally floor to ceiling wall to wall). The rooms are about 9 x 11 which is a good size in Japan. Then we have a corner lot so there are no neighbors next to the "tv" room. All for about $750/mth, which is really amazing. I'm totally excited, but will have to start searching for something to sleep on ect. The move-in fee was about $3,000, which is still almost ridiculous, but does include the first month of rent and the rest is refundable upon leaving the apartment in perfect condition.
So all in all, it has been a very productive couple of days. Hopefully, I'll be able to let you know how to find cheap appliances and furniture soon.
Friday I did a demonstration for about 20 ol' folk. At 5pm, my obaasan stalker came to the place where I'm staying to give me 300 yen to pay for the entry into the pool. My housemate told me that I should use it to buy some snacks for the meeting afterwards. So I hurried to the grocery store and purchased fruit (I'm not yet hip on what old people like to snack on around here). Having my fruit bowl in hand, I hurried off to the pool.
When I arrived, most of them were already warming up. All of them were 50+ years old (one woman was 80) which made the speedos kind of creepy (one man's came up past his belly button). Old man with 6 pack led us in a strange set of stretches (lots of bouncing and twisting and bending backwards in unnatural ways). Then I got in and they had me swim 2 lengths of each stroke slowly, I tried pointing out the important things about each stroke, "but there's NOT ENOUGH TIME!" So I quickly swam slowly so that everyone could do "image training." Then I helped a bunch of people work on their butterfly and breaststroke. Nothing is more awkward than thrusting your hips back and forth in front of a bunch of old people who have no idea what you're saying. But I did it...and for some people it worked. For others...well they definitely got their butts out of the water. After this I was ushered upstairs to what seemed like a financial meeting. They provided me with a translator who proceeded to tell me how much money the group spends each week. Then they introduced "new" members, some had been with the group for a year. One of them introduced herself in English and then I got to sputter out an introduction in Japanese. A lot of the people spoke to me very quickly and then starred like I was supposed to understand them even though I said I didn't really understand Japanese. But a couple were really nice and tried talking to me in English. Overall it was actually kind of fun. I think I might try again this week.
Okay, onto the more pressing news. For the last week I have been talking with a girl who I will call "mini-me" as we very much alike, but she's shorter and Japanese. We want to room together. She wants to practice her English and get her certificate to teach foreigners Japanese. HEY! That's me! Today we finally got the chance to get together and go look for places. I pity anyone who doesn't speak Japanese, who is left to try and find a place on their own. Japanese people make finding an apartment extremely difficult. Maybe they think it's easier, but it seems to be a pain. So the process:
1) Find an Apamanshop (usually located near a train station, but not always). Note that not all Apamanshops will show you the same apartments (some will tell you that those apartments will not rent to people who want to share or to foreigners).
2) Find a sale associate willing to work with a foreigner (even though Mini-me is clearly Japanese, we kept getting passed off to someone who wanted to help).
3) Don't try and give them suggestions for what you want, because most likely that don't have any available to rent. Plan for 2 hours as this is the amount of time that it will take 3 of them to go to their giant filing cabinets and pull out legal size color print outs on various apartments that DO NOT fit your request.
4) At this point, they will show you a computer to put in your requests. A map will pop up with tons of locations, but NONE of them will be suitable for you or will rent to you (apparently they're all owned by obaasans and ojiisans that are just not hip to the times).
5) UnlucklyApamanshop worker will drive you to no more than 2 destinations, park illegally in the middle of the road and then ask you to wait while they prepare the apartment for you (doormat, slippers and flicking all the lights on).
6) You'll walk around, trying not to act disappointed, especially when said Apamanshop worker tells you that it will cost $4,500 to move into a 3k apartment that will cost $850 a month. Be polite and bite your tongue, because they still have to drive you back to the shop.
7) Once back at the shop, let them know that you will need to think about it and you will get back to them. Using phone, call another company and start the process again.
8) Pick a place, fill out a form and wait two days while they do a background/ credit check. In Japan you have to have someone else sign for you, in case you fail to pay your rent, then someone else will do it for you. Then you have to give them your bank information so that they can make sure that you can afford it (kind of like a credit check). Also, most places don't come with ANY appliances (AC/Stove/Fridge/Washer, etc), so you have to make sure to check or be prepared to purchase all of those items.
So in America, this really wouldn't work because apartments are usually in complexs. But in Japan you have Apartments (which are really more like what we'd call duplexs or triplexs). Apartments are usually only 2 stories tall and have maybe 4 rentable spaces. Then there are mansions which are 3+ stories tall (more like a complex). Both of them are comparable in price.
After 5 hours of searching, we finally found one we liked. It was odd because we went to 2 different Apamanshops and they showed us completely different properties that were available in the same square mile! The 2nd guy was not as efficient and considerate (he was actually kind of spacey), but he was nice enough to drive us to the same apartment twice and then drive us from the apartment to the station (so we could see how long it would take - less than a minute drive) and then drove us back to the apartment to look again. The apartment is called TreeTop apartments and it has a small "backyard" that faces two buildings...but there's grass...which is green...but will probably never grow anything. It's a 3DK so there are 3 rooms plus a very large kitchen. The closet space takes up an ENTIRE wall in both rooms (it's amazing - the closets are literally floor to ceiling wall to wall). The rooms are about 9 x 11 which is a good size in Japan. Then we have a corner lot so there are no neighbors next to the "tv" room. All for about $750/mth, which is really amazing. I'm totally excited, but will have to start searching for something to sleep on ect. The move-in fee was about $3,000, which is still almost ridiculous, but does include the first month of rent and the rest is refundable upon leaving the apartment in perfect condition.
So all in all, it has been a very productive couple of days. Hopefully, I'll be able to let you know how to find cheap appliances and furniture soon.
Hey Crysti
ReplyDeleteHow have you been and you blogs make me laugh i dont know if you have an email but mine is JMHamann@hotmail.com if you want to chat.
Jay M Hamann
A small Japanese you?! Photos PLEASE!!! :-p
ReplyDelete