3 ms·
Wow. Can you be a bit more specific? My experience is mostly opposite to yours in most respects, actually, but I've heard similar horror stories so I'm curious
by bluedanieru 16y ago
Wow. Can you be a bit more specific? My experience is mostly opposite to yours in most respects, actually, but I've heard similar horror stories so I'm curious to know how you are (were) trying to get by. I don't think you're entirely typical though. Send me a mail if you're uncomfortable discussing here (although it does seem you've already left?)
(The apartment bit is not accurate, btw, and neither is the visa, compared to the States.)
At any rate, just a quick point of order that the parent may not be an entirely typical case. I know a guy working at smart.fm (or whatever they call themselves now) and he's having a good time of it.
- rdouble 16y agoThis was 10 years ago. Maybe my comment seems too negative. It wasn't really a horror story. That's interesting if you don't need a guarantor to rent an apartment anymore, I'll have to ask my friends over there about that. When I lived there the housing options were either: have Japanese guarantor, rent from Yakuza owned building in Ugusudani, or pay $5000/m for luxo month-to-month rental. I guess the other non-guarantor option would have been to sub-lease from a Japanese person going abroad for a while.
- bluedanieru 16y agoMost places still require a guarantor, which basically means you pay the estate agency to act as a guarantor. In light of the fact that key money and other deposit requirements have generally gone down over that past few years (nothing to do with foreigners here this is motivated by Japanese), I think it's a wash. Getting a place is definitely more a pain in the ass than it ought to be, for Japanese but moreso for foreigners, but I don't think it's quite as bad as you've painted it. edit: okay things have changed since you've left. I've been here since 2003 and I can confirm that, at least