This is kind of a heads-up post. One of the reasons why I’ve been a little erratic (i.e. slow as hell) on posts of late is that the contract on my apartment is almost up for renewal and we’ve decided to move into something a little bigger. I love this apartment, but when I moved in in late 2002 it was just intended as a cool crash pad for just one, but now, with the two of us, we’re a little pushed for space. Thus, we’ve spent an increasing amount of time over the last two months looking at hundreds of floor plans and rejecting a good 99.5% of them for one reason or another – I hate having the cooking range in the living room (pretty common in many Japanese apartments) and my partner prefers south facing places, short commutes and places which have ‘wa’ (just joking there!). We’ve so far burned a few weekend days running around Tokyo taking a look at them.
For a flashback of the last time I moved, check out the November section of my 2002 notes. All the usual things have occurred – floor plans which had ‘misprints’ as to the direction of the balcony, buildings which claimed to be 6 years old which looked pre-war and estate agents who were unhappy with my racial origins. What can I say, I’m pale.
Nice new abode (the virtual one)… as for the physical one, in the cold streets of Tokyo… All I can say is mucho gambatte kudasai…
I probably won’t be telling you anything new by pointing out how much of an issue your lack of nippon ancestry will be, with most landlords.
I went through that not a year ago and this wasn’t much fun.
Actually, if I may even bicker with words, this is not even a matter of skin color… as one of the real estate agent, presumably trying to make us feel better about the 95% rejection rate told us: “Gaijins are difficult, but as long as you are not chinese or korean, there’s a chance…” ahem.
Anyway, having at least half the prospective tenants Japanese should make your search a bit easier, but expect a lot of “ahhh, chotto muzukashii desu nehh”. And btw, I think usually agents absolutely do not care about that (they’d be happy to make their commission no matter what), the problem is usually with the owners, who are most often much older, much more prejudiced and much more afraid to deal with gaijins…
Thanks for the post dr.Dave. I agree completely. Most agents don’t want to deal with me, especially as my partner is Japanese, but it makes it a bit stressful for her. Yesterday one rep from Livable didn’t even bother doing an aisatsu with me or distributing meishi. However, she still paid for a taxi to show us a place and so is interested in making commission.
As for Oya-san (the actual owners), some have turned me down flat, some has paused and hoped I went away. For my current place, the OYa-san was not sure at first but felt better when I had a chat with her in Japanese, mainly about gomi… I also gave her some brochures about my company and I think that helped too.
I also agree that of all us disgusting gaijin, caucasians such as myself don’t get the brunt of it. A Philipino friend of mine said she had a hell of a lot of problems finding a place to live. It’s a shame it seems to be so tolerated. People wanting to be racist is a fact of life anywhere; letting that get in the way of business is something I just don’t understand.
Death to key money!!