Apartment hunting

First, the routine stuff: my laptop is being repaired by Lenovo right now, so still no photos from my trip to China. Sigh. On the plus side, I have a cell phone now. If you're my friend on facebook, you can get my number from my profile. If you've (understandably) shunned facebook, just send an e-mail to my gmail account instead, and I will send you my number. I finally have a Japanese ATM card, and my US ATM card is functional again. I'm spending lots of time at work, but learning a lot of cool stuff, so no complaints I guess. I'm appreciating how the latest financial crisis really is a worldwide problem, in a way that isn't possible by just reading the Economist.

The situation in Gaza makes me want to cry. That's pretty much all I can say about that.

Anyways, on to what I really wanted to write about: the Tokyo apartment hunting experience. It's amazing how little your yen buys you in central Tokyo. Even more amazing is how many landlords refuse outright to rent their property to gaijin (the Japanese word for "foreigner"). In response, most companies that import foreign workers have some sort of rental assistance program where the company itself enters a lease agreement with the landlord, and rent is then deducted from the employee's paycheque. Obviously Japanese landlords are more comfortable renting to trustworthy mega-corporations, rather than lowly gaijin. The nice part, I guess, is that the company usually pays the reikin ("key money", an absurd concept that you should do a web search about) on behalf of new employees.

So, with the help of brokers, I've seen about 15 apartments so far, but nothing that I'm really happy with. Beyond the sticker shock, my basic dilemma is this. I work in Roppongi. So, should I live in Azabu, Hiroo or Roppongi, all of which are crawling with foreigners (Michael colourfully referred to them as "gaijin ghettos"), but are within walking distance of work? Or, should I live in a "cooler", more "Japanese" neighbourhood (e.g., Ebisu, Nakameguro, Aoyama, Omotesando, Akasaka) and take the train to work? Unless I pick up Japanese really quickly, life in those neighbourhoods might get a little lonely. On the other hand, maybe being forced to learn Japanese is good thing. Right now, I'm leaning toward just staying close to work, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I'll update you with the results of the apartment search, probably in my next post. I'm staying in the company-provided temporary housing (see my first Tokyo post for a photo) for at least another week, so I have a little while longer to decide.

Jan 19 edit: And now, some photos!

In case you haven't heard the hype, apartments in central Tokyo are really small, and really expensive. This one in Ebisu is about 300 sq. ft. and costs 160,000 yen per month. I've managed to fit about 80% of the apartment into this photo.

The Japanese are obsessed with new things, especially when it comes to apartments. This one in Nakameguro is considered "old" and relatively large -- built in 1991, 400 sq. ft., and a bargain at 145,000 yen per month.

A cute apartment building in Nakameguro. I would've moved into this building, except it was not close enough to a convenient subway station.

This apartment in Omotesando had a bed that folded into the wall! Cool! Again, too far from a convenient subway station.