Bargain hunting in Tokyo

After spending nearly 6 months rent all at once but before even moving into your utterly empty flat, you won't be very much in the mood to go spending much more on furnishing the place. Not only will you need to get your own furniture, you'll also need to bring your own fridge, gas cooker and washing machine.

Luckily, there are some real bargains to be found at this stage.

Second hand goods stores are usually quite depressing places; they tend to be disorganised, and stuffed with too much of that porcelain tat that absolutely nobody wants to buy. The Treasure Factory does just about everything to not make itself look like a second hand goods store. It's clean, well-lit, items are properly categorized and prices are clearly labelled. Six-month warranties are given on larger purchases such as refrigerators, cookers and washing machines, which clearly have been serviced and thoroughly cleaned. The year in which they were manufactured is also clearly stated, so you know exactly how old the item is you are buying. But best of all are the prices - one can really find bargains here.
The whole recycling marketplace in Japan is quite big, with the Book-Off franchise spin-off Hard-Off being the largest chain. Book-Off is an enormous (and now even international) chain of second hand book sellers that you'll find everywhere in Japan, but from I've seen their prices on second hand games are hardly discounted. I've not been to the ridiculously named Hard-Off so I can't comment on their prices.

For really low prices, there's no beating the shop in your local recycling center. These are dotted throughout Tokyo and can be spotted from a great distance as they all seem to have a tall, white chimney. The city will pick up, clean, repair and put on sale the unwanted goods they consider to be sell-able. Electronic goods and appliances aren't sold here. In some places they will even deliver any purchases to your house for a fee. Here you can also buy unclaimed bicycles that were parked in no-parking zones, fully repaired, for about 6,500 yen.

If you're out buying second hand goods, why not help another foreigner who is leaving the country get rid of his or her stuff? Sayonara sales, as they are called, are happening all the time and you can find them listed in either the paper or online version of the Tokyo Notice Board. Among other things, we picked up a good sized fridge, only 1 year old, for a mere 12,000 yen from someone. Several sellers gave us free stuff as they were so desperate to clear everything out before their departure.

So what first seemed like an immensely expensive task turned out to be not so bad after all.
We didn't end up buying everything second hand, and I think we were able to furnish the entire flat (+ buy a bicycle) for the equivalent of about 2 weeks rent. With that out of the way, I'm in the mood for spending again.

Happy Mascots: Random Encounters #7

Squid smurf demonstrates the elasticity of this dried squid "sweet". It was in fact one of the most sour things I have ever eaten in my life.


TV station TBS also builds homes - this beardy fellow appears to be the Happy Mascot for the homes division.


Even cigarette butts themselves prefer to be put in an ashtray than be thrown out onto the street.

Starting at a Japanese games dev

Two months after being offered my job, I was finally able to start working on the last Friday of January.

I arrived at the requested time and was shown by the receptionist to a table where two other people starting that day were sitting in silence, avoiding mutual eye contact. I couldn't help but kick off with my "Japanese Lesson 1" material and started the introductions. We were soon met by our leads and taken to our departments.

During the day we were shown around the entire office and introduced to everyone, which involved lots of bowing and exchanging the words "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" several times. This translates more or less into "Please be kind to me", and is the most common expression when meeting someone.

As usual, most of the first day working at a games developer is spent getting your PC set up. Creating a login, password, installing and setting up all the required software, network paths, etc. Learning what-does-what in Windows software is a little trickier when it's all in kanji. Luckily though, the software I need to use the most (Maya and Photoshop) were both available in English. When I'm in deep "into" my work, there's little to remind me I'm actually working in foreign country.

In addition to that, the two artists sitting nearest to me in the office are the two employees who speak the best English - it really couldn't be more convenient. Needless to say they've been a tremendous help to me the past few weeks in translating my questions (and answers), reading error messages on my screen, explaning work practices, teaching me new words, etc. etc. I'm not sure I would have managed without their help. Also since my arrival, all my colleagues have now added their names in romaji to the list in our instant messaging software, making it possible for me to read their names.

At some point during the first day I received my contract. Apparently it is not unusual to get this on your first working day, and it's only one page. Being that short it is of course pretty basic, the only striking clause being something along the lines of "Should the company get sued for something you did, you get sued, not the company". You don't need to sign - or rather stamp - it on the spot, but return it to following week.

While I'm not the first Westerner to work at the company, at the moment I am the only one. All in all, the company and the employees have been extremely accommodating. I can do my work without problems and best of all, I'm enjoying myself. So far so good!

Along the Zempukujigawa

Through Suginami runs the Zempukujigawa river, along which we cycled some last weekend. Part of the river is surrounded by the Zempukujigawa Green Belt, which consists of a number of parks and recreational areas.

Cherry blossoms are making headlines in the news again. A computer glitch at the Meteorological Agency supposedly was the cause of the incorrect forecasts of the "official" cherry blossom season. Just so you know, in Tokyo the blossoms are now expected to open around March 23 instead of the original prediction of March 18. This tree, and several others seemed happy with an earlier date, though.


The utterly cute Children's Traffic Park (1-22-13, Naritanishi, Suginami) looks like a great place for kids to learn to ride a bike and the traffic rules. Bicycles, tricycles and pedal cars can be rented and ridden around this miniature town, with low traffic signs and signals. There are even pedal cars for adults in which the very young kids can ride along. It wouldn't surprise me if the rental is free, but we didn't ask. There's also a playground in the park (and many more elsewhere along the river) and an old locomotive.


The Omiya Hachimangu shrine (2-3-1, Omiya, Suginami) is a fairly large shrine that is said to have been built [originally] sometime in the 8th-12th century. There's a fair margin of error for guessing the exact year. The grounds are also quite beautiful, and South of the main building are a large number of portable shrines on display. The sun was setting, so no great photos this time, but I'll certainly be back.

Happy Mascots: It's Wabbit Season!

Hewwo! Elmer Fudd here! Be vewy vewy quiet...I'm hunting wabbit mascots!

"You wouldn't shoot a rabbit with glasses, would you?"

Now where did that wascal wun off to?

Oh hewwo, miss, you wouldn't happen to have seen any wabbits awound here?
"Eeeehhh, he went thataway!"

NO USE HIDING WABBIT!

I gots you now you scwewy wabbit!
*CLICK*
Well what do you know, no mowe battewies...

Back online and a Ninja Popcorn Robot

Well, that took quite a bit longer than anticipated. Despite ordering our new internet connection a good week before we moved into our new flat, it's taken well over a month. This was mainly due to the fact that we needed to reschedule an engineer coming over, and the earliest opportunity was more than 10 days after the originally scheduled date that we were given (which was during working hours, of course!). When he finally did come over, all he needed to do was plug a little device into the phone outlet, dial a number and that was it!

So, we're all moved into our new flat, I've started work, we're exploring the neighbourhood, and springtime is just beginning. I've got some stuff to write about.

Below you'll find a lengthy post which I hope will be informative for anyone who's about to look for a place to live for the first time in Tokyo. It was hell to write. But first, here's a picture of Ninja Popcorn Robot we discovered yesterday. Not only does it make fresh popcorn, it talks too!

Finding a flat in Tokyo

Just like anywhere else in the world, finding a flat in Tokyo is a stressful and expensive task. It requires patience yet quick and possibly risky decision-making at times, and seeing all the great properties just outside budget is horribly depressing. To be honest, I don't even like writing about the process, re-living some of the stress, but here goes. (There's a lot to cover, so the writing's a bit sloppy - apologies in advance).

Letting/Estate/Property/Realty agents, whatever you call them depends on where you are from, can often be found near the train stations for the area you wish to look in. They are easily recognized by the numerous cards with floor plans and exterior photos. These cards a fairly comprehensive and contain lots of the information you're after: size classification, actual size in square meters, a quite detailed floor plan, number of minutes walking from the station(s), property age, rent per month and (most of the) additional payments required.
The agent will have many more available to look at inside, and if you are somewhat picky like we are, you are quite likely to look at hundreds of these before going to see any flat on the inside.

Size classification: Properties are labelled with one of the following codes for quick categorisation. They'll give you a pretty good indication of size, and apart from your budget you'll be asked which kind of flat you're after.

1K (One Kitchen): A studio flat, one room with open kitchen inside.
1DK (One Dining Kitchen): Practically the same, just slightly bigger.
1LDK (One Living Dining Kitchen): One combined living/dining room with open kitchen, and a seperate bedroom.
2LDK (Two Living Dining Kitchen): The same, but with two seperate bedrooms.
The list goes on, obviously, with 3LDK, 4LDK, etc.
One thing you soon notice is that having a seperate kitchen in a rarity in this country. When it's there, it will be indicated with an "S" for Separate somewhere in the label, but you'll rarely come across it.

Actual size in square meters & Detailed floor plan: With the last property agents I've had to deal with being in London, I find these two bits of information a luxury.

Most flats in Japan are very small, so it's good to be able to check if the layout is a little clever. Personally, I'm not too fond of having the door to the toilet open directly onto the kitchen.

Each room size is given in number of tatami mats, which (in Tokyo) are 180x90cm each. The most common size for a room is 6 tatami. The floor plan also indicates which rooms actually have tatami flooring, easily recognized by the layout pattern drawn in the plan. Most flats have one tatami-floored room, older flats often more, and newer flats are the most likely to not have tatami flooring at all.

Number of minutes walking from the station(s): If multiple stations are within walking distance they will all be listed, the maximum being usually 15 minutes. The further the flat is from the station, the lower the price is likely to be.

Property age: While the average lifespan of a building in Europe is 50 years, in Japan it is closer to 20 years. A property older than 10 years is considered quite old, and the rent is likely to be lower than that of a newer flat.

Rent per month: This figure is definitive, unlike in the UK where a potential tenant can make an offer on the month's rent.

And finally, listed in numbers x monthly rent, there's the deposit and "gift money". The deposit is usually 1-2 months, and can be expected to be refunded when you end your tenancy.
The "gift money" however is another matter. As the name indicates, this is a "gift" from the tenant to the landlord, which you pay out of thanks for him letting you rent his property. This isn't a requirement for all properties, but this being the equivalent of one or two months rent are equally common.

The hidden costs are revealed later, once you've seen and/or decided which place you want to rent. The property agent takes another month's rent for their services, there's the key money (cost of getting a new lock installed), insurance, and if applicable, a building service charge and additional rent for a car parking spot.

After sifting through the cards an agent will take you to a limited number of flats. Depending on the distance between the flats you are seeing, you may be riding the train with the agent instead of being driven around by car.

We made our decision quite fast, after seeing only four properties on the inside. That in itself made us question if we hadn't decided too quickly (more stress). The flat we'd chosen unfortunately required 2 months deposit and 2 months "gift money", but at least we no longer would have to look around any more. By this time we'd spent many days looking at floor plans online, checking their location in Google Earth and had visited several property agents already.

Once you decide, you need to present a Guarantor - someone who, in the event of an emergency would be able to pay your rent. The ideal candidate for that is Japanese man with a steady job. My brother in law was kind enough to fulfill this formality. Before we could move in though, the landlord would still have to approve of a foreigner without a full-time contract living on his property. For a friend of mine who lives here that has been reason enough to be rejected twice from properties he wanted to rent. I guess we got lucky then, because after a few weeks we got the approval before me even having started work, and my wife wasn't working at the time either.

So, if you want to rent in Tokyo, be willing to cough up up to 6 months rent before you can move into your pricey, cozy and utterly empty flat. There will be no furniture, fridge, cooker, washing machine or bed in it. I'll give some tips on how to get those dirt cheap in an upcoming post.