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.