When Andy and I first came to Japan we stayed in a rotten one room place! It had everything we needed but space and two beds! We instead had to sleep on two old futons. You may think we were quite lucky having a futon each, but please do not confuse the futons you see in Ikea with traditional Japanese futons. A Japanese style futon is basically just a quilt, and to add insult to injury the pillow that comes with it is just a beanbag (think the ones you used in PE at school). On a positive note though we did have air-conditioning.
We had to spend three months in our box before we could move out. We were really excited about getting a new place, that is before we discovered the financial burden of getting a new place! You may think that not being able to speak Japanese would be our greatest problem but we managed to view mansions (what the Japanese call apartments) and pick a place without any help. The biggest problem was the money!
In Japan they have this crazy thing called key money. It is 3 months of rent up front (a bit like a bond), which goes into the pocket of your new landlord never ever to be seen again! On top of that 3 months, you have to pay your 1st and last months rent plus your full home insurance premium. Oh, and then you need to buy everything from lights fittings to bed, as in Japan no apartments come furnished (our first one did but it was a box and 3 times our current rent!).
The place we choose to live is close to university so Andy can get there easily. It has a living room/kitchen, 2 bedrooms, a toilet, a separate wet room and washing area and a balcony.
It has Japanese styles sliding doors separating our main rooms (funny that being in Japan) and wooden floors. We also have quite a good view of the mountains which surround Susenji.
Suenji is classified as countryside, which at times is a bit annoying especially as the last train from the centre of town is at 12:06 (village people don't have fun), but the rent is cheap and the locals are nice.
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