Finding an Apartment in Tokyo, Japan

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Yes, this is the outside view of a Japanese apartment building.

This is part of a series responding to Christine at Almost Fearless' series 30 Ways in 30 Days to Redesign Your Life and Travel the World. 

Day 6


Finding a place to live for my first trip (Japan) doesn't intimidate me much. As an aside, the more and more I complete Christine's series the more absolutely convinced I become that I'm going to go on more than one long trip. The details of paying for it, however, are still up in the air.


I have lived in Japan before. I was a student, and I lived in the dorm recommended by my school. I know now that I could have found cheaper accommodations closer to my school, but it takes some legwork and research. If you don't speak Japanese it can be difficult to find the information you need.


Luckily, I now speak a little more Japanese than I used to.


Long term housing in Japan can be overwhelming at first. Tokyo rents are expensive. A typical lease in Japan is 2 years, and to renew a lease you have to pay a renewal fee of 1/2 to 2 months rent.


General Options
Gaijin Houses:
Sometimes people call these by the more PC term Guest Houses. This is basically a roommate or dorm suite style situation - most Gaijin houses have 4 to 6 bedrooms and a shared bathroom and living area. Agencies rent out these accommodations by the room, and keep in mind that there's not any sort of roommate screening or matching in most cases. The living situation can be the best thing ever or a nightmare based on who the other renters are. The whole apartment is usually furnished. These can be a very inexpensive option.


Dormitories:
You can find dorms in Japan that are not just for students - they basically operate like a long term stay hostel. You share both your bedroom and your living area with roommates, and the number of beds per room depends on the agency running the dorm. Sometimes you get private bedrooms in dorms. The type of dorm style depends on who they cater to.


Student dorms have a cafeteria you can buy a meal plan to. Dorms are not run by or tied to a specific school like they are in the United States. A dorm is run by a separate company, which may have a contract with your school so that they can be recommended by the school to its students. The dorm will most likely have students from multiple schools, and is usually single sex with curfews (and inevitably the girl's dorm has a earlier curfew than the guy's dorm). The dorms that cater to students are sometimes more expensive than renting your own studio apartment, so make sure to compare costs, especially of they have a business relationship with your school. Once again, your roommates can make or break your stay.


Company dorms are actually much the same as student dorms, though usually run or owned by the company that employs the people staying there. You sometimes share a bedroom, and the kitchen and bathroom are shared. They don't usually have cafeterias. Additionally, these dorms also commonly have curfews, though most leave a separate door unlocked so the residents can come and go as they please. Most foreigners employed by a Japanese company that runs a dorm will be given their own room. These are almost always cheaper than an apartment, as they whole point is to subsidize a company's workers' living expenses.


Some rental agencies run general dorms, where anyone can stay so long as they pay the rent. How many people in a bedroom depends on the dorm, and most have a few options. They are similar in set up to a company dorm, but they are usually more expensive than the company dorms. As the student dorm prices vary, they can be either cheaper or more expensive than student dorms.


Apartment:
Apartments in Japan are the same as apartments in western countries: private space including bed area, bathroom, and kitchen area. But if you search for apartments on a Japanese realty website you will notice that there seems to be some kind of weird code as to what kind of space is being rented. Japanese apartments are divided into the following categories:

• 1ROOM - A one room area, like a western studio, where the kitchen are and sleeping area are in the same room, but the bathroom is in a separate room. The shower and toilet are in the same room, which is considered less desirable by the Japanese.
• 1K - This stands for 1 bedroom + kitchen. Here the bedroom area is separate from the kitchen area, and the toilet and shower are separate. There is not usually enough room in the kitchen for a table, it could be described as a galley kitchen - just room to cook.
• 1DK - This stands for 1 bedroom + kitchen/dining area. These style apartments have a separate toilet and shower, as well as a separated kitchen and bedroom area. The difference here is that there is enough room in the kitchen for a table.
• 1LDK - This stands for 1 bedroom + living/kitchen/dining area. The only difference between this style of apartment and 1DK style apartments is that the kitchen area is a living room area as well. There should be enough room for a table (or maybe there is a bar/countertop that can serve as a table) as well as a space for a coffee table or TV area. 

The numbers before the letters stand for how many bedrooms are in the apartment, so for instance a 2LDK would mean that there is everything described above in the 1LDK description, plus a separate bedroom. If you are still confused there's a beautiful chart posted by a Japanese real estate agency association here.

Because I will be moving with my boyfriend and cats, an apartment is really our only option. 

Costs to Rent an Apartment
The Japanese don't move much. There's a reason for that.


Security Deposit:
In order to rent an apartment you need to pay a huge security deposit of 2 months rent. You can get your money back if there's no damage to the unit after you move, but be aware that Japanese property managers and landlords act much like property managers and landlords everywhere, which means that if there's damage they're not going to bargain shop for the cheapest repair, and they may inflate their costs a little. If you have damaged your apartment in any way, it may be cheaper to hire someone to repair it before you move than let the landlord decide how much the damage should cost you. Oh, and if you want to bring your pet you need to pay an extra months rent towards the deposit.


Advance Rent:
You are usually required to pay the first two months rent in advance, on top of the security deposit. I have heard this is because there is a high percentage of people in Japan who sign the paperwork on an apartment and then never move in, but I have no idea how true this statement is. 


Key Money:
This is where you get to see the ghosts of Japan's past return to haunt you. Key money, or reikin (礼金), was basically bribe money. After World War II there were very few properties left standing, so people gave gifts to the landlord in order to get housing. Despite the fact that housing is no longer scarce, everyone in Japan still pays key money. In case you couldn't guess, this about is also 2 months rent. 


There are ways around paying the key money, but it often involves paying high rent (sometimes higher than rent + the key money would have been) or catching a promotional sale by the property manager. If you are going to move to Japan, budget for paying this, as the chances of avoiding this fee is not in your favor.


Guarantor Fees:
In order for anyone to rent an apartment in Japan, they must have a guarantor or hoshonin (保証人). This is in effect a cosigner on your lease - if you do not meet your obligations the landlord can turn to the guarantor for the money you owe them. Because this is such a big deal, most Japanese will only sign on as a guarantor for family members. 


Here is the problem for foreigners moving to Japan - the guarantor must be Japanese. I may be wrong, but I don't believe there is a legal requirement for the guarantor to be a Japanese person, just a Japanese resident to that the legal system will have the ability to extort have jurisdiction over them should you not pay your rent. If someone is not ethnically Japanese, even if they are Japanese residents who have been in the country for 25 years or have married a citizen, Japanese property managers will not let them be a guarantor. 


Japanese people see foreigners as unreliable, and every time I hear about an English teacher skipping the country leaving unpaid debts behind I think that they have just made is harder for honest foreigners to live in Japan. Yes, it's a stereotype, and stereotyping is bad. But stop reinforcing stereotypes, people!    


So what is a poor foreigner to do? Pay out the nose, of course. There are guarantor companies in Japan, called hoshonin-gaisha (保証人会社), which are basically insurance companies that will sign on as your guarantor in exchange for one month's rent per year you need them to act as guarantor. Expect to pay both years up front. This would be an additional 2 months rent to your move in costs.


Agency Fees:
In order to find an apartment in Japan you usually need to find a real estate agent. Renting in Japan is competitive, and even Japanese people use rental agencies to find an apartment that suits their needs and budget. Almost all apartments in Japan are advertised through an agency, so often you pay the fee even if you didn't hire an agency to look for apartments for you. 


Of course, finding a good agent if you are a foreigner can be hit or miss. Many Japanese agencies won't serve foreigners, sometimes out of fear that they will be unable to explain key parts of the lease to someone who does not speak Japanese. Other times it's racism or prejudice. Some agencies will search for an apartment the same way they would search for a Japanese person's apartment - which is bad since many landlords will not rent to foreigners, for the same reasons.


Agencies aimed towards foreigners usually have a certain clientele in mind, and they seem to price rents a little higher than a similar quality apartment listed on a Japanese rental agency's website. Some are companies that own their own network of buildings, and will only show you the open rooms in their network, and others are more traditional agencies that just happen to cater to foreigners.


The best place to find an agent would be to ask on an expat message board like gaijinpot.com or  eslcafe.com. If you plan on teaching English in Japan I highly recommend elscafe.com for general questions. 


So what are my total costs to rent an apartment in Japan? 9 months rent, give or take, just to rent the room. Of that, only 3 months worth can be refunded. Pretty pricey.  

Can a lawyer go digital?

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This is part of a series responding to Christine at Almost Fearless' series 30 Ways in 30 Days to Redesign Your Life and Travel the World. 


Day 3

The third post in the series is all about turning your job digital. Unfortunately, I don't think what I do can be turned into a location independent job - I have to show up for hearings. Even if I decided to not be the one to show up to the hearings (which would jeopardize my usefulness to my boss) what I do on the computer, while technically possible to do anywhere, would require a major operational change in how my boss does his work. Since he plans on retiring in the next five years or so, this does not seem like something he is willing to do.

Additionally, a large component of small law firm work is customer service. If you're drafting someone's will, or handling the estate of their deceased relative, people want to talk to you in person. Maybe this preference will change when my generation starts getting older, but the demographic who is in need of those services right now tend to be old fashioned and want a face to face meeting.

There do seem to be some legal tasks in big law which allow for location independent work. Actually, there is plenty of big law document review work that could be done remotely, but every document review project I have heard of requires you to go into an office to do so. BUT! Document reviewers fluent in other languages and legal translators seem to have more bargaining power - almost every legal translation of foreign language document review project I have seen is via telecommuting.

That is something I could do. That is something I would like to do. But that is something I need additional training for before I can do. My Japanese isn't good enough right now - and I am not capable of getting to a fluency level without immersion training.

While that idea doesn't get me to Japan any faster, it does give me a possible income for after. That's pretty significant.

Travel Diet? I hate the word diet.

This is part of a series responding to Christine at Almost Fearless' series 30 Ways in 30 Days to Redesign Your Life and Travel the World. 

Day 2

This post talks about something called a Travel Diet. And in case you hadn't figured it out by my underwhelming weight loss progress, I kinda hate diets. And suck at them. Trust me, the hating and the sucking at it are directly related.

But apparently Christine just wanted to scare me, because she sums up a Travel Diet like this:

Don’t buy anything, unless it’s worth the travel time it costs.

That idea? That I can work with. I know people say that dieting and personal finance are related, but I for one must have very limited willpower reserves. I can save money better than I can diet, and I can stick to a riding schedule better than I can do either of those. I think this just means that I am better at guilting myself into doing the right thing when there's an animal depending on me. Personal finance ties indirectly into that - the more money I have saved the better off my animals will be if they get sick or injured.

But back to the Travel Diet idea.  The homework for this post is pretty simple, and by necessity I have already started doing most of it.

1. I very rarely make big purchases, and most of my shopping is consumables - I try to avoid "Stuff" using the Simple Dollar philosophy. The big purchases I make are almost always related to my horses, or are a necessary expense (like the new-for-me truck I am going to need in a few years).

2. I routinely try to delay buying something I want, to see if I really don't need it, or if I really want it. Sometimes this is a bad thing (ex: my current work wardrobe), but sometimes this is a good think (I have not yet bought the new Laurell K. Hamillton book in hopes of finding a cheaper used copy).

3. I do not usually do workarounds, unless you count buying something used instead of new as a workaround.  I think that probably counts.

4. The back pack test - don't buy it unless it would be something you would use on the road - seems like a pretty good one for household purchases. I don't think it applies to consumables, but for Stuff, it is definitely appropriate.

It's actually a little sad, but most of these techniques I have already been using because my salary is so low. I'm making probably 15k less than someone who graduated from my law school 2 or 3 years before I did. Kids, don't go to law school.

Personal Finance and Personal Priorities

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I'm going to talk about something a little different today. I had a wonderful lesson, nailed that shoulder-in on Pete, but this last week I finally got put on salary at my job, and so I have been spending a lot (too much?) of time on recalibrating my finances.

It's not a sexy subject. It's not very fun. But it is the single best tool at my disposal to influence my future.

No, seriously. It's more important than my career, or even my law degree.

If I find the perfect job in Seattle, and am lucky enough to actually get an offer, my personal finances can wreck that dream. Moving costs money, and in this market selling my home would take time. Right now, I could not afford to rent a place in another state or city and pay my mortgage at the same time. Would I be able to accept that dream job?

I would like to return to Japan and finish earning my fluency certificate. Right now, I have debts that I would have to pay at the same time as paying for living expenses in Tokyo. I already have plenty of student loan debt, and while I can do an in-school deferment while I am in Japan, I do not want to add too much to that while I am going to school there. If I were accepted into the program, could I afford to go?

I place a high priority on both travel and taking care of my horses. This means that, unless I am willing to sell them (I'm not), I would have to support my horses and myself as I wander about the globe, join the peace corps, or pursue language immersion. Can I afford to do both?

The current answer to all three of these questions is Not Yet. The only way that not yet doesn't turn into not ever is if I get my spending under control, work towards earning more, and save a significant portion of my income. 

Unsexy. But so was studying for the bar. So was busting my ass mucking stalls every day during college so I could afford to keep Avalon at a boarding stable where he would receive quality care. So was spending hours a day memorizing kanji before and after class.

All those things paid off eventually. So will this.

I need to remind myself constantly that my daily decisions (especially whether to eat out or not) affect my long term goals. This is really true for everything in life: weight loss, riding, learning languages. I feel like I struggle with this far more often than I would like. I feel like a failure more often than I feel like I'm on the right track.

There's a blog called The Simple Dollar. The author is someone I greatly admire, and his philosophy towards money and priorities in life is something I really see the wisdom in. His priority is his children. That's not going to be my priority, but I do see how aligning personal finances with personal priorities leads to happier, more meaningful lives.

The trick is making it happen day after day.

Travel Jobs?

I don't even know how old I was when I decided that I wanted to see the world. I just know it's something I want to make a big part of my life. I've been lucky enough to visit parts of Western Europe, the Caribbean, North America, and Japan.

I don't just want to see a place, though. The package tours where you stay a day or two in one city then move to the next, hitting the major tourist spots, definitely appeal to me. But that's not my ideal. I want immersion experiences. I want to learn the language, learn how to cook the local foods, learn how people generally live, and get to know the culture.

I had not figured out how to accomplish this. I could country hop, but the chances of finding a new job every few years in a new place (with a new language!) seems impossible. Even if I could accomplish that, I do not believe I would be able to simultaneously do things like save for a house or retirement, since visa and language issues would probably mean I would have to change professions often, and have to go back to entry level salary every couple of years. The logistics involved are a nightmare, especially since I am a pet person.

So I found the best possible compromise. The Department of State sends its employees overseas for two year long tours at it's embassies. Employees retain the same retirement accounts, get financial and logistical assistance during moves, and basically do good by their country as they seem to be an incredibly selfless and skilled group. Employees are usually required to learn the language of their assigned posts, and are provided for while they devote themselves to learning a new language (hard stuff!). Employees live in their assigned country for two years before moving on to their next post, which means that they get two years to immerse themselves in a new culture for each assignment.

Now there are some negatives that come with the lifestyle. I imagine trying to raise children under those circumstances would be difficult. The inherent logistical difficulties of owning a "home base" home may very well be financially impossible. I also imagine that you can't really have "nice" things (like furniture) for fear it will be lost, damaged, or stolen during moves. Not to mention almost always being far away from your friends and family. I have also heard that sometimes the embassy employees become a little insular, and don't really experience the culture of their host families because they stay in de facto American compounds.

But I think I want to do this. It's a chance to make real contributions internationally, and meanwhile you get all the benefits of travelling to new places. The job is hard, and State employees make many personal sacrifices, but I think it's worth it.

Law School

One of the reasons I feel like I am trying to dig my life out of a hole is because I just finished law school less than a year ago. I actually really regret this decision, but not because I don't think it is a worthy profession. I just think I overpaid for law school, despite having a scholarship which cut my tuition costs in half.

I think a lot of people my age feel like they overpaid for a degree, whether it was undergrad or a grad degree. Unless you are lucky enough to have parents who saved for you or get a full ride scholarship, chances are you graduated with some student loan debt. We've all heard the statistics - that college tuition is rising faster than inflation, according to some sources by as much as 10x the rate of inflation. But the problem is people feel like they have to have a degree in order to get a good job, and the government makes it easy to take out loans, so people will pay just about anything. I do not know anyone who managed to beat that assumption and get a good job without a degree, but I guess that also depends on my definition of a "good job".

Law school was really difficult for me. I have never been so stressed in my entire life (not counting studying for the bar, which was WORSE). If you go to law school you are generally graded on a forced curve, meaning there is only a small percentage of people allowed to get an A in the class. Everyone else must get a B or below. It's hard to fail (short of not going to class and not doing the reading), but my cumulative GPA suffered, possibly permanently disqualifying me from a scholarship for a Master's program I would like to attend one day. In addition to the forced curve, you are generally only given one test, your final exam, and that is your grade for the course. This is a pretty old school system, and it means that if you have an off day, you're stuck with that grade for the entire semester's worth of work. Some law schools are getting away from this and giving mid-terms, which I think is a great idea.

I am simply not cut out for blindly studying for one big test. I need some sort of feedback, so I can adjust how I am studying and correct any mistakes I have made. Additionally, you have to make sure you stay on schedule on your own, there's no pop quiz to check that you are up to date on your reading. Law school is not built for anyone who needs feedback on a regular basis. You can do it on your own, but you need your professor's help, and whether or not they are interested in helping you gauge your progress is a really iffy thing. These people have other duties in addition to teaching.

I guess all you have here is me complaining about how I graduated with a poor (for my standards) GPA and large amounts of student loan debt. There were positives. I did graduate with a job, which is more than many people can say. And to be honest, I wish I had worked harder while I was there, because maybe if I had some of my complaints would have been lessened. It's too late for me, though. If you are interested in getting into politics in your home state law school is probably the best "in" you can find, since legislators always need interns, but just don't expect to be paid for a while.

I tell my friends who are thinking about applying to law school one thing: Go only if you get a scholarship that pays the majority of your tuition. I don't care how smart you are, law school is not the same as undergrad and past success does not guarantee future results. Don't bet on a cushy job after you graduate, only the top 1% of law students in the country get those jobs, so plan on getting 40k a year starting out. If those numbers add up for you, then do it. Don't bet on being the exception to the rule.

I would also advise anyone applying for law school to not attend a third tier school, unless they offer you a completely full ride scholarship. Not unless you want to get ripped off. The reputation of your school matters much more when job hunting in the legal field than it does for undergrad.

Some people do great in law school and feel like they got wonderful things out of it. I did not, nor did the majority of my friends. Just be cautious if this is something you are considering.