Wolfies first time outside

I know this blog  is meant to be about Japan and it is intended to be, but having Wolfie with us, little exploring is happening. Tonight is New Years Eve, and most people are at a shrine (for luck and fortune) or a bar (trying to get laid). We have Wolfie with us and he can't travel to a shrine this year, we have decided to stay home and welcome the new year with our hyper dog.

We did have dinner with a couple of good friends. The meal was fantastic and well priced. We got there at 4pm so we could get a table without a reservation (lol). It's a good place and the staff are very good. They had my favorite beer, Sapporo, and I downed several :)

Here is Wolfie's first experience of the outside world. We are debating on whether he knows it is the outside or does he think it is just a big-ass room. He is also starting to understand games as well.　In the past (yesterday) he would just charge at me, teeth barred and we would play wrestle (ignoring WWE warnings). Tonight, just before I wrote this blog post, we played and he started off by ducking and diving, darting here and there, getting close to me and when I move he darts back. When he was ready: he sprinted at me, teeth barred and ...boom... game on! I wonder who has more fun, him or me.

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Wolf Kun first bath

I expected him to growl and bark and try to escape...

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Wolf-kun

5 days ago we bought a dog, pretty much on impulse. He is a great puppy but has a massive problem with biting. Mainly he goes for the wife. I think he has learnt not to bite me, I tend to ignore him when he does and I stand up, keeping my hands out of reach. He now jumps up on me and licks my hands, jeans, computer (no! down! lol), but whenever the wife is here, he goes for her feet, hands and sometimes face. She is like a massive play-toy for him and it is driving her insane (she especially hates it when he pumps her leg wahaahahhahaha).

Wolf-kun loves running and jumping and I always leave the cage open for him (unless we are not at home) and even though it is the largest cage they had available I am thinking when he is at  home alone and wants to move about he is limited in range. Puppies love running and sleeping, so we have decided to buy another cage and join the two together. He will have room then to mess about.

He loves squeaky toys. He had a rope toy with a squeaky thing inside. Took him an entire day to destroy it. Tonight we gave him a new squeaky toy in the shape of a rubber chicken wing, and all I have heard for the 20 minutes is that thing. lol. It's fantastic. And with this toy he has stopped biting the wife.

I figured out that when we are on the floor he thinks it is playtime. To test this theory, I brought down a kitchen chair (this room has only a study chair and foot rest) and the wife is sitting in it and Wolf is paying her little attention. He is sniffing the chair like crazy and is back playing with the squeaky toy. lol.

Update: the toy lasted an hour. The squeaky chicken wing now only blows air. :)

Attack of the Man Flu in Japan

I'm too sick to write this post so I'll do it tomorrow.
It's now two days later and I'm worse and all because a couple of men on the train (right in front of me) couldn't cover their mouth when coughing. This is a common problem in Japan. It's a lot better than 13 years ago on the Hanshin line. Things have improved.

A few days back I noticed my throat was feeling a tad scratchy. I didn't think too much about it. Later that night the throat felt worse and my stomach hurt. The next day I went shopping with the wife and the throat was sore, along with the chest. So we popped into a chemist (called drug store with some awesome names like: Power Drug!! Super drug!! Best drug! Ultra drug) and the white coated person suggest some lounges. They did shit. I should have gotten the Vicks lounges as they have flavor.

The next day (today) I woke up with a blocked nose, sore throat, basically clogged up. Went to the chemist and got some liquid medicine with a picture of a red throat and some power lounges and some pills for something else. I am drugged up to my eyeballs LOL. But at least I have energy. Usually I don't take medicine (not a believer) and let it run its course and then the body builds up a defense against that infection next time; but as we are moving from tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday, I can't afford to be laid low.

Getting sick sucks no matter where you are.
Chemists are many and plentiful over here. One shopping street could have 5 and they are all cose to each other. In Ishibashi, our small shopping street has three. You won't be able to find medicine in the supermarket like we can in NZ. But a bonus is that the pictures on the box usually explain everything that drug does. Just don't spend too much.    

Shopping for stuff

By 'Shopping for stuff' I mean, buying the big and little items needed for comfortable living in Japan. Most people say it is expensive to buy things in Japan and it is expensive, but it is expensive everywhere when we are talking about furniture and 'stuff'.

There are several places where you can go for your electronics and furniture. The wife and I went all over the place, talking to heaps of salespeople.

We went to Yodabashi camera in Umeda to check the price of TVs and Stereos, and projectors, and washing machines, fridges, etc. Their prices were good until we discovered the 'catch'. You have to join up with yahooBB to get the 30,000 yen discount off a TV, computer and other stuff. I made notes in a notebook re: their prices. He almost sold me on a 50 inch TV with a built in HD Recorder, but I hate YahooBB, their service a few years ago was shit (according to friends) and that thought is stuck in my head, so anytime anything happened or went slow, I'd instantly blame YahooBB and not be satisfied with my service. I didn't want that. The salesman took me and the wife to speak with a YahooBB rep. We hated this bitch. She was rude, barely gave any info, grouch face and looked tired to speak with us. We complained about her service and the salesman apologized. I think he realized that woman and just cost him a massive sale. I was still willing to go there if we didn't find anything better priced.

That salesman spent three hours with us. Poor guy. He was very professional.

The next day we went to two places: Konan and Daiei.These places are well know over here for home goods at (sometimes) okay prices. This is where we found Wolf and purchased him. That took a LONG time. And will be a post itself.

Daiei is an awesome place in Kobe. We were looking at TV prices and found a 46 inch with built in blue ray dvd player / recorder. 50,000 yen less than the same item at Yodobashi Camera. There was a fridge with handles on both sides of the door so we can open it any side we want. It cost, 61,000 yen. Down from 160,000 yen as it was released ten months ago and in Japan that is considered old. Yay, for me. A brand new fridge, never been used, end of the product line. S-C-O-R-E.
The salesman was really nice and put a hold on this fridge as there were only two left in Kansai. We looked around there and found good prices on most of what we wanted.

The next day the wife went to Don Quixote in Mino, opposite Mister Donuts (YUM). This is a store that has a lot of interesting stuff and electronics, it's part emporium and part clothing store and part electronics. The wife was looking for some lights that Daiei didn't have and in Konan she found some nice lights with attached fans at a price of 13,000 yen. She is glad she waited and hunted around. Today she found the same lights for only 6,000 yen at Don Quixote and they will ship them in two weeks.

Hunting around is the best way to find bargains. Everything is new, nothing is pre-loved. All shops are in competition with one another. Department stores will have an excellent deal on one item but not another, whereas another store will have that non-discounted item on sale.

Make a plan of what you want AFTER you find somewhere to live and stick to that plan. Try not to compromise, get what you want or you won't be satisfied, especially in a foreign land. When I first lived here, I didn't know any of this stuff and no one told me either. I didn't know you could rent a house for the same price as an apartment. I compromised on everything. 

And we all know what compromise means right? Yep, a compromise is where both parties miss out.  
Don't miss out.
People will tell you that you can't do this. I'm proof that you can.
 

 

Real Estate Agents

Before I write this post, I want to mention a blog I read recently with an attached PDF, titled moving to Japan. It is written by an organization in Kobe. They list some good information and some useless info as well. I worry people will read this and do as they suggest. The only thing I agree with is the need to bring clothes and shoes. The rest of the stuff can be found in Japan and at a good price. And I see no need to bring over 3 years of tax statements.

If you need stuff, open your eyes, hunt around and look beyond the massive department stores (this will be addressed in another blog about buying life essentials. The link to this pdf is here. Okay, have seen the start page and I have discovered this is an international organization:

Community House & Information Centre (CHIC) is a non-profit community service organization committed to meeting the needs of the international community in Kobe, Japan. CHIC's goal is to serve as a bridge between the international community and the Kobe community at large, to help both newcomers and long-time residents get the most out of their stay in Japan.

They are wrong and need to update the information on basic living.

Now, Real Estate Agents: As mentioned before, we had 3 agents working for us. One was Mini Mini and that was a walk in off the street. (side note: getting an apartment in Japan without a job is near impossible, and getting a job without an address is also near impossible. Catch 22).

Our first real estate agent didn't try (he showed us two places--that the wife liked), we didn't fill in any forms, he wanted us to sign up for rental insurance (if you don't pay your rent, insurance covers it) and the moment we heard this suspicion iced our spines. To make a long story short, he phoned us after two days to say our application had been declined, and he withdrew his services. "What application?" I asked the wife. She had no idea. We filled out no forms, so we are a bit confused with this 'application'.

Also note: We do have a guaranteer.

Next was a small company called 'Change'. Nice people, listened to what we wanted but couldn't see the whole picture of what we were after. I will take the blame for that, I wasn't as clear or precise as I wanted to be. The lady showed us some great places and there was one serious contender but the location was far too countryside, plus it was next to the highway. Can you imagine what we would hear all night long? The wife and I discussed the house on the way home and realized the massive transportation fee and traveling time involved. We also noted there was no Lawson, no shops and no supermarkets for miles. We would need a car. This was not an option any longer.

This real estate agent called us the next day (while we were with another agent--don't rely on just one) saying she had found another place for us to look at, just behind the one we declined. It was nice to know she was still working for us. She called us several times throughout the day but we ignored the calls as we were with another agent. Then she called at night and we told her we were working on getting a contract with a house. She called AGAIN, saying she found the house online and wanted us to dump our agent and she could deal with this rental. She became almost stalker-like. Plus we don't think she could close a sale.

Our third estate agent is Kusaku-san from House Pier in Kobe. At first we thought he was an amazing salesman, we discovered he was the head of the company--the boss--with 6 others working under him. He was also very popular and clients wanted to talk only with him. But busy as he was, he never once walked away from us to deal with some else (this happened at mini mini Ishibashi), his entire attention was on us. He knew what we wanted (we had pictures) he tracked the owners down and discovered one was no longer on the market. Another was being sold and he told us about our third choice being way up in the mountains and in winter the bus doesn't always run because of the ice. BUT to our surprise he jumped on the net, went to a special page only for estate agents and found 3 more options for us. One was gone. The second one we both loved (during the ride Kusaka-san got a call; another couple wanted the apartment we had seen 15 minutes ago. As we are the first, they have to wait for us to make a decisions, turns out they didn't have to wait long) and it was in a good location and large enough for an apartment with a tatami room with removable walls. But the third place (as previously mentioned) is a kicker of a place and we jumped at it.

And got it. Without a job, we managed to get the place. It is a terrace house and massive. I don't know how Kusaka-san did it, but he managed to get the management company and the owner to accept us, jobless as we were.

The process of the real estate agent:

(mini mini and other LARGE real estate agents)

1. meet client (usually walk in off street)
2. Get client a cup of hot tea (this happened everywhere and always served by a lady)
3. Get our details -- address, phone number, job, salary, yearly income including bonus.
4. ask us what we are looking for, including location, size, pets, close to station, convenient, don't mind old buildings or want only new, house or apartment, max rent you are willing to pay and the max key money (deposit--doesn't usually get returned, usually a couple of thousand $$)
5. they get out their lists and show you what they need to get rid of while trying to convince you this is what you want.
6. The photo usually looks better than the place, so always view.
7. Agent drives you to location, while convincing you have good this place is. Clients are in the back seat of the car like a VIP being driven around.

-- Don't compromise what you want.--

The process of independent agents:

1. greet client (usually walk in off street)
2. Get tea, if lucky. Usually small staff numbers. 
3. Ask what you want.
4. Shows you want you want (if available) or shows closest hit.
5. Calls owners and management staff for conditions and availability.
6. Shows you the places you chose.
7. You are in back seat, door is opened and closed for you, agent just chats.
8. Asks after viewing: "Do you like it?"

Independent agents rock.

Rental homes

On Friday, we meet up with our last real estate agent. All Thursday the wife was trying to talk me into accepting one of the Ishibasi homes and I didn't want to make any compromise -- if I could, so I kept saying to wait and see what the agent on Friday can deliver. The wife was against it, she wanted to say yes quickly so as not to lose out on a good place.

Friday came and we went to Kobe to visit and agent out there. The houses we had bookmarked and printed out for viewing were gone or were on top of a hill and no buses ran during winter and the roads were iced and it was dangerous to walk down. So, those options were out.

The agent go on the internet and found 400 options and did his best to find the better deals and best prices. We ended up with three places for viewing. When asking for a key, he discovered we had been beat by another couple thirty minutes earlier who had already signed the contract and placed a deposit. So we had two places. And guess what...we loved both of them. They were very different but when I saw the second place, it was sold on sight (despite right wing Japanese Nazis next door - fuck ém). There were two apartments available in this terrace house block. 105 and 102. 105 was taken the day before and we were working off the floor plans for 105. Luckily, 102 was bigger and better laid out, opening all the spaces. It is 3 stories and the ground floor is an empty space of 22-jo (huge).

And there is an extra space behind a half length wall where I plan to set up the home gym. I've been offer a bench press and bars and weights from my brother-in-law as he never uses them. I also plan on getting a blow flex if I can find one. On the other side of the wall, we'll set up the wide screen 50 inch TV and get cable running through for tv and internet, not sure if we will use J:com or Hikari Fiber as they both offer 76 channels. But that stuff is for later consideration. I am think J:com as they offer 160M upload/download speeds.As the space is so large, we are planning to add (later) a projector for movies and as the wall is lumpy white, we will probably get a large screen and hook that up. Wow, I have so many ideas my head my bursting.

The second floor (where the front door opens to) contains the kitch (standard stuff) and the LDK is 15 at least and L shaped and the L shape starts at the far side of the room near the kitchen area. There is room for a huge dining table, another tv and a couple of sofas and ezy-chairs. On the third floor are three rooms. Not super large but big enough for a queen size bed, vanity and some other stuff. The tatami room will be used for guests. And the small 5.5-jo room will be used as a private lesson room. (Yes, I am planning on opening a small school, one on one classes and 5,000 yen a month for 4 lessons. No joining fee.) This is the layout of 105 (not the apartment we chose as there is no map available for that), the rooms are larger and the LDK flip it around sideways into a box shape.

Excuse the narrowness of the below video of the terrace house we are renting. I should say 'hopefully renting' as we are only 99% clear at the moment. All credit checks are clear and we passed them all. So, I am unsure what is taking so long, but our agent (who turns out to be the boss of that company) reckons all is good. 



Fingers crossed we get this place. UPDATE: We got it. Got the call today.

This post turned out a bit longer than I thought, so I will blog about estate agents tomorrow.

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Getting an apartment in Japan

When I first came here in 1998, I moved into a small 2dk apartment, like most people. It cost 6 man yen every month. It was cramped. It was inconvenient (the train station was a 20 minute walk away through a graveyard). Did I mention it was cramped? These apartments are nicknamed 'rabbit hatch' over here.

Last month I told the wife I didn't want to live in one of these places again. I wanted space to stretch my legs, put my computer in the living room and spend time with the wife while writing or doing my own thing on the net. I suggested we rent a house until we had enough cash to buy a house. She said it was impossible, she didn't know anyone who did that and didn't think it could be done, especially in our limited price range.

I asked her to check the Internet and just see if something was available. It took her a few weeks to get around to doing a web search and she was surprised to get over several thousand hits on one site that listed real estate offers.

To narrow that down, we added "pet" and a few locations. That knocked the listings down to 700 and from that we searched for places that looked good and found several prime sites. We then contacted the listed real estate agent for that area and had a chat and booked a time to visit these places.

There are many estate agent places, and I mean many but only 4 major ones that I am aware of:
mini mini
apaman
century 21st
Avuru (they mean able)

There are thousands of independent estate agents and most are a hundred meters away from the other. A few days earlier we booked two agents and on the day we arrived in Ishibashi, we saw mini mini and decide to pop in on the off chance they had something. (Plus we had an hour to kill before meeting our weekly apartment manager--we were early and loaded down with suitcases.)

We explained our situation to the agent and he showed us some places, most were more than we wanted to pay. We asked for 3LDK but all he showed us were 3DK (side note: any LDK apartment that has the LDK listed under 13 is NOT a real LDK. Don't get fooled with the 9 or 10.5 LDK rooms, also if the kitchen is a counter kitchen, you just lost 5 jo of the LDK). He didn't seem to show us what we wanted but what he wanted to be rid of. Still, we took a look on Thursday (Wednesday we had an appointment with another agency. Many places are closed on Wednesday) and found two very nice places but I didn't want to live in Ishibashi--too city bound. My wife was in love with both places.

At the independent estate agents we were offered some other places as well as the ones we liked. On Wednesday we visited "Change" and looked at 8 houses in 6 hours. Again two appealed to us, one a mansion (apartment block) with a 9-jo LDK but with a connecting tatami room that had removable doors that opened the entire place up making it nice and wide, which is exactly what we wanted. The other place was a house with a massive kitchen area, LDK of 20 and with a tatami room that also had removable doors. It had a garden, covered car park, large rooms upstairs, a bedroom size 19-jo with an attic above accessed via a pull down ladder.

Though both places were awesome, they were just too far away. Yes, they contained the lifestlye I was after but transportation to and from work would be over 1,000 yen one way, plus we would need a car to go shopping. Those places were out. And the house option was a no go with the attic, I kept thinking of Jyuon

so that is seriously a no go. LOL.

In the next post I will discuss what happened on Friday and Saturday and the process you should expect when getting an apartment in Japan.

Finding a place to stay

While still in New Zealand, I asked the wife to search for a place to stay as we both did not want to stay with her sister (there's history there) and my searches on Google were only showing expensive stuff and fancy homes for month long stays -- they were all in Tokyo, so wrong city and way out of our price range. We stayed with her brother and family in Kochi when we first got here, but we planned to live in Osaka.

The wife was searching for hotels and trying to find the best deal when I suggested she look for weekly apartments. She didn't think that option existed as most salary men stay in tube hotels overnight.

After some searching under business listings, the wife discovered a lot of weekly apartments. These were located in Nishinomiya, Kobe, Kyoto and other places visitors to Japan usually stay or want to visit. But the owners are very sly -- most (nearly all) offer nothing in the room but a bare mattress, no cups, blankets, pots, chopsticks, spoons, forks, dishes, etc.You have to rent these and / or buy them and Internet usage is very expensive, like $12 a day and we planned on staying two weeks.

The wife decided to look for somewhere local to where she used to live. A place most vsitors to Japan don't visit, unless they live here as there is fuck-all to see and do. A lot of businessmen and university students live in Ishibashi and we figured there had to be a weekly apartment around here. Both of us did not want to rent everything if we could help it. She typed in Ishibashi and got one hit. The place we are staying at includes everything and is cheaper than the other places. The manager is very kind and the room is slightly bigger than a standard 6-jo room. This is probably 8-jo. (see video below, excuse the mess.)




So, if you are planning on coming to Japan, think about getting a weekly apartment, you'll save a few hundred dollars and experience a bit of the real Japan. Plus Ishibashi is a major point for catching trains to Takarazuka, Umeda (Osaka), and other places. Umeda has all the major lines for where you may want to go. Bring a good guidebook with you that has detailed directions, as asking for directions can be difficult.

The land of bicycles, broken Prius and cell phones

The day after I landed, I walked into Softbank and bought a phone with the wife.

whoops--rewind a bit.

Cell phones in Japan are amazing, you don't SMS, you email, although SMS is available now days. There are hundreds to choose from and this number includes the US phones that are here as well, like iPhone4, and Galaxy S.

There are three phone companies still alive in Japan: Docomo, Softbank (ex vodafone), and Au. These are the big boys. Each have different phones and different plans. I wasn't sure who I wanted to go with or get a phone from, so the wife and I headed to Yodabashi Camera, as all the companies where set up there and you could play with the phones, and see what you liked.

I loved the Galaxy S but Docomo were sold out and on back order (the Galaxy seems popular). So I went looking for something else. The options were amazing and I couldn't make a decision. And being on a tight schedule, we decided to get a phone the next day as we had to catch a bus to Kochi--a nice little countryside town. On the bus I decided to go with what I know: iPhone4.

The next day I was the proud owner of an iPhone (forgetting how inflexible and anal Apple is) and my wife chose a pink phone. We joined a family plan, which has also changed drastically since we were here last, and chose the best package for us. I picked the 5,600 yen plan which as far as we are aware is for unlimited Internet and all contracts are two years now (all companies are the same), they need to lock you in as a customer for their company and their range of phones. They offer a points system that after two years allows you a drastic discount on your next phone. 

So when you choose a phone over here, choose well. Also, if you are only here for one year, I wouldn't suggest you get a phone, the penalty for canceling a phone and breaking the contract is quite high. If you cancel within one year on a two year contract, you have to pay for the unused year in one hit.

A friend on Facebook said data fees would rape me. I haven't seen that yet. There are some phones I wanted but to access FB and Twitter, Stuff, and email accounts online, would cost me 90,000 a month. That's is shocking. I am interested in seeing my cellphone bill and see if I am right and 5,600 is the only fee or if I am being data fee raped or rocking out on my iPhone4.

Also forgot, you pay off the phone in the two year contract, you don't have to pay for it outright. If you are lucky and get the phone on a campaign (like I got the iPhone4 -- didn't know it was on campaign), the phone can end up being free.

(Then you have a added hassle of apples inflexible sign up pages and you need a credit card and the card has to be registered to the country you are living in, or else you can't join itunes like I wanted to do so I could get the FB app and some other free apps. Once it reads you are in Japan all the forms turn to Japanese. So to bypass this, lie and say you are in the country where the credit card is from. Works a charm.)