0003 ~ Preparations - Long-Term-Stay ~

Hello everyone~!

This time I'm going to share my experiences with searching for a long-term stay while not being in Japan yet.


First I thought about staying at very cheap hostel again for the first month and start searching from there, but somehow.. I wanted to find a place I might like from the beginning. 

While searching online I figured there were several options for long-term stays.

1) Hostel
2) Compartement
3) Guesthouse

4) Apartments
( Since they are pricy I unfortunately don't have information about those to share with you, but Oakhouse and Sakura house offer apartments and also Fontana would be worth a look!)

Option 1:

Several friends of mine stayed at a hostel for a really long time. The rent was increadibly cheap, but as I already mentioned in my last entry that's basically it for the positive aspects.

Staying together with up to 11 other people in one room might work for a short time, but it's something I definately would not want to do long-term.

People tend to come back home from early morning till late evening, there's noise all day long and kitchens and bathrooms are dirty in most cases.

This is a picture from the Tenten Hostel website and yes, your bed will be the only space you'll have.

(http://www.tokyo-guesthouse.com)

So this option is only for the adventurous beings amongst you!



Option 2 - Compartment

I actually didn't even know what Compartments were until I searched for a place to stay in Tokyo.
However, browsing through Oakhouse's offers I came across those forms of staying.
It's basically a room cut in half... in the middle of the room.. height-wise!

It will look like this:


Sometimes you'll even have a table or a fridge in there. Those are a bit more expensive than the hostels but cheaper than guesthouses or apartments.
For "rooms" of about 5-6m² you'll pay around 45.000yen-50.000 / month utilities included.

Oakhouse does offer a few houses with compartments, so if you don't need a lot of space (to stand up), but are still the kind of person that need privacy, this might be an option for you!

You can visit their website here: http://www.oakhouse.jp/eng/


Option 3 - Guesthouses

There are some guesthouses that I'd more consider as a Hostel. I don't know why, but in my perception, guesthouses are places that mainly offer single-rooms or rooms that aren't shared with 11 other travellors you know nothing about.
You share the kitchen and other facilities like bathroom and toilet.
There are SO MANY sites offering guesthouses if you browse the internet that it's hard to decide. The ones I came across the most were Sakura House, Oakhouse (the site I mentioned above) and Borderless House.

Since I know a bit about marketing and I've travelled a lot already I know that you can make rooms look like 3 times their actual size if you choose the right angle to take the picture, so I was searching the internet for reviews on each guesthouse I was interested in.

Sakura House

Since Sakura House often has its guesthouses, apartments and hostels in the same buildings I heard a lot of people saying that this was more the party-like place to stay. They have English-speaking staff and their houses are often located near stations.
However, they might come in a bit pricy. For some properties I saw them asking around 70.000yen for a room of 5m². I'm used to live in small places but 5m² seems a bit too small.
I think it really depends on the house and maybe you will be able to grab one of their offers for first-time-customers : )

Rooms usually are equipped with bed, desk and chair. Sometimes you'll also find a closet or a closet that is built in the wall.

That's a typical room

This one is from their Sendagaya guesthouse and currently listed with 78.000yen / month

That's their website: http://www.sakura-house.com/en/room-type/share-house.html

Summary:
+ location
+ english speaking staff
+ fun place
+ offer apartments, dorms and shared houses

- you have to pay for using washing machines
- noisy from time to time
- Level of cleanliness depends on the place
- size of the rooms compared to price
- Dorms, Apartments ans Sharedhouse often in one house

Oakhouse:

With Oakhouse it's basically different from case to case. They seem more like a company that's collecting offeres from various landlords.
Facilities and prices als vary a lot.
Prices in the Shibuya area vary from around 70.000yen - 90.000yen for a single room

It's possible to reserve rooms that become vacant up to 10 days before your arrival.
Additional to your monthly rent you have to pay 20.000yen one time as a management fee.
There might be other expenses, but that's all I know about so far.

Example room for 80.000yen / month including utilities:


Link to their website can be found here (again): http://www.oakhouse.jp/eng/

+ A lot of houses
+ Big rooms
+ Good price for big rooms

- High management fee
- Often long way to stations
- Limited houses for good locations

Borderless House

Let me tell you straight away - This is the company I chose!
They are not the cheapest place to stay, but I haven't foudn a single bad review about any of their houses.
Their website is super easy to navigate and what I found most stunning was that they have a video for almost every guesthouse in their catalogue!
They are showing you around the station and the area of the house, then showing you all the facilities in the house and in case a room wasn't occupied at the time they shot the video, they are also showing you the room.
Another good point is, that they listed who is living at the house right now. Well at least their age and nationality.
They try to have 50% Japanese and 50% foreigners in their houses, which I think is a great idea : )
Also Borderless House seemed the most 'normal' guesthouse to me. They do have parties from time to time but it seemed as most tendants there preferred a calm and nice place over a party-noisy place to stay.
Most of their houses are also located in quiet neighbourhoods.
They offer single rooms and shared rooms. In 90% of houses I looked at the maximum number of people for one room was 2, although there have been rooms for up to 5 people.
They don't have women-only houses, but they won't put boys and girls in one room : )

They have a lot of houses in super convinient locations and the price ranges from around 60.000yen for a shared room up to around 80.000 yen for a single room.

It's possible to reserve a room that's becoming vacant up to 15 days before your date of arrival.
You can bring your own bedding or rent it for 7500yen (one time for the whole stay)
Management fee is 15.000yen, however when I reserved my room they had a campaign where you didn't have to pay this management fee! : )

The deposit is 10.000yen and that's returned to you after your moving out.
They will also give you another 10.000yen if you tell them at least 61days in advance that you'll be moving out.

Moving within the same house to another room is possible for ( i guess) 5000yen
If you want to move to another Borderless House you'll have to pay 15.000yen, but the deposit will just remain and you won't have to pay this again.
You'll also get the additional 10.000yen if you tell them that you want to move at leat 61days in advance!

I personally chose a shared room for the beginning and am planning to switch to a single room once I found a job : )

Reserving a room with borderless house was really easy! The communication was great and they even sent me more pictures of the room when I asked for it!
Once you arrive they'll pick you up at the nearest big station and take you to the house where the final contract will be signed.

Here is a video for one of their houses:




+ Awesome website
+ Videos for almost every house
+ Quiet place to stay
+ English speaking staff
+ Cash back when you give notice about your departure early enough
+ Washing machine is free to use
+ Clean most of the time
+ 50% foreigner / 50% Japanese

- Medium price range
- Some houses are a bit far from the stations
- Good houses are gone fast!
- No couples allowed

Website of Borderless House: http://www.borderless-house.com/


I'm already really curious about my room mate and other housemates!
The house I'm staying at is a 10 minutes walk from the nearest station but seems to be such a cool area! And once at the station you'll be at any cool place in no time!
I'll definately write a review about my place as soon as I'm there and have enough information to share with you!


Have you stayed at one of those places or have other reccomendations?
Please share!!