QUOTE(godzlarz @ Apr 15 2016, 08:27 PM)
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Can you share a little bit on house rentals? I heard that it costs an arm and a leg.. lol..
It's quite difficult isn't it as in financially when relocating to Japan?
Rental will be around 40k-80k yen a month depends on location, distance to train station and also the age of the building. Oh ya, plus the size.
Elite or Prime area will be around 70k-200k yen a month.
Average of normal rental will be cost around 60k yen a month.. If you're lucky enough, 40k yen a month is like jackpot for everyone here.
I manage to get 45k yen a month, 12 mins walk to Station or 5 mins bicycle ride to Station. Neighbourhood located at the riverside between East Tokyo and West Chiba.
Perfect spot for me to have evening breeze walk once in a while...
Depends on your personal financial. Start struggling in the beginning and enjoy the progress like any other Japanese who comes from different prefecture. (Trust me, they are broke as f*ck than any foreigner who move to Japan)
Or save as many saving as you can, start plurge in the beginning and slowly control your budget financially.
I booked a share house room a month in-advanced once I decide to move to Tokyo. Sign a non-duration contract deal and pay 15k yen deposit only and 1 month rental of 50k yen a month which is include electric, water, gas and internet bills. Opposite the Share House is Aeon Supermarket, basically every evening I'll drop by there to buy fresh food and vege and cook decent meal (cost around 300-400yen) for myself every night. Metro Station just 8 mins walk, convenient as f*ck and felt like heaven for the first time.
But I have that dream/ideal place, where I always watch Japanese movie (where those lonely single guy/lady own a cool small studio house or apartment a little bit further down from the station.)
Everyweek for 2 months, I'll visit a real estate agent and tell them I'm looking for my ideal studio house/apartment and hopefully they can find 1 for me with the budget I mentioned.
On 2nd month, Those famous or well-known real estate agent cannot find the criteria I want and I took another alternative way which is go to district local estate agent (those only accept japanese customers). Give it a try with my almost perfect Japanese conversation and ask them I'm looking for a studio house/apartment, in resident housing area and 15-20mins away from any public train.
They have a few on their list, list down to 5 apartment to see. Drove me around the area and have a look at the house or apartment.
Found the one I like, which is a House Studio (attach beside another apartment but separately), 45k yen a month, 12mins walk or 5 mins cycle to Metro Station or another 20mins walk or 9 mins cycle to different Train company station, 2 blocks away from Edo River and there's a jogging track where you can jog the other opposite way to Arakawa River. Decide to go for that Studio House.
At first the landlord reject my application because they a little bit hesitate when it comes to foreigner. And then I was lucky, very lucky to meet up the landlord at the office where she pick-up some document from the estate agency. The guy who help me apply the application point at me and say I'm the guy who applied her Studio House to rent and her first impression thought I'm Japanese instead of Foreigner (look and physically). Had a small chit-chat with the landlord and the landlord decide to cancel the reject application and let me rent her Studio House to me.
I had my first own rent studio house in Japan and cheap one 45k yen a month.
The first month I need to pay is :
First month rental : 45k yen
Deposit (You'll get back 50%-75% once you move out): 30k yen
New Key Installation : 8k yen
Real Estate fees : 15k yen.
No Key Money Fees and Landlord Fees, luck again on my side.
Total is : 98000k yen to get the dream house I want. (back in 2012, around RM3.6k)
Basic Monthly bills on my side for own place is :
4500yen for Fiber Optics Internet (Yahoo! Hikari)
500 yen - 2000 yen for Electricity.
Every 2 months :
1200yen for Gas
800yen for Water
Total Rent include bills is : 51500yen a month. Equivalent to RM515 or conversion RM1800+
Separate non-house bills is my Softbank + Iphone Bills which cost 6k yen a month. (Unlimited LTE + Calls, most Japanese use phone mail to contact with each other. Rarely SMS)
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And again, do not convert the yen to Ringgit because you earn your salary in Yen.
The right way to see the living expenses is by seeing the equivalent.
RM1 = 100yen.
While in Malaysia you cannot buy lots of stuff for RM1.
But 100yen you can get Onigiri or Bun in a local bakery shop.
I challenge myself to Survive with only 500yen a day for a month (Breakfast & Lunch).
Surprisingly, I can get lots of stuff for 500yen in a day in Tokyo.
Like 90yen of Melon Bun with 100yen Lemon CC for Breakfast. 300yen Bento for Lunch.
But in Kota Kinabalu RM5, small packet of M&M already cost RM3 or 1 Chicken Pao already cost RM4 for breakfast.