Also, advice taken – I’ve installed that particular plugin and it should be showing up down there now. Please let me know if you don’t see it.

By the way, you may retain user conversations easier if you use one of these plugins, as I suppose you use wordpress:
http://txfx.net/wordpress-plugins/subscribe-to-comments/

I had to do a google search for my name on this blog in order to find where I left comments.

All the best,
Jonas

Says march 31 st on my screen…

How’s Kyoto treating you?

The small apartmet gets tiring quickly…

Still in Kyoto? The dates on here are all 31st of 2009…. 31st what? I think something might be wrong there….

Cheers
Jonas

http://sumaity.com/t-004-N-N-N-11502/5-26/

That page will take you straight to the area selection for kyoto city apartments that dont need a guarantor, but its all in Japanese. There aren’t many place available, but at least there’s something.

If you can’t speak any Japanese, your only other option is to go with a foreigner centred and shared guest house, like the ones here:

http://www.kyoto-apartment.com/index.html

I realise the idea of a guesthouse might be a little offputting, but since short-stays are ok it would give you a chance to look around more thoroughly for apartments that don’t need a guarantor, maybe with some new japanese-speaking friends you find there; or it would give the time to speak with your boss and have them act as a guarantor, as most are usually willing if you ask them directly – it is a problem every foreigner here faces, and anyone willing to employ a foreigner must also accept responsibility partially for their wellbeing! (But they can’t take an official stance of “we will act as guarantor if you work for us”)

Hope that helps somewhat.

I’ve always gone through an agent – just tell them you want somewhere with low or zero key money, and tell them your rent price range, they’ll usually be able to find you a few possibilities. I haven’t had any bad experiences with any particular agent here, so I cant really recommend any over others.

i cant point you towards a specific company or housing site, my friend used to live in a similar one room thing near kyoto university. he paid around 30,000 / month, and it included most stuff. there was no moving in costs either, i believe. very much designed for cheap-ass students. it was however, quite a horribly dirty place. i dont think internet was included either.

if your budget went up to maybe 50,000 you could quite a nice place though still small, and you may also need to think about initial moving in costs like the famous key-money and deposit which is usually around 3 months rent. dont worry too much about washing machine or fridge etc as theyre cheap second hand, not even 5000 yen for both.

theres also accomodation on campus, i believe, but youll have to ask the university about that (i assume you’ll be a student there, right+?)