I am currently writing this on the train travelling to Fuchinobe to go to Obirin to meet with the person in charge of the year abroad. I’m sat in coach 7 near the front (sat down!!) between a guy who is studying electronics and a woman with a Takashimaya bag. Across from me I keep getting dirty looks shot at me by a man and his wife. Oddly this guy looks like one of the nice Japanese, rather than the ones that hate you. Clearly appearance isn’t everything.
Actually, I suppose he could be reading my T-Shirt. I am wearing my Homeboys T-Shirt with NATURALATHLETIC strewn across the front. Maybe he’s just trying to read it..?
Ah, Mr Electronics just got out his PSP. Naruhodo.
So yeah… apartment searching isn’t going as well as I’d hope. The place that I found that is totally dreamy and lovely on top of a hill overlooking a valley including a graveyard (fuckyeah!) is probably going to be unavailable for me since I don’t have a Japanese bank account and I am not capable of getting one either. All the effort I’ve put into finding this place seems to have gone to waste. The company in charge is reluctant to let me use anything other than a bank account. I’ve got my IBC with me so hopefully that will be enough so they can draw my rent from my English account.
I’ve been looking at 2ch.net trying to find out whether the company I’m going with is trustworthy or not… As yet I’ve only found the usual *chan stuff where some people are saying they’re great and some are saying they’re rubbish… Then along with that you can’t tell who is telling the truth and who is writing just for the hell of it.
Haha this train is packed now and guess what? There’re two seats either side of me that nobody seems to want to sit in. Gaijinfield YEAH! *PICTURE*
The gaijin powers seem to be strong in me today. I’ve managed to keep a long distance away from people and have managed to walk past a police officer in a no smoking area whilst smoking (I noticed the No Smoking signs after this, however) Haharrr!
I’ll find out by the 10th (that is Thursday) whether or not I’ll be able to move into this place or not. I have *everything* else except the bank account. It’s a real pity, really, because I really like the place and the people in the company seem pretty nice (although I’m putting it down to salesman technique more than anything)
Despite the HUGE amount of, oh crap what’s the word..? It completely escapes me. The ridiculous need for papers and laws etc... (BUREAUCRACY!) in this country Japanese housing contracts are relatively short to their UK counterparts. I remember the one for Brookes being something like 14 pages long. The one for this apartment is only a double-sided A3 sheet.
This did, however, take me a LONG time to go through with with the people at Housecom. I got there in the end, however… I came through with the help of Moeka who was insisting that she didn’t do anything but frankly I couldn’t have done without someone there who could help with some of the translations…
I still need to read through the entire contract properly before I sign my money away, however, because I do want to make sure that they are not fucking me over… Who knows…? They’re already trying to charge me a ridiculous cleaning fee for an apartment that has *already* been cleaned as far as I can see. I suppose, though, it might be worth letting them do it as insurance that the place is actually clean, and then if it turns out that after they have “cleaned” the place it’s still dirty I can call them up and bitch until they come and do it again…
I have NO idea where this train is going… Knowing my luck it’s going to be completely wrong and I’m going to end up in the wrong place. I know already that I need to change in Machida to a local train ----- Which I just noticed is the next stop, so I’m going to have to go.
Back later…
