[Music]
This week's TL;DR is on
how to get a house in Japan!
Cause we have a house in Japan!
We have a house!
This is our house!
When I say house, I don't mean like a home, like an apartment.
Like, we got a HOUSE!
We are in a house right now, this is our house, with our name on it
It is not our house, we're renting it... but...
Well, I peed on the corners, all of them, so this is MINE.
I took my chin and I rubbed it on items
like I went up to them and rubbed it.
Like using my glands
[S] This is OUR house. [M] This is our
house that we've ever lived in together.
We have been married for almost 10 years now,
and we've never been in a house together. This is our first house
[M] I feel like how ou- [S] OUR HOUSE~
[S&M] OUR HOUSE~
And I already covered the Britta water filter with stickers
Yes, you did.
Okay, so we wanna tell you a bit about our experiences of
real estate hunting in Japan.
How they differ from our experiences in Korea and in Canada as well.
So first off, Korea and Japan are similar in a sense that you HAVE to
go through a real estate agent to rent.
When we rented in Canada,
I remember that we like, hunted around for houses, went inside
and then you like, called up the guy who owned that one building,
like that one in- and you're like "Can I rent?" And they're like
[Music: Baguette Music] [S/M] Okay, fine./Alright.
But in Korea, you must go through a real estate agent, the same as Japan,
which means you will be paying them a fee,
but they will be taking you around.
[M] We're on our way to look for apartments and houses in Tokyo, [S] Okay,
and I'm very excited and ughh.. yeah
That's mah story.
[S] It's a great intro, ([M] Wasn't it?) you're good at this.
The bigger difference that we noticed between Korea and Japan though, is that
when we were in Korea, our real estate agent was only representative of a small specific area.
So we had to pick an area that we wanted to live in,
And then we went into a real estate agent, for that area
and they showed us properties around there.
Here in Japan though, our real estate agent covered pretty much ALL of Tokyo.
And we just had to tell them the specific things that we were looking for,
and they found different houses and apartments that met our criteria.
So we did a lot of driving around, because we didn't really know the areas at all
so she just kinda picked us up, and then, went to place to place to place,
and we're kinda like,
"I don't like this", "I like this", "I don't want that",
and then the next day, she would narrow it down, and do like more housing,
until we kinda figured out the area that we wanted to live in.
[S] Okay~..
[S] Thank you~
This is the house.
[S] Hello~ (echo)
[M] This feels like, I'm living in North America. [S] Yup.
[M] Isn't it? [S] Yeah!
[M] This feels like a North American kitchen. [S] It sure does.
[M] Doesn't it? [S] Woah, this is ballin'.
[M] (singing)We can't afford to live but have look
[S&M] /laughs/
[M] OOOHHH~ [S] OOOOHHH~
[M] It's a "Tatami" room
[S] Our other place doesn't have a Tatami room
[S] This is a great Tatami room
[M] Okay, a Tatami room is a very traditional Japanese-kind of room,
and it usually have all these like,
sliding doors that open, and it's kind of like a family room.
Um, but we heard that this can be really difficult to take care of,
'cause it's like some special straw, or like wheat, or something,
grown in Japan, and like, if something spills on it, you have to like remove it by panel.
[M] But, it's so pretty looking. [S] It's really nice looking. [M] Yeah.
[S] Wow, it's like every single place we've gone to, has a bath tub. [M] Yes, it is.
[S] I don't remember having that experience in Korea.
[M] I did not, we don't know [S] We lived in THREE places that don't have bathtubs.
[M] Yes~
[Agent] This is a huge house!
[M/S] Yeah, that's right./ This is a really great house.
[M] This is a little bit too big. [S] This is a really really big house.
[M] But a mega huge difference is terminology about looking for housing in Japan.
Everyone is obsessed with how far they are from the subway. [S] Right.
[M] And so for us, we're like
"I don't even know what area I wanna live in, why would I know its' subway."
And they be like,
"Do you wanna be 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes
from the subway?"
[M] And we're like "Whaaatt?" [S] So right now we are
20 minutes away from the subway
which is why, [M] Walking, [S] yeah, walking.
So our place is a lot cheaper than it would be
if it was 5 minutes away from the subway
Plus, 20 minutes, we walked like that
all the time in Korea
[S] Yeah [M] We walked that distance
[S] We always walk. [M] It was normal.
But in Korea they never asked that kinda question
[S] No [M] It was never like, "How far do you wanna be from the Subway?"
You just, [S] ehhh [M] you just got the place
[S] That never came up in discussion at all
[Agent] It's 12 minutes from uh the station
[S] Ok, so this is even closer than the first one
[Agent] Mhmm
[S] In here
Oh this is nice
/door slides open/
Alright [M] This is my new bed /laughs/
[S] It's a new bed? [M] /laughs/
[S] Crawl under there orrrr?
[M] Actually pretty big
But do you know what I really like [S] What? [M] Look at the tiny sinks
that come with all of these
[S] Eeeeeee, little tiny sinks the size of my hand~
Ooo, that's a nice little balcony also
There you go
[M] I figured it out :D
So you can hang your laundry here
[S] Uh huh [M] Mhmm
Another big difference in Japan and Korea
was the questions the real estate agent had to ask us
[M] "Um, I just have some questions for you" [S] "Yeah sure, what's up?"
[M] "Um, do you play musical instruments?"
[S] "Ahh... I.. I wish?.. No..?"
[M] "Mhm... Do you have children, or plan on having children?"
[S] "Eh.. no?" [M] /laughs/ It's kind of a personal-- [S] "What? No. Alright."
[M] "Do you have a pet?"
[S] "Oh, yes I do!"
[M] "What kind of pet will you have?"
[S] "Uh.. It's a small, old, ugly, smelly Pekinese dog"
"that's really close to dying. He's so old and crusty and he can barely walk"
[M] "Okay so if he was a big dog we would need to do an interview with him."
[S] Yes, literally!
[S] Okay so like, there are places that are like 'pet negotiable'
some places that say 'no' outright to pets, and some places say 'yes' outright.
So our place was 'pet negotiable' so we had to tell them what kind of dog Spudgy was
M: What he's like... His personality S:yes, so we even showed our realter
S: some videos of how Spudgys like.. How he just lays down and does NOTHING.
S: uum. Because if it was a big or active dog then the landlord might not have accepted us.
M: Also if you play an instrument some places wont let you in S: ya
M:like piano or drums or like trombone.
M: What if you play like the pen flute
(whoo whooo )
M: I'm pretty sure, I could be wrong can you imagine in North America
M: If they're like.. /S:Oh so you have kids no you can't rent this place.
M:I don't think that would fly.
S: I've never experienced it maybe that happens somewhere in Canada
I have never experienced that and when we were in Korea they never asked us that question as well
But the pet thing in Korea some people were like "uu" but it wasn't as strict as Japan. /S:no
M: Ok guys that's pretty awesome looking
S: This is AMAZING! /M: Woah /S:and look there's a ladder here also!
M: What a crazy design /S: This is a really crazy design
M: This is even great for filming itself
S: Look at this, you got a little ledge here for sitting on.
S: Ok I'll go check /M: Take your slippers off.
S: I will. You hold this.
S: Oh my gosh there's a giant pile of money
S: Right here /M: Really S:it's just money everywhere.
S: Money and Gold!
S: no money no gold I lied :(
M: How.... super strange
M: I'm so intrigued right now S: I know
S: Oh man this is a really tough choice. M: It's really charming though isn't it.
S: I love the lighter wood here
S: A really major difference we noticed between Korea and Japan is in the cost
so right now we are actually in a house, a two-storey house, it even has a little backyard
In Korea, there is no way that we could afford a house
This place actually costs less than our last apartment in Korea
which is totally amazing to me!
S: I'm excited
M: I'm more than excited. This is the first time that we're going to see a Japanese style house.
I thought that a house would be totally crazy expensive but some apartments are actually more expensive
than houses and I'm like why wouldn't we get a house.
We can have a tiny piece of grass, I could grow herbs!
S: I think the realtor's waiting for us *runs frantically*
M: And speaking of cost, in Korea you have something called 'Key Money' which is a huge chunk of money
So if you don't have that chunk of money, it's like you just can't rent to begin with in Korea
So some apartments are like-
-you put down like ten thousand dollars or fourty thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars.
and this giant chunk of money
You give to the landlord.
and then you pay monthly rent on top of that. Right?
Yes.
The monthly rent you don't give back-
Right.
But that key money deposit. You will get back.
Through your rental agreement itself,
they give you that money back.
While in Japan, they don't have that giant chunk of key money,
Not like 10,000 or 40,000 or 50,000
So it's more affordable for you to be able to start renting. HOWEVER,
they have something called gift money.
Gift money can be one to four months rent
M: You just don't get it back S: It's a gift.
So I was reading a lot of articles about this and people were saying that they feel like it's an old fashioned
system, it needs to stop and some places in Japan have stopped doing it but if I was a landlord, I'd be like,
M: "Why would I want to stop this?" S: "This is a great thing!"
S: On top of that, there's deposit money that you have to put down,
It's not as huge as Korea as well
It's not like 10 or 15 thousand, it's more like one to three months rent
For us it's three months rent because we have an animal
And that deposit money, at the end of your rental term, they're going to look over your house
and see what kind of damage has been done to that house.
M: So when we actually moved into the house,
the real estate agent, with the person who owns the house, walked around and said,
"Is there any problems?" Like, here are the remotes that you have. They took note of everything.
So that they can come back later and compare it and say, "Oh, there are these problems."
S: Any bit of damage that we have-- like a scratch in the wall or a hole in the wall
or a damage to the step--
They are going to repair that with the deposit money that we gave them.
So even though technically we should get that deposit money back,
there's a very small chance that we will because
anything that we do that damages this place in a slight way--
S: If we sneeze on the wall-- M: No-- Especially
M: Because this place was just remodeled-- S: Yes
M: So it's a new place so obviously it can only go downhill from here. [S] Right
S: It's all downhill from here! Two years, it's all downhill!
M: They wanted to know if I was going to screw the air condition remotes into the wall,
and I was like, "Oh can I do that?" and they were like, "Of course you can do that!.."
M: "But you'll have to pay to fix the--" S: "But say goodbye to your money!"
M: Darn it! S: "Please! Money's mine!"
M: Didn't think I'd be outside in a tanktop
S: How--- I thought they were gonna drive us back home but I guess not.
S: I'm a little bit cold! M: Yeah
S: That's okay. We're almost at a ramen place. It'll warm us up
M: I will say all the places we saw today were really clean. [S] Yes
M: And I felt like if I had to, we could move into any of them.
S: Any one I'd be totally okay with.
M: But I did like the first one better S: The first one was the best one
M: Is this the right place? S: This is the right place.
S: So that's another big thing that we noticed, in that
every single place we went to in Japan,
had a brand new smell to it. You can smell the glue from construction.
Everything was spic and span because they actually use that deposit money
to tidy up the places while in Korea, a lot of the places that we went to
we'll say-- they needed some work
M: Yeah. So it's kind of like--Which situation is better?
We're gonna lose our deposit money, which sucks
but then when you go to look at places in Japan, you can kind of picture yourself in them.
But in Korea, this was really surprising.
You would go into people's homes while they still lived in them.
So people came into our house when they were looking at our apartment--
You're like in pajamas-- They ring the doorbell and then their family just comes in to look at your place
S: And while we were real estate hunting, we actually walked in on people having dinner
and that was just normal if they were putting out their place.
I felt bad, but they're just like, "Oh, look around, go ahead and look at my underwear drawers!"
and you're just-- you know, it's weird. But here, there wasn't a single place
that had a person in it when we were real estate hunting in Japan.
M: Oh, they made it like a little sample home
This is-- our table's smaller than this so I can already picture our table here.
S: Uh-huh
M: This is amazing! S: This is pretty great
S: Look at this nice little kitchen counter here M: Wow. We got bright light
M: I can easily turn this way and super easily film something. [S] Uh-huh
M: Right? S: Yep.
S: If the other places are not better than this, we will agree to this right away.
Agent: Oh really? Ok, sure. S: Yes, but this is perfect for me so far.
M: Now being a foreigner in another country always comes with its complications
and I will say that renting in Japan was way more complicated than it was in Korea.
S: Because we were foreigners M: Yes
S: So we're gonna tell you that story in our blog post. Make sure you click on the link here
if you wanna learn more about why it's more difficult for foreigners to rent in Japan than it is in Korea.
M: And we're also gonna talk about other things like, What is this guarantor that I need??
S: What's a tatami room??
M: We're gonna talk all about those interesting nitty gritty facts
Hey we both did the same thing.
S: Click on the link here M: Punch, punch, punch a baby. What is this?
S: ONE PUNCH~ BABY!!
M: It also looks pretty cute
S: Too cute! M: Super cute!
S: You're pretty cute
S: I like your cute little pigtails M: Thanks
M: I made them. They keep from getting hair blowing in your face.
Cause it's so windy lately and when I was walking down the street with my hair, it was like,
so these are like-- protective pigtails