I’ll be moving to Tokyo next month and I’m trying to find a place to stay.
I’m thinking of going to a sharehouse at first because they seem easier to deal with from overseas.
The problem is that I’ve been reading bad reviews of both Sakura House and Xross, which were the ones that I was going for because of the location of their houses.
Does anyone know anything about them? Could you please share your personal experience?
Thank you!
13 comments
I hear there’s a share house with a real life celebrity who takes up half the space in the common room live-streaming. The constant smell of hamburgers alone is worth the rent
When you say “at first,” how long are you planning on staying there?
I’m in a UR apartment and I was able to get things started from abroad. I had to stay in an Airbnb the first two weeks until everything was ready, but apart from that it’s been smooth sailing with them.
Borderless House.
Look up “Social Apartments.” Well, enough people stay in Sakura House – that even if its “not great,” it would be fine for 60-90 days as you look for better.
Email each of your candidate sharehouses and ask how many hours per resident per week the common areas are cleaned by professionals. Ask them if the cleaning staff is fired or cut back when occupancy rates fall, and how long it takes to recruit new cleaning staff when occupancy rates rise. Choose your sharehouse not only according to how clean they maintain the facilities, but also according to how straightforward and understandable their answers are.
I personally love Oakhouse!
I stayed in a Modern Living sharehouse (Kanda) in 2016, it was great and I had no issues!
I’m living in a Sakura house share for a month at the moment and it’s fine. Slightly pricey. I was nervous but the house is clean, I lucked out with quiet and friendly house mates, and the company was pretty swift with communication prior. Not had an issue yet so can’t vouch for their response in crisis.
It really depends on whose living in the house when you’re there. In general I think people move in and out pretty often. There are social people who hang out in the lounge and make plans together on the weekends, and there are those who don’t socialize at all and will ignore you. They are probably just there for the low rent. Moving to Japan for the first time, I think it’s a great first step just to help you get your groundings and not feel so alone. In general the people who want to socialize are friendly and it’s nice to meet a mixture of foreigners from different countries and Japanese. Maybe it’s you’re only opportunity to be in a diverse group! I recommend.
How much is your budget if u dun mind I ask
Years ago I stayed at Yotsuya Mayflower House for a few months. It was fairly inexpensive (55,000 a month) and cleaned daily. The prices are probably higher now, but I enjoyed my stay. It’s full of cool antique furniture from around the world. Landlord met me at the station to lead me there.
In 2018/2019 I stayed in 2 different sharehouses run by GG house for a total of about 4 months and have no complaints. They were easy to deal with, places were kept clean, and the locations were pretty good.
I just booked with Tokyo Stay since I’m attending Waseda for 7 months beginning in September. They were really nice over email and sent me a whole bunch of pictures of the house when I asked (since they only had photos of my room posted online). The downpayment was 30,000 yen and it’s 69,000 yen a month, which is really reasonable. I live with 5 other people. They have a few other share houses in Tokyo, but it really depends on where you’d like to live and what you’re planning on doing once you arrive. My house is in Otsuka, which is 20 mins from Waseda, so it worked out perfectly. All the houses seem to be in really nice neighborhoods too.