Dear people,
my research group will go to Japan/Tokyo for half a year (starting June or July). The thing is, we are 10 people, and we would like to stay at the same place for co-working and hanging out reasons. I already sent a bunch of emails to different companies. So far, with only a little luck. Most replied they don’t even have offers for that many people. Sharehouses seem like our best option (also, there are a lot of fancy ones!). The problem with sharehouses is, they usually only take reservations one month (Share Style, Share Design) to 10 days (Oakhouse) before moving in. For our planning, and because we are such a large group, this is a major risk factor.
My question for you: Can you think of any strategies how to contact landlords or agencies who could help us find a place? Who could help us? How do we approach this/them? How do we get them to reserve the rooms for us even tho they have the official limit?
We are super reliable and since we all got funding or scholarships, landlords have zero stress/effort with us. And in the best case, we just take 10 rooms at once, that should be nice for them too, right?
I absolutely appreciate your help!
5 comments
Have you tried checking out AirBNB and then contacting the hosts directly?
Since there’s not a whole lot of tourism right now, they might be able to give you the place for a longer period without any problems
10 people in separate rooms is going to be effectively impossible. No Japanese house that isn’t built specifically as something like a sharehouse is going to have that many individual rooms.
Even sharehouses are going to be *really* hard for you to find, since 10 people is a sizeable fraction of any sharehouse’s capacity. So not only are you going to run into the various sharehouse company’s lead times, but you’re also trying to find one that’s half (or more) empty. That’s… Gonna be a challenge.
Honestly I can’t see how you’re going to be able to make this happen. You’re looking for a living arrangement that, quite frankly doesn’t really exist in Japan. You *might* be able to find something with 5 rooms, and double up, but even that’s going to be a challenge.
Searching for furnished housing for 10 people in one house with separate rooms is like searching for furnished housing with a swimming pool in…Tokyo.
So, you say research group and scholarships so I assume you’re university-affiliated.
You may want to ask your host university about any relationships they have with private dormitories. I stayed in one in Tokyo a decade ago and it was able to be reserved months in advance.
The introduction was arranged through my university, but the dormitory itself was a private corporation and they hosted people from different universities (my contract was with them, not the university). Each room was furnished, with a kitchenette, and then there were shared lounges. If I recall you could make a reservation for three months, six months, etc.
If you think about the US, how many houses have 10 separate bedrooms? The only ones I can think of are those multi millionaire/billionaire mansions that you see on some TV programs. This is rare even in the US, so it is non-existent in Tokyo. You might be able to find a super expensive five bedroom apartment, but even so, it probably has a maximum of two baths and two toilets.
As another poster wrote, even trying to get in the same share house is going to be difficult since you are looking for 10 rooms at the same time.
Certainly hotels will have the space, but I’m not sure if you can find a hotel that will let you stay for six months though. But due to Covid many hotels have become quite flexible in this regard. They have lost so much money due to the disappearance of foreign tourists, that they had monthly plans for people remote working. This is from last year and according to the article the campaign ended, but maybe this is the kind of thing you could think of, otherwise I would talk to the University and see if they have like dormitories or something like that.
https://soranews24.com/2021/02/23/tokyo-luxury-hotel-offers-month-long-stays-with-free-breakfasts-might-be-cheaper-than-apartment/
This company metro residence specializes in people staying shorter term in Tokyo. They helped a lot of people when they had to stay in places to quarantine for a couple of weeks. Seems like they have a lot of inventory. Maybe they can find multiple apartments that are close together
https://www.metroresidences.com/jp-en