Getting started

My first contract in Japan was cancelled one day before my flight to Japan because Daimler sold Mitsubishi Motors.
My second assignment never came to the stage of having a contract because the position I should take was never created (although all my job interviews went well and everybody wanted me in this position - this is at least what I've been told).
My third contract for a job in Japan wasn't cancelled but its content was changed from "onsite in Japan" to "offshore in Germany" due to the impact of the financial crisis.
It was then when I decided not to try to work in Japan anymore.

So here I am now in Japan with a 3 years assignment...
_______________________________________________________

First things first, so I was looking for an apartment - next to a major station, not too far from work and also going to Karate should be comfortable.

Internet is such a great invention, so I found an apartment complex in Ikebukuro, 100m from the station. Ikebukuro is where my university was, a quite nice place with all you need: restaurants (best ramen in Tokyo!), shopping, karaoke...
Nightlife here is not to be mentioned, but Shinjuku and Shibuya are close. And:

• no changing trains when I go to work
• no changing trains when I go to Karate in Komagome, Myogadani, Iidabashi or Akabane
• the apartment is big enough for all my stuff, but not too expensive
• incl. furniture because I don't wanna invest a lot of money in things I will have to sell in 3 years.
• plus I have a washing machine that washes with warm water
• a balcony
• and a quite big television.

But renting this apartment turned out to be not that easy. The process demands that the customer (that's me) has to view the apartment first before he applies. It didn't matter too much that it was of much greater interest of the customer (that's again me) to move in directly when he arrives in Japan and not after some days or even weeks. To make a long story short: I had to send a friend to view the apartment on my behalf but still this didn't accelerate the process too much - after 2 month of negotiating still no contract was in sight.

So you may think that things like this just take their time in Japan, however it took my company one day to get the contract ready once they got involved.
I'm sure this has nothing to do with a very polite form of discrimination against foreigners, but is a pure coincidence... ;)

Well, in the end I have my apartment and I'm very happy about it.