What a weekend. Saturday was fairly mellow. Kuniko went off to work in the morning, and I stuck around to do the community cleanup at the apartment complex. The cleanup went pretty well – I received my instructions from the manager, who plopped some hedge clippers in my hand and trusted that I was familiar with the topiary arts.
Not having done a lot of hedge trimming in my life, I approached it hesitantly at first, and later with much more gusto – shaping the unruly bush into a big arc. I had fun clipping away while other people did much the same thing. Nobody here was an expert clipper, but we just had fun with it and the hour passed quickly.
I chatted a little bit with Jane on my way back to the apartment, and we talked about her new neighbor who will move into my place after Kuniko and I leave. She even offered to help us move, which was very nice of her. I think our move won’t be too tough though – she should be safe.
I cleaned house and did laundry throughout the morning, and when Kuniko came home in the afternoon she did a load of laundry, studied, and got some well-deserved time to relax. Later in the evening we went over to the Kageyama household for dinner to celebrate an early father’s day.
Kuniko’s sister was there as well, so it was nice to have everyone around. We had a big feast and then sat around the TV and chatted and ate dessert. We had brought along our Nintendo DS with the brain training game, and that was a big hit with Kuniko’s sister and father. They both played it for a long time.
Sunday was a really crazy day. We got a chance to sleep in, but Kuniko couldn’t sleep very well and ended up staying awake most of the night. I managed to sleep in a little bit, though. We spent the morning reading and relaxing at home, and then drove to Carrefour to park the car. We parked there and then walked to the nearest JR train station – Tsuchiyama, and from there took a train to Nishi Akashi station. In Nishi Akashi we had an appointment with an apartment rental place to look at some places. We need to get serious about moving – the deadline to move out of the teacher’s apartment is at the end of next month!
We had trouble finding the place at first, so Kuniko called and a few minutes later an employee came running up to guide us to the office. He was a really talkative guy, and he had us both on edge the whole time we talked to him. Unfortunately, he was the guy that was going to drive us around to see the apartments today, so we got plenty more exposure to him throughout the afternoon.
Back at the office they gave us some papers listing a few of their recommended properties to look at. We had found three properties on their website that we wanted to see, but they didn’t seem aware of those. We asked about it, and they went to the back room and soon emerged with those three property sheets as well. There was a really pushy boss working there, who told us that he was sure we would find something we liked today – he had a feeling it would be one called “Green Heights”.
We headed out to the car, and drove off to the first place in Okubo. We had decided to look around Okubo because of it’s proximity to a JR train station, the big shopping center that is attached, and it is a little closer to Kobe than where we are now without getting close enough to be more expensive.
The first place I liked immediately. The neighborhood was just one street off the main street leading to the station, and it was only a 2 minute walk from the apartment to the station. It was on the third floor above some offices and down at the floor level there was a nice looking yakitori right there. The bad news was that it was too small. One of the rooms was just about the size of our bed – no room for anything else. Unfortunately, that was a show-stopper.
We looked at a few others without finding one we liked. There was a big one that was part of a duplex in a quiet neighborhood – and at first I really liked it. It had two floors and its own parking spot, which is a big deal in Japan. The rent wasn’t so bad and the place was huge – maybe a little too big.
As soon as we entered the place the agent started saying bad things about it, and he continued to say bad things about any of the rental places that they didn’t recommend. He pestered us for our opinion and wanted us to list our preferences in order all the time – “Which is your favorite so far?”, “How about this one?”, “This must be better than the other one, right?”
It was the hard sell – I’ve seen it before. He was pushing the recommended properties, and he wanted us to sign up for one of them today. Even though we knew we were getting the hard sell, it didn’t make it any easier to deal with. Luckily we could speak English to each other and exclude him from the conversation. He would interrupt us and say “What’s that?” “What did you say?” Never has speaking English in a foreign country been so useful.
We got to the “Green Heights” place that his boss had recommended, and he was gushing about it before the car stopped. It was a 7 minute walk from the station, on the third floor of a building on the main street. We climbed the stairs and went in, and looked around. I had steeled myself to be wary of this one – it was one that he was pushing. We looked around and it seemed nice – very clean and pretty spacious. The price was OK, so why was he pushing it so hard? Kuniko and I talked about it, sometimes talking right over his “What do you think?” and “Do you like it?” questions that he fired at us constantly.
I liked the place, but I was a little worried about the neighborhood. Right across the street was a gas station, and I didn’t know how much traffic noise there was, especially during rush hour. There was no air conditioning, but he assured us that we could install it without a problem. I wanted some time to think about it.
Part of the hard sell is not giving you time to think about it. You push someone into a decision. We were hoping to just look around today and then if we liked something, talk about it and come back later. We had hoped to get dropped off at the nearby station when we were finished, but that wasn’t in the cards. He wouldn’t drop us off, but said that his boss wanted to talk to us about Green Heights, and I knew that was the big push to seal the deal.
We made up a story about having an appointment to get to, but it didn’t faze them a bit. They sat us down in their office, and said that a place like Green Heights was sure to move soon, maybe in the next few days, so we had better jump. All my instincts were to walk away and talk about it at a leisurely pace with Kuniko. Kuniko, though, didn’t really want to wait – she was fine with the place and didn’t see why I would need time.
In the end we said that we wanted some time to think and we put down a little bit of money to hold the place for a week – we had to fill out an application, and then they finally let us go. The money part was funny – they asked how much money Kuniko had, and she said she had only 3000 yen, and so they said “no problem” and took that. I’m lucky I didn’t say how much money I was holding, because I think they would have taken that, too.
After getting manhandled we walked back down the street, relieved to be away from such an annoying and pushy company. Just as we were about to turn the corner, the annoying guy came running and calling our name – he had forgotten to make a copy of one of the forms, and so we had to wait outside a nearby convenience store while he made a copy. Kuniko and I were getting pretty pissed off by then.
He apologized and we gave him the curtest of goodbyes and then headed to the station. We were so flustered that we took the wrong train from the station and ended up in Akashi – we had to catch another train to go back the right way. Eventually we made it Okubo, and decompressed by eating McDonald’s (we didn’t have much cash on us anymore) and talking about the day.
Without all the high pressure it was easier to think about the place and whether we liked it or not. It was clear that Kuniko was ready to pull the trigger – it was just me holding it up. I had lots of questions – renting an apartment is tricky in America, let alone in a foreign country where it would take me a month to read the contract. Kuniko answered the questions and explained everything to me, and it helped a lot.
We did a little bit of shopping and then decided to walk from where we were to the Green Heights apartment. It took just 7 minutes to get there, and we were able to look around the neighborhood on the way. There were a couple of shops on the ground floor of Green Heights – a Los Angeles-themed hair salon, and a cake shop (danger!)
We walked up to the apartment and stood outside, looked around and then walked to the nearby supermarket to look at what they had for sale. It was no Ito Yokado, but I don’t think we’ll be in a good situation like that again soon.
We walked back from there and I finally decided that it was OK and that we should go for it. I had gotten my questions answered, but the biggest holdup for me was that this place was the one that the pushy people were pushing – so something must be wrong. I almost didn’t want to take it just to spite them, but it is a good place, and that is what is most important.
Just to top off the day, on the way home we started talking about my future in Japan. It’s a tough topic to talk about since there are so many question marks for me. Kuniko asked me some good questions, and I had no good answers. It made me feel bad that I couldn’t answer them and a little like I have been wasting time the last three years instead of working towards something.
That depressed me even more on top of the pushy real estate company, so by the time we got back home I was pretty bummed out. We went to bed and talked a little bit, and that helped a lot. We talked about we wanted and what we expected, and talked a little bit about our different cultures and how those were shaping our expectations.
Just before we fell asleep the real estate guy called to bug us some more, and then he called again about 10 minutes later but we didn’t answer. Then he called our home phone number, but we didn’t answer that either. Enough is enough.
I think about their sales process and I can’t believe how it is going to work out for them despite almost everything they did. They need to let the properties speak for themselves. Now we will rent this place despite hating (hating!) the people that are renting it, and resenting the whole process. In the end, they will probably think their tactics were effective, and they’ll keep doing it. Even if we wrote a letter complaining, the manager will still say, “But at least they rented something!” Scary!
Finally, the day served as a gigantic wake up call for me that I have to focus on my future more. I’m sure I’ll have no problem landing a job in the short term, but as for five years from now, ten, twenty, I’ve got a lot of thinking to do.
