Purchasing a Home in Japan

It’s been a while since I posted an original article here at Yokohama Living (volunteers are welcome) but I don’t have much time these days. But these two articles from the Japan Times were just too good to miss. That is if you are considering buying property in Japan.

The first article is about actual experiences foreigners have had purchasing property in Japan and it ranges from the very positive to the negative. Jim, an American in Yokohama had a pretty good experience.

The process went very smoothly, no doubt helped by the fact that I’m a permanent resident and we qualified financially. Of course, decreasing property values are a concern, but when you rent you’re spending money that will never return.

On the other hand, Ivan from England, didn’t have such a good experience.

Maybe it was just me, or maybe it’s because I’m non-Japanese, but it’s the worst place I have ever lived in in Japan. I get lots of complaints from the people living below. On the first day after we moved they came and said we were too loud, on the second day they came and said that if we had flooring we would have to put carpets down. I was told by the caretaker that the person who lived in my apartment before me moved for out for the same reason that we are now moving.

Read more:Tales of experience from foreign homeowners

The second article is the very appropriately titled step by step guide to owning a home in Japan. It is a good read and really there is something in there for people buying houses almost anywhere.

Shin-Yokohama station

The picture here is not the construction site for the Olympic Games in Beijin. It’s in front of the north side of Shin-Yokohama station. I don’t know what they are building. A huge dumpster for scrap metal??

Shin-Yokohama has been turned into a more passenger-friendly station recently. Although it is used by quite a few people every day as there are two JR lines, Tokaido Shinkansen and Yokohama-line, and the City Subway serving, there weren’t many services available before, and it was really just a station to pass by. Now a 19-storey commercial building rises above it. It contains a mall called CUBIC PLAZA, with more than 80 shops and restaurants, including a big bookstore, a mid-range hotel, HOTEL ASSOCIA with 203 rooms, and offices. The concourse is bright and spacious, the escalators and elevators are smooth, all the signs are in big letters and easy to follow. It’s only 12 minutes to Shinagawa, or 20 minutes to Tokyo by Shinkansen, and of course, you have easy access to any part of Yokohama from there. All things considered, it could be a good base for business or even pleasure trips.

When I was walking through the corridor, enjoying the new look of the station in a cheerful mood, the sign of a doughnut shop, “DOUGHNUT PLANT NEW YORK CITY” caught my eyes. Next moment, I was holding two doughtnuts in a paper bag, which cost me 770 yen, with a taint of regret for my adventurous and spontaneous shopping. Well, it tasted great and I was happy after all, but the 40-yen mini-doughnuts from a bakery close to my place is as good as those fancy ones.

Kamigo Mori-no-Ie

When you hear of “Yokohama,” many of you may immediately think of the port area, the modern buildings with a peaceful ocean-view in the background, lively Chinatown, or neighboring areas with many shops and restaurants. However, there are actually other interesting places in the suburbs, away from the water.By visiting those places, you will get a full picture of what Yokohama has to offer.

One that I am going to introduce is a public park & facility called Kamigo Mori-no Ie in Sakae Ward in the southern part of Yokohama City. The main building houses accommodation, a bath house, meeting rooms, a music hall with 150 seats, and two restaurants. The bath house can be described as a simply designed spa. It is not very large but natural light coming in from the big windows and green of the trees outside creates very relaxing atmosphere. In the center, there is a round bath which can be used for water-walking exercise, and they also have a few more different types of baths and a sauna. One of the baths is filled with water filtered through “Togoal warm-tite,” a mineral-rich conglomerate. This special water enhances your metabolism and sooth your body. For getting in, you are required to wear a bathing suit, which means that men and women are not separated like they usually are in sento or onsens. Drop-in aqua exercise classes are held in the morning a few times a week at only 200 yen per time. Great deal!

Since I haven’t had a chance to stay overnight here, I don’t know what the accommodations are like. According to their brochure, the guest rooms look just the same as those in Japanese ryokan. They have 18 tatami rooms and two twin-bedded rooms. The whole place is clean and well-maintained, so I am sure that you can expect reasonably good services and comfortable stay. Depending on the season and the number of guests sharing the room, the rate ranges from 6,300 to 10,000, per person, including two meals. If you are a tax payer living in Yokohama city, you’d better make use of these public facilities.

There are also picnic and BBQ areas and a workshop where some craft making classes are offered. For those who are interested in nature walks, it offers easy trails for enjoying variety of trees, plants, flowers and birds. These trails extend further to the adjoining dense forest, also preserved as a nature interpretation park by the city. When I visited there early May, I could see lots of tadpoles in the small patch of swamp along the way.

You could easily spend a day there with your family or alone and return home all refreshed and energized.

Website: http://www.kamigou-morinoie.org/index.html (Japanese only)
Address & Tel / Access by Public Transportation

1499-1 Kamigo-cho, Sakae-ku, Yokohama-shi 247-0013

045-895-5151

Take Kana-chu bus from Ofuna Station on JR line or Kanazawa-Hakkei Station on Keikyu Line, and get off at Mori-no-Ie-mae. Park entrance is approx. 3 minute walk from the bus stop. Bus Route No. 24, 25, 26, 28, or 08

PARKING SPACE: 71 lots @ 500 yen per day

THE BATH HOUSE

Open hours : 10 AM – 21 PM

Admission : Adult – 500 yen

Elementary school children – 200 yen

Pre-school children – free

Cheap Accommodation in Yokohama

In the old forum, Hamaholic told us about two places to find cheap accommodation and as I am about to remove that forum I thought I had better keep that very useful piece of information.

1. Super Hotel
2. Yokohama Hostel Village