From Koenji to Okubo & GABA Contracting [Picture Heavy]

So after a series of humongous hiccups, I am now pretty much settled in Tokyo.

First hiccup: apartment.
I’m now living in a nicer room in Okubo, less than 5 minute walk from Shin-Okubo station on the Yamanote line. My room is much nicer and much bigger! It’s located in a Korean neighbourhood with lots of love hotels… but I’m down with that. There is loads of useful stuff around here and the location is great.

Shin-Okubo Station

Main Room of my Flat

Genkan

Kitchen

Ladder going to the loft (where I sleep!)

When I was apartment hunting in Japan, I couldn’t find any reviews of Fontana anywhere. As they come pretty much recommended by GABA (as GABA instructors get a discount) here is my honest opinion.

Fontana simultaneously make life very easy and very difficult. My genuine advice is do NOT pick one of the cheaper rooms such as Pier I or II, Pier Koenji or Doma, for example. Even the estate agents joke about how terrible these rooms are and say they wouldn’t let a dog live in there.

I haven’t looked around any other mid-range rooms such as mine (85,000Y) but they’re actually not bad. Mine is  a new building recently added to the books, and all of the rooms are reserved already. They do come furnished, but for some essentials such as a washing machine, gas and internet or garbage room entry you will need to continuously be on their case! As long as you have a lot of patience and a phone they’re not too bad to deal with. The agents themselves are all English speaking and a good laugh – the guy looking after me is Canadian.

Second hiccup: being a foreigner.
When you’re not under the protective wing of a Japanese University with Japanese RA’s to help, getting all the ‘official stuff’ done in Japan is really hard! Quite often some places will make up the rules just to avoid dealing with a foreigner. But ‘that’s Japan’.

I have now applied for my Alien Card and have a bank account with Shinsei – I highly recommend the Roppongi branch for anyone thinking of opening an account here. Although I did everything in Japanese, I heard all of the other staff speaking great English to the many other gaikokujin who came in. It’s on the 6F of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. They even let you choose the colour of your ATM card.

Shinsei ATM card colours

I needed the help of a Japanese adult to get a mobile phone – anyone who knows me personally, ask me on Facebook for the details! The best thing about my phone so far is that it has Disney tunes as present ringtones

Finally, I sorted my Suica. You pay a large amount at the beginning and then get discounted ‘free’ travel between your two stations of choice. Mine goes from Shin-Okubo to Shibuya, so I get free travel inbetween those two stations. This includes my work station of Shinjuku and Harajuku.

Suica

As I type, NTT are here putting in my ‘proper’ internet. He then asks the two words I dread. “Nihongo daijoubu?”. Which means “I’m about to say loads of technical stuff but you’d better say yes because I don’t speak English.” I answered that it was daijoubu and now we have the awkward first conversation “Where are you from? How do you speak Japanese so well?” out of the way.

GABA Contracting

Today I made the journey to Yoyogi-hachiman for my initial contracting appointment with GABA. Of the 12 of us there, I was the only girl. There were quite a few Brits which was nice to see, and it was nice to have a little socialisation!

We had our photos taken (we had to go in suits) and then had a 15 second video introduction recorded for our profile – this is how our students will choose us. Tonight I have to fill out a form such as ‘country, hobbies, motto, skills’ etc that will help students to choose me as their teacher. Yosh!

I also got to meet my recruiter – who basically does the same job I did in WBS. Was weird to be on the receiving end of ‘I’ve been looking after you for x months but now you belong to someone else

Now begins three intensive days of training, 10am – 7pm each day. 頑張ります！

Arriving in Japan

Who said moving abroad was easy?

To cut a long boring part of the story short, I sat next to a complete muppet on the flight, so the Steward gave me a bottle of Moet! Will be saving that for when I go out and reunite with friends on Thursday and Friday.

Then came the accommodation issues. I get to Fontana to find out that despite making an appointment with my agent to move in, he’s gone out to show someone a flat. After an hour of waiting someone else drives me there but informs me that I have no gas, no hot water and no internet, despite having booked the room over a month ago.

The room was something else. It was grubby and tiny – they were very clever with the photos online! The balcony doors were held closed with duct tape, and they do not lock. The rest of the room was grubby, the one storange unit was broken, it’s full of spiders and smelled like someone had died in there. After 10 minutes I got back on the trains to Fontana and staged a sit in waiting for my agent, saying I wanted to swap.

Tiny tiny room, this was all of the floor space

This space was taken up entirely by my futon when rolled out!

The tiny tiny grubby kitchen

Once my agent had turned up, he was actually very good and very nice! He sorted me out to move into their new building 4 days earlier than everyone else is allowed to, so I only had to spend 3 nights in the awful room. (I’m spending two in a hotel). So, this room will be a lot more expensive but hopefully much nicer. Pics to follow when I move in!

It was a public holiday today so I couldn’t do any of the useful stuff I had planned like getting my Alien Card, mobile and bank account. So I revisited the old favourites on the Yamanote line. Tomorrow, all of the above. Yosh!

Nippon Calling

So it’s 31 days until I leave for Japan and everything is beginning to fall into place!

I paid a deposit on a flat in Koenji through a company called Fontana - you can reserve around two months in advance as long as you pay a deposit – I paid by paypal so it was really easy. I was assigned my own agent who was great in recommending rooms and when a room became available he notified me straight away with first refusal.

I’ll be living 4 minutes away from Koenji station, here is my little home!

My Entire Apartment

My Bathroom

I have also been told of my placement with GABA – I will be working at the Learning Studio in Shinjuku. I’m really pleased with this placement – I know Shinjuku really well and it’s only a 10 minute commute on the Chuo line. 

 

Overall GABA have been great providing me with lots of information in advance, and they sent me a huge information pack with info on getting the Alien Registration card, bank accounts etc. I feel a little reassured that I’ve done all of this before, but the nerves are kicking in without the Keio support network!