Moving can be something very expensive and time-consuming in Tokyo. Looking for a new house, booking the moving truck, paying all those initial cost such as key money, deposit, agent fee, buying house furniture… Moving itself isn’t always expensive unless you have many things to move. In my case, I didn’t have so much stuff to carry in the first place because I lived in a share-house called Oakhouse Kichijoji 2. so I decided to carry everything by myself and I ended up paying only 44,000 Yen in total. Let me tell you how I did it.
How not to pay initial cost for an apartment
Before everything, I had to look for a new apartment. I needed a bigger place, at least more than 45sqm ideally 50sqm, because I recently got married and I’m having a baby in a few months. I looked at many apartments in Tokyo but most of them would cost me 500,000 to 600,000 yen for the initial cost. I did not want to pay for these because I don’t know how long I will live in the new apartment. I wrote more in detail in here about the initial cost previously.
How “Oak Apartments” are different from standard apartments
I looked for many apartments outside Oakhouse but the only choice left for me seemed to be Oak Apartments. They are apartments run by Oakhouse. It looks exactly like other apartments you can find in the city but Oakhouse Apartments are different in some ways.
First, the initial cost is much cheaper. Just like other Oakhouse share-houses, it would only cost the contract fee, which is usually around 50,000 Yen, and that’s all the initial cost you need.
In my case, I did not even have to pay for the contract fee because I was already an Oakhouse resident. In this case, there’s a moving fee and it was 30,000 yen. I initially thought I need 500,000 Yen for the first month (initial cost) but I get to save so much money by moving to Oakhouse Apartment.
This is one of the rooms I found in Tachikawa, “Tachikawa Garden Town”. 45sqm in size, takes about 13 mins by walk to Tachikawa Station.
Oak Apartment is furnished with basic stuff like a washing machine, fridge, bed, curtains, sofa, ceiling lights etc… In most cases, houses in Tokyo, or in Japan, are not furnished and you need to buy all the things to start living but Oak Apartment allows you to move in right away without shopping. This helped me a lot.
This might be something trivial but internet, gas, water, electricity is also included to the maintenance fee you pay with rent every month. In my case, the rent is 82,000 Yen and the maintenance fee is 15,000 yen (so I pay 97,000 yen in total). In this 15,000 yen, all the utilities are included (though there’s a limit and extra charge if you exceed). This is good because you don’t have to sign the contract with each company when you move in. Less hustle when it’s busy moving in.
How much I paid here: 127,000 Yen
30,000 Yen (The contract fee of Oak Apartments)
+
97,000 Yen ( for the first month rent and utilities)
Renting a car
There is a couple of options when it comes to renting a car. There are many companies who you can rent a car from. Toyota provides rental car business and it’s quite useful. There are varieties of cars you can choose from them. I rented a car that’s this big called “High Ace“. It is one of the most well-known car in Japan for carrying big amount of stuff. I chose this car because it’s big enough and I don’t need a special license for driving bigger cars like trucks.
This is the car I rented using car sharing service “Times Car Plus”. Hagi, my housemate, helped me carry all the boxes. It was about one-hour-long ride from Kichijoji to Tachikawa. We took a round trip twice to carry the small boxes.
One advice I can make here is that make sure to rent a car with a full package of insurance. It only makes the whole cost slightly expensive (1620 Yen for 24 hours) and it covers all the damages you make while you drive.
I also used car sharing services that it has been pretty popular in Tokyo. It’s a membership which you pay monthly (about 1,000 yen) and you get to use the car parked around train stations or in your neighborhood. You also need to pay by hour you use the car.
This is the car I rented from Toyota Car Rental. It’s big enough to fit all the big stuff like the piano, disassembled bed frames, mattresses, and futons. Shohei helped me with driving this big car.
I used Times Car Plus which is the biggest service provider in Japan and they have many stations. There could be one close to your house. I like this car sharing because it’s so much easier than renting a car in the rental car shop. Rental car shop is usually only located around the station but car sharing station could be around your house. And, you don’t have to fill out the gas tank before you return the car. Also, car sharing car is cheaper to rent compared to renting a car from the rental car shop.
How much I paid here: 22,074 Yen (see below)
12,798 Yen (for renting High Ace for 6 hours)
+
9,276 (for renting car sharing car for 12 hours)
Get some help if you can
After you book a car, try to find someone who can help you move. I was lucky that two of my housemates helped me carry all the stuff. I gave them 10,000 Yen each and bought them a lunch.
For me, my friend’s help was something necessary. My wife is pregnant and we had a bed and other big stuff to carry. With their help, the whole process was very smooth.
How much I paid in total here: 22,000 Yen (see below)
2,000 Yen (lunch)
+
20,000 Yen (Hagi and Shohei who helped me move)
As you can see above. I paid 44,000 for moving and it is not bad. As for initial cost, it is so much cheaper compared to 500,000 Yen, which is the amount people usually pay for this size of the house (45sqm and around 100,000 rent).
Cherry blossoms welcomed us.
