The view from the living room should be like the picture below on clear days (albeit from a lower vantage point but I should still be able to glimpse the Fujisan). Can't wait to be doing cool Tokyo timelapses from my own window.

fujisan view - the weird white triangular building is Nakano

This time, my company does not wish to rent it for me and take it out of my salary as I am a local contract employee. So this is my first foray into actually signing a rental contract and paying all the fees myself upfront. So lets break it down:

• 1st month of rent (you pay your rent in advance in Japan) = ¥220.000
• Moving in on 26th of June so 5 days worth of rent until 30th = ¥36.700
• 敷金 - deposit, 2 months of rent = ¥440.000
• 火災保険 - fire insurance = ¥25.000
• 鍵交換代 - lock change fee = ¥35.000 (that's a hell of a lot for a lock!)
• 町内会費 - neighborhood association membership fee for 2 months = ¥500

For a grand total of ¥757.200 or three quarters of a million yen... upfront... it hurts...

And actually, I should count myself lucky, this is rather cheap and most of it is the deposit which I'll mostly get back. Apartments here, especially new ones, often have a 礼金 which is also called key money and is a nice gift of 2 months of rent to the owner.

Thinking of all that money makes me a bit more partial to the idea of buying a place for myself...