Kohinata - FAQ
This Q&A will be updated with new demands of questions about the Kohinata flatshare.
Q. How far / how long take to there from blablabla?
A. Search on Google Map with “(your place) to Myogadani-station”, then you will see train/bus time and fee. In Tokyo, monthly commuter pass price are averagely about the same as total of 20 days ticket price. You can compare two lifestyles - one with cheaper rent plus commute fee, the other with central Tokyo (with a bit high rent) and walk/bicycle commute.
Q. Is that possible to rent one bedroom with two, such like a couple?
A. Due to the size of the flat, it will be too crowded for more than four people to live comfortably. However, if you are able to persuade the other flatmates, such as rent negotiation, and come to an agreement, as long as total rent is the same and everyone is happy, I am content.
Q. Are there minimum stay?
A. Unless it is permitted as a B&B/hostel, sub-month residential lease is illegal in Japan. It is one-month noticing based so one month is minimum stay. Staying shorter period than one month with full one-month rent is acceptable, but anyway, I prefer longer stayers so that I will not need to find another flatmate soon.
Q. Are the rooms furnished?
A. Yes, mildly. There are furniture remained by ex-flatmates for years. You may see some unused ones to pick up. They are first-come, first-served. Because of this, if you are the last person to move in, good furniture might be taken by other two flatmates.
You may bring or purchase your own if none fit your criteria. In that case the landlord pay large garbage dump fees for the old one. If you want me to set up better furniture but do not want to purchase by yourself, I can also arrange them but it is charged on you.
If no very basic furniture (bedding, desk and chair) is in the flat, it is negotiable to let the landlord arrange them.
There are no extra cleaning fees or renovation fees, so basically your rooms are served as are.
Q. Can my boyfriend/girlfriend/family/relatives stay? If yes, how long?
A. As the landlord, I have no problems with guest staying over. However, please be respectful of the other flatmates and consult with them before any long term or last minute guest. Utilities will be charged accordingly to long term guest. If you need to host your friend for long weeks, it is a good idea to offer more share of the total rent to other flatmates.
Q. Can I use my room or the common area to held private class, such like English teaching?
A. If other flatmates are cool with it, you may. If you work a lot at home, it might be a good idea for you to owe more utility charges.
Q. Does everyone speak Japanese?
A. Not always. This ad has been posted on both English and Japanese classifieds. Sometimes a new flatmate may not speak Japanese or English.
Q. Does everyone speak English?
A. Not always. Some Japanese do not speak English well. But they are at least willing to communicate. (If not, they will not apply to this flat share)
Q. I am still in my country. Can we make a deal remotely?
A. It is doable. I prefer to meet a new renter in person (we do not automatically accept any person just by that person can pay rent), but sometimes people who migrated to Tokyo/Japan wants to stay on her/his first day, to save any hotel costs. We need to exchage mail for details, we may do Internet-video meeting, too.
Q. Who cleans the common space in the flat?
A. Cleaning is a shared responsibility discussed between flatmates. The system is dictated by current flatmates.
Outside of the flat, the apartment hires a management agency. They cleans a few times per week.
Q. How can I dispose garbage?
A. Garbage must be disposed at the end of the street near the building. Schedules are;
- Burnable Tue./Fri.
- Non-burnable 1st and 3rd Mon.
- Recyclable Sat.
- Oversized (advanced reservation required) Wed./Sat.
Brochure is available in English [pdf]
Oversized garbage is larger than 30 centimeter cube. To dump them, you need to book it on this website. The website is only in Japanese. Sometimes booking require a couple of weeks, so please consider how to dispose your large belongings before you move out. If it is usable things, you may leave them to other flatmates, or donate to the flat.
Q. How the lock and keys are managed?
A. We use smart lock system. If you have iPhone (4s or later) or Android (4.4 or later) with bluetooth support, I will issue an electric key by email and you may open the front door with that.
The smart lock iPhone app may not be distributed on some foreign app store. You may need to switch app store to Japanese app store, instead of your home country’s one.
If your cellphone is not supported by the lock app, I will think some other way.
Q. Are there chores?
A. Yes. Chores are discussed and fairly distributed between flatmates.
Q. Do you have TV set in common area?
A. No. There is not a lot of space in the common area. Having TV is quite expensive in Japan (NHK charges 1310 to 3590 yen per month). Previous tenants have used streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and dTV which are more cost efficient. If you need to watch regular TV but you need to contract with NHK.
Q. Can I park my bicycle?
A. The apartment has bicycle parking space. There are 8 slots for 8 flats. We may use a few slots so it would be difficult to ask more if they are full. Parking fee is 500 yen / month, which should be added on your rent (then I pay them to the apartment manager). Parking space has no roof and accessible from the front road.
Q. What other alternatives around bicycle?
A. There are few other ways.
bring your bike in your room
If your bike is expensive, it is good to bring it into your room.
Parking near stations
There are public parking spaces near Myogadani-station and Edogawabashi-station. Myogadani one is a machine parking inside a building. Edogawabashi’s has vast spaces under a toll way, so there are a roof, a bit dusty though. Both case, you need to ask Bunkyo-ward if there is a vacant slots. Cost is 2,000 yen / month. As the apartment-to-Edogawabashi is steep downhill, riding bike from around the station might be a good idea, if your destinations are southern side of the hill.
Tokyo shared cycle
Central Tokyo has a shared-bicycle service. With 2,000 yen monthly fee, you can rent bikes and if within 30 minutes there would be no extra fee with unlimited time. If your Tokyo-stay is rather short, or if you do not want bike maintenances, using this might be another way. With this, you can get another advantage, which you can start your bike trip from anywhere to anywhere, as long as it is in central Tokyo.
Q. Are there any convenience stores?
A. The closest one is 5 minutes away. This is because you can not open any new shops in this strictly regulated area, so convenience stores are not so convenient (usually, you can reach convenience store in 1-2 minutes walk in central Tokyo.)
- Family Mart Otowa 1-chome 400m
- Family Mart Bunkyo Otowa 1-chome 500m (near Edogawabashi)
- Lawson Otowa 1-chome 500m (near Edogawabashi)
- Seven Eleven Bunkyo Otowa 1-chome 600m (near Gokokuji)
- Family Mart Otowa 2-chome 700m (near Gokokuji)
- Daily Yamazaki Myogadani 750m (near Myogadani)
- Lawson Myogadani 850m (near Myogadani)
- Family Mart Koishikawa 5-chome 1.0km (over Myogadani)
The stores are along the way heading home from the station, however it may take some time if you need to grab something quickly from home.
Supermarket, banks, bars and restaurants are the same situation.
Q. Are there public bath nearby?
A. Daikokuyu in Myogadani is 1.1 km, the closest. There are several “sento” in bicycle distances.
Q Can I take my pet with me?
A Basically no. Apartment rule restrict only one pet maximum. However, I had a very bad experience with ex-flatmate who had a cat, who and the cat damaged the whole room and could not compensate it. I won’t accept another pet, unless that person offer higher rent and/or much more deposit.
Q Is the Internet connection fast?
A It is light-speed internet (NTT Flet’s Hikari). Its theoritical speed limit is 1Gbps, but the average effective speed from user questionnaires is around 170-199 Mbps.
That single connection will be used by three flatmates, so speed may vary depends on usage. If you really need your own Internet connection, you may contract the second line.
Q Can I work from home?
A Sure you can do remote work. If there will be some inbalance on utilities spending, you need to talk with others.
Q Can I do a private lesson at my room or the common lounge?
A If all other flatmates have no problem, you may. As the area is prohiited to have an office by regulation, your school must be a small one which happen to be in your home.
Things I need to write down;
- electric key request approval flow
- near parks (there are a lot. Bunkyo-ku is greeny place.)