short term stay
 

I've stayed with my distant relatives in japan several times for months at a time, but as they are distant relatives I don't want to rely on them too much and get in the way. So I decided to start looking into short term renting in fukuoka and found this site
Fukuoka Holiday Apartments: Better than a hotel! Short-stay rentals for everyone

A months stay works out at about nearly £1000 (forgot how much it is in yen), which I'm willing to pay, as I know it would be nearly impossible for me to find somewhere else.

I just wanted opinions on wether this was a good idea or maybe people know similar options other than staying with my relatives? Perhaps other options for short term renting?

I'm gonna bump as I've been sent my estimate and am going to be booking it very soon....

I've finished the application process so I'm getting an invoice soon. It suddenly occurred to me though, What if I do a bank transfer of £1000 in advance like they ask, and when I get there the address listed on their offices where I pick up the key for the appartment is empty and the phone number is disconnected.

I've seen swindles EXACTLY like that on a drama called kurosagi, where people set up fake offices to make people pay money for some kind of service, then when they make the transfer and go back to the offices they are empty...

Unless that is one very nice apartment in the centre of the city, that is a lot of money for a month's rent. That would get you a decent apartment in Tokyo, let alone Fukuoka. Look into guest houses ("gaijin houses") and monthly mansions before you pay that amount.

That is DEFINITELY a massive amount of money if it is just a room. If they have food provided each day for you THEN maybe I would consider it worth it. This doesn`t seem to be the case...

I would definitely look into just a normal monthly mansion - you can get a decent room in one for less than 80,000yen a month pretty much anywhere in Japan without additional fees.

Looking at monthly mansions, to get one in the center of fukuoka is almost as much, but I'd have to do everything in japanese, and while my japanese is pretty good I wouldn't be too confident. The plus with using this genki global is that everything can be handled in english and I contact them if I have any problems.

Guest houses work out about the same, but thats if i stay in a dormitory with a load of strangers, rather than my own appartment.

Umm...
I can find a ton of monthly places all around Fukuoka city for less than 50,000yen/month. In fact, the most expensive place monthly I can find is 90,000/month. That is still around 50,000 less than what you quoted as a price.

If you value English support enough to pay 100,000yen a month for it... Well...okay. I really don`t know what to say. It`s your money. But it seems incredibly wasteful.

I would think it a much better value to pay a translator to come and help with the monthly paperwork and rent a brand new monthly apartment. (Leopalace, by the way, offers English phone support and all their documentation is provided in both Japanese and English so once you are past the paperwork you should be fine...)

I think no matter what you will pretty much have to do things in Japanese anyway.
And I'd agree to the other posts that in most cases the fees associated with English service isn't worth the money. Like she said, might as well hire a translator. The apartment speaking English should not be a big issue, plus your distant relatives could probably help with setting you up with an apartment thus no English required.

Check out
http://www.fukuoka-now.com/

Their mags are free and contain the information you seek, but I don't think they are online yet.

http://twitter.com/fukuokanow