Hehehe, I did a little online photo editing. But I used to paint my face a lot as a street performer in San Francisco and then one day I decided to brand myself.
Month: June 2019
TEFL Crunch
Sharehouse Fukuoka
Are you looking for a cheap place to stay in Fukuoka, Japan? Have you thought of staying in a sharehouse? WTF is a sharehouse? Is that like a guest house? What’s a guest house?
So…
Based on my experience it’s like a hostel/apartment – somewhere in between. They can vary in quality and building type. Some are in old creepy houses with freaky looking ghosts like above and some are in newer apartment buildings.
What are the advantages of staying in a sharehouse?
- short term housing
- fewer move in fees or non at all
- you don’t need a special visa – a tourist visa will work
- you can meet people that you might like
- you’re lonely and you want to talk to someone… anyone… you don’t care
A sharehouse can be a good way to get started cheaply in Japan if you want to teach English in Japan or if you want to do something else.
Some have weird rules too.
Like…
- you have to pay for guests
- no sex
- only girls allowed
- you need a “Line” account… like what? can’t you live without your damn social media account?
- forced sociability
Negative reviews of share houses in Fukuoka…
“I hated that motherf***er. He acted all tough and I just tried to keep cool, but really I was imagining breaking his arm or blowing out his knee… but if that dude touches me I’ll really damage him and then what will happen? He’ll cry, call the cops and the owner and pretend to be all innocent.”
“Man, are all Japanese this anal? Or maybe it’s an Eastern Asian thing.”
“I hope that jealous fat b*tch chokes on her rice.”
“They lied to my face.”
“This place is a sh*thole. If an earthquake hits this place it will be a goner.”
But don’t mind the negative reviews.
You might loooove Sharehouse Fukuoka…
Oh, I should mention that some of these sharehouses have flaws like:
- noise
- dirty toilets
- mold
- no doors or maybe a curtain separating your room
- old tatami mats which might have dust mites
- stupid f**ks that are managerial types. Like why do you need a manager in a house?
- pro-social types
- anti-social types
- old and dirty houses
- cats that might shit in your room
- off the beaten path places. Some places that are far from anywhere you want to be.
- drunks
- random people
How much do share houses in Fukuoka cost?
I paid:
- My first room was 30,000 plus 12,000 a month in utilities
- My second room was 35,000 plus 12,000 a month in utilities
- My third room was 50,000 a month for everything
- I visited a share house with cats and a whole lot of shoes that was 42,000 a month
- I saw one online that was like 40,000 something for a dorm room (what?!) and like 60,000 something for a private
- You are looking at about 35,000 for the cheapest and 60,000+ on the high end for your own room
Are there contracts and fees involved?
Sometimes…
- cleaning fees which are questionable when no one appears to clean the damn place.
- a 6 month contract in one
- no contracts in others
- 3 months in one
- 1-3,000 to have a guest spend the night
- one month deposit in one
- no deposit in others
What’s the best sharehouse in Fukuoka?
Best for what? It doesn’t exist in my experience.
If you don’t mind interrupted sleep, general dirtiness, being pro-social, living in rickety old house that won’t survive an earthquake, living under a sexually oppressive roof – which means NO SEX, and living with random people then Sharehouse Fukuoka might be for you.
Hehehe, this post was part fiction, but a large part truth.
Bye Bye, Bank of America
I hate Bank of America and I finally closed my account there after many years and here is why.
1. They charged me like $12 a month if my balance goes below a certain number like maybe it was $1500 or $2000 or if I don’t make deposits in it monthly over $250.
Like don’t you guys make enough money?
2. They have extremely high withdrawal fees abroad. I withdrew money in Japan ONE TIME and they charged me like more than $37 ($5+$5+$11.05+$16.54) in fees for one withdrawal.
3. Seems like they require a phone for verification. I really hate this. Isn’t email enough? Some other sites do this too. I don’t have a working phone now. And I got locked out of my account for 3 days until I finally got a hold of customer service.
4. They have no 24 hours call service and really SLOW WAIT TIMES. I had to stay up late until like 2am here in Japan to contact their customer service. Then they make you hold for 30-40 minutes and listen to their annoying advertisements. They do say they will call you back, but if you don’t have a number you are out of luck.
There is also no chat. There used to be, but not now.
5. While in the USA they locked me out of my account and not let me withdraw money from a different ATM. So then I have to go back into online banking to verify it’s me. One time I even went into a Bank of America branch when they did that and one time they said you have to go into online banking and change it.
So then I have to go somewhere else where there is internet (home) and log in and verify that it was me. And then go back to the ATM to get money.
6. After waiting so long online to talk to someone then I get asked like 5 minutes of questions to verify my identity based on public service records.
I got asked how old my mother and father where, where I went to college, where my father owns land, what model vehicle I used to own, addresses where I used to live, etc. All in one call so I can just log into my account.
7. They charge money to transfer money from one bank to another. Other banks don’t.
Finally my account is closed there and I just unsubscribed from their “promotional emails” as a day after they confirmed my account was closed they sent me some junk mail.
Bye bye.