Unit in Nakano

I seem to have found a nice unit in Nakano-ku, four minutes walk from the train station and five or six minutes walk from Kobukan kendo-jo.
Was introduced to the real estate agent by someone at kendo. The unit is being leased through a second agent, and they all agreed that it was a good unit. Of the four places we looked at it was easily the best.

賃貸・分譲 (Chintai vs. Bunjo)

One interesting lesson from the exercise was learning the difference between chintai and bunjo apartments. Chintai is when blocks of units are built specifically for the purpose of renting rentals. A single company can own the entire block. Bunjo is where each unit has a separate owner and each owner owns a slice of the land that the block is built on. I think this is like strata apartments back in Australia but I could easily be wrong.
Understandably bunjo apartments are generally built much better than chintai apartments and are more attractive rental prospects. The apartment I have gone for is bunjo.

Up front costs

Reikin gratitude payment 2 x months rent
Shikikin bond payment 2 x months rent
1 x months rent upfront
Service fee for estate agent 1 x months rent
Insurance (2 years) up to jpy20000

The apartment is jpy100000/mnth
This means my up front payment just to get into the apartment was going to be 620000

A bit over budget

I had originally budgeted for jpy500000. I had a word with the real estate agent about getting the bond (shikikin) down a little but she didn't look too confident. However, a short while after farewelling the estate agent I got a call saying that as my company is going to be guarantor for my lease as a corporation, I should be able to get a month off the shikikin. Sounded pretty sure. jpy520000 - I pretty well gave the go ahead there and then. Phone call will go through to work tomorrow, papers to be signed around Wednesday, hoping to be in the new residence next weekend.