so Ro and i are casually looking at apartments. sometimes we sit down and look together online, sometimes he'll send me links to apartments or search engines and i browse to see what's out there.
this morning, he sent me a new search engine that we'd never used before. it came up with a ton of apartments in my neighborhood (we haven't actually decided on "where" yet. or "when" for that matter!). there was one apartment i wanted to actually see, since the layout online didn't really give me a good idea of what it looked like. so i called.
i gave the lady on the phone the apartment ID number and she said she would see if it was still available and call me back. she asked for my name, which i had to repeat about 4 times until i could get her to realize there was a second syllable. "um, yeah, it's in katakana." i gave her my phone number and she said she'd call back in a few minutes. "and oh, excuse me for being rude, but what nationality are you?"
ah, there is was. i knew before i even hung up that the apartment wasn't "available" and they needn't even waste their time calling me back. fuckers.
the girl didn't even have the nerve to call me back herself. some guy called and after giving me the classic japanese not-at-all-sorry "i'm so terribly sorry" line said if i'd like to let them know what kind of apartment i'm looking for, they would call me if they ever had anything come up. yeah right.
i gave them a curt no thank you and hung up. even if the apartment really wasn't available, don't think i'm going give them one yen of my money after they asked me what nationality i was. it shouldn't matter, and if it does matter to them, as it would appear, i'll take my business elsewhere thankyouverymuch.
seriously japan.
p.s. i may start using my boyfriend's last name when i make those phone calls. imagine their faces when my white ass shows up to see an apartment!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
japanese realtor rant
posted by j. at 11:16 AM
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3 comments:
Ugh, so sorry! Unfortunately, it seems to be the rule rather than the exception. My realtor had to call at least half a dozen places before he found a place that would even accept gaijin, and that was with his yucky assurances that I wasn't a "real" gaijin because I'm half and my mother, who was "jun Japanese" was there to look with me. Fucking terrible. The realtor was actually so nice and helpful but the owners have their prerogative to refuse me.
yep, we had the same problem - it was a real eye opener for hub who didn't believe that this existed (or if it did, it was just one or two odd places), had a bit of a shock when we turned away from several place in one day.
Unbelievable that racism trumps profit. Screw 'em - find a place that realizes your yen are just as good as any Japanese person's.
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