Tokyo Apartment Hunting (or Just Take My First Born and Call it A Day)

Whenever anyone mentions Japan, they're always raving about how it's "so safe." And oh, how nice it is that "you don't have to worry about getting robbed." Well, that's because it's legal to rob people here. I've been robbed, in fact, my bank account has been cleared out and if I told the blue-suited, white gloved authorities, they wouldn't blink. Because this total savings account draining is also known as finding an apartment in Tokyo....I have now given (that's right, as in never getting it back) 2 months rent to the landlord as "thank you money." As in, thank you so much for letting me pay you insane amounts of money for an apartment the size of my East Village living room. Then I had to pay one month rent for a "finders fee" even though, wait! I found the apartment myself. My friend, Aika, was moving out so I decided to move in. So, thanks so much real estate agent, it's been lovely handing $1,500 over to you for nothing...Then there's fire insurance and the first month's rent, and 2 months rent for a security deposit...I could go on but I won't bore you.

Grand total just to move into my apartment: 988,399 yen (also known as over $8,000)