My family and I will move to Iwakuni soon on next year,and we want to live off base ,so I wanna to know any place for rent near the Base.Is it difficult to find a apartment there,,Is it expensive?If you guys have any information,Pls give me some.Thanks

Its not difficult to find a place.. Once you get here, its mandatory to attend a housing brief. Get all the details, and information about how the process works. Then your free to go to the local agents off-base, and start finding a place.

Thaiguy will probably have some more helpful information, since he is our local IWAKUNI JB expert.. Good luck.. Please continue to ask any other questions you have. We will do our best to help you along the way.

Hi Anadinhpham, welcome to Iwakuni. Nice to see more people from our base popping up on JB. Hey, your name almost sounds Thai. What is it?

Anyway, housing referral in Iwakuni is somewhat different from Yokosuka since we're a smaller base with a MUCH smaller town outside the gate. In Iwakuni there is NO mandatory housing brief. The indoc class in Yoko lasts a week; in Iwakuni it's only a day, so it's greatly abbreviated.

There is a housing referral office on base with maybe 2 Japanese employees. They are supposed to find listings for you. There are no listings just sitting around the office to look at, which really astonished me. When I told them what I wanted (2-3 LDK, quiet location, NOT near the gate, 50+ sq meters) it took them a week to find exactly what I didn't want. They came back with some scuzzy apartments right outside the gate, 40 sq m, behind a night club.

So I went to the agent closest to the gate & he showed me exactly the same places. It became clear that all base housing had done was go to that agent, see what he had, and showed it to me. It took them a week to do that. I was kinda P.O'd about this, as you can imagine.

Having no car at the time and in 100-degree weather (July '09), my wife & I just walked around town until we saw an apartment we liked. We noted the agent's name, then asked around the neighborhood until we found out where the agent was & grabbed a cab. That agent took us to 3 places that were pretty good, and we finally rented one. We're very happy with it.

When you come here, I can tell you where that agent is. Every time I go there to pay rent, I see other gaijin in the office so I know they work with us even though they speak almost zero English. We always find a way to communicate.

This is very different from Yokosuka, which has a number of prominent agents near the gate, all of whom speak English. In Iwakuni, you're really left on your own to sort it out. I was unhappy enough with the process that I put in an ICE complaint about it. I felt we got zero help from the base on finding a house. They do help with the contract and it's required to use the housing office to negotiate the contract. Most people here live on base so no one we knew could really advise us about off base living. Iwakuni is a pleasant town and I endorse your desire to live off base. The only people I see unhappy about it are teenagers who end up isolated from their friends. Public buses aren't so good here so it's hard for a non-driver to get to the base.

On the plus side, it's WAY cheaper than Yokosuka. My 3LDK costs 83,000 yen. Yokosuka would be about triple that. It's very quiet, no American neighbors which is good. Americans generally are too noisy for Japanese neighborhoods. There are few websites that can help, and none in English. My wife reads enough Japanese to figure things out, but in general it's your agent who will find a place for you. Look me up when you get here & we'll sort it out.

Thanks Thaiguy for the backup.
www.japanbases.com

Thanks for your information ,,

We are Vietnamese,but live in State for a while.I think you are from Thai..Are you?

Anyway Thank you so much .

I also have  a question,we have a baby 1 year old at the time we are going to move,so Should we stay inside the Base or off Base?Which way is better ThaiGuy?

Could yo give us some advise ?Thanks

My wife is Thai & I lived in Thailand for years. I hope to retire there. I also wanna travel to Vietnam someday so maybe you can give me some advise.

Regarding where to live, my wife is more comfortable around Japanese people than American. So she really loves living off base. She finds on base to be more "foreign" than Japan (she has no prior experience around the military). Also, if your wife doesn't drive then it's hard to get on base with a baby but maybe it's no big deal. My wife does all her shopping in a Japanese grocery store, and I do the commissary shopping, so we've got it covered.

Final thing, and perhaps the most important... If you live in an off-base house they tend to be cold & drafty. We don't have as many modern "Western-style" Japanese homes like they have in Yokosuka. The doors & windows let in the cold and the walls aren't well insulated. You'll want to keep the baby warm, so in general if you live in a Japanese house you heat one room & everyone stays in that room in the evening. We have an apartment which is more modern & better insulated so it's not hard to stay warm in the winter & cool in the summer.

You can find insulated homes, but you'll have to look harder & pay more for it.

BTW, there are Vietnamese restaurants in Hiroshima, about 45 minutes from here. We drive there for Thai food from time to time.

Sure ThaiGuy,When you want to travel to Vietnam just let me know I will give you some information there even I have not came back there almost 12 years,but my wife just came to State last year only,she may know clearly how is Vn more than I do.

These Information you gave me it helps me a lot,I greatly appreciate your kindness  

I don't know what are you think about Vn,but a lot if people said the same thing as you when they travel to there.I hope you will be making s trip to Vn one day,you will feel the same way your sister does.

Apply a visa is so easy than other country too..everything may be cheap than in State,if you have money,,you are a King there

No prob. I'll probably do it when I'm living in Thailand. Then I can drive or take a bus, or a very short flight from Chiang Mai. I'm really looking forward to it!