クーロン荘＊Apartments Cuurong Review
I have stayed at some pretty bad places here in Japan but this share house coined as an apartment tops my list. It is not only in bad condition but it is run by rude and unprofessional owners who try to cut corners and that will lie and steal from you. Please read this blog and watch my video on YouTube for the full story on why I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone who is looking for a longterm apartment, share house or guesthouse in Osaka, Japan.
Please watch my YouTube video here for my personal story and review as well as video footage of Apartments Cuurong.
Owners: Noco and Ghandi Kawasaki
STORY TIME! MY WORST EXPERIENCE AT A JAPANESE SHARE HOUSE
Location:
Apartment Cuurong
【Japanese Address】
〒557-0002
【Address】
〒557-0002
1chome-7-11 Taishi Nishinari-ku Osaka si Osaka JAPAN
Background Information
I don’t like to name drop businesses or people as I know that we all make mistakes and I am no exception to that rule. However I would hate to see someone else experience such a bad situation where they can potentially lose all of their possessions and become homeless whether it be temporarily or longterm in a foreign country where they may or may not even know the language.
I am also aware that unfortunately by being vocal and open about my experiences that are not picture perfect (in regards to Japan in particular) that I will be met with hate, opposition, and people who are just in total denial as everyone wants to believe that Japan is such a perfect place and that Japanese people can do no wrong.
I will try my best to tell this story in a balanced way, and I will play a bit of devil’s advocate by trying to see things from both my perspective and the owner’s of this share house respectively.
I will probably do a series on this topic which will consist of about 2-3 YouTube videos very soon. I want to break up everything so that it will be easier to follow because as you know I can talk forever and it is easy for me to get sidetracked. I wanted to refilm and edit the videos that I have already recorded, but Instead I think it would be best if I simply add more videos and break everything up into a few different parts or maybe I'll just add time stamps and upload one video.
Anyway, I have been living in Japan for 2 years. I started off as a college student in Tokyo and I now work and study full-time. My boyfriend who is Japanese is on a year long business trip in another country and I wanted to wait until he returned before signing another 2-3 year contract for a normal apartment (to ensure that we both liked the new place) as there are high fees to move in and out of a regular Japanese apartment.
I had just left from May Flower Guest House in Osaka, Japan which is the "gaijin house" that I had been recording my videos from during my initial comeback to YouTube. I had left on my own as I was being scammed into paying an electric bill that was non-existent and that was being falsely advertised as being free and included in my monthly rent both in my contract as well as in their online advertisements.
I was desperately searching fro a new place as I knew it would take time and cost a lot of money for me to suddenly pack up and move all of my belongings once more. I was really freaked out as I had just moved from out of a normal Japanese apartment that I was planning to make a video on in the near future, but now with the mess going on at my new temporary apartment it would have to be put on hold.
I scoured websites and classified both in person and online and settled on using Craigslist again (big mistake).
After contacting several properties on Craigslist and various other places I came across a handful that were within my budget that had no strings attached. Unfortunately I was short on time and out of this handful only 2 of these share house owners actually replied within a couple of days. Out of desperation I settled for the older property (Cuurong Apartment/ Apartments Cuurong) as it was cheaper, there was more privacy, the owner wasn't nearly as nosy and appeared to have been much friendlier, and the location was much more convenient despite the neighborhood being the biggest ghetto that I'd ever seen in Japan.
My Experience
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| Another good old Japanese scam. "common area charge". Why would you pay money for stuff that you can't use? $20 per a person to sit on the floor in a room with no TV. You aren't allowed to use the outlets and you can't cook in their kitchen for anything longer than a few minutes. The house is old and located next to trash filth and a slum. $20 is more than 2 months worth of water at a normal small sized home here in Japan. |
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This was a lie.... There were only about 8 rooms and half of them were vacant for the entire duration of my stay. No one new moved in despite the fact that I stayed here for more than 2 weeks. There is no need to make a reservation. They only clean the beds by hanging them outside to air out and they wash and recycle or buy cheap towels from the dollar store for you to use. The tables floors and everything else is dirty and dusty inside of the rooms.Even the common cleaning supplies was dusty.
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| Heres the map address and directions for the share house that they send to anyone who inquires about their scam "apartments". I'm not sharing their personal information. This is information that is public on their website and in their ads. |
After waiting almost a day between replies via email, the owner allowed me to schedule a tour of the house and to move in and sign a contract just moments later.
I noticed some problems right away. They lied about there only being 1 room available. They lied about the house being “soooo popular” and staying booked with tenants. They even lied about the type of neighborhood that it was located in!
The house was very old and small. There were roach traps/baits EVERYWHERE which led me to believe that they suffered from a reoccurring and bad bug infestation. The bathroom smelled of urine at all times as though it was being used by sick, drunk, or homeless people. There was no air-conditioning/ heater to keep the hallways warm. There was only one moldy bath to be shared amongst almost 20 people (including the owners apparently). The washer was over priced at about ¥300 per a wash and there were time constraints on how late you could do laundry (understandably because of the noise I assume) and where/how you could wash you clothing (you were not allowed to hand wash clothes as they didn't want you to run up the water bill or to cause damage to their drains). There were no vents in the rooms (yes you read that right and not every room has a window either). The stairs were very narrow and more like baby sized ladders making accidents easy to take place and moving in or out a difficult task. The neighborhood was very dangerous and looked similar to the streets of the south side of Chicago. It was located near a few convenient stores, but it was in the center of Yakuza territory and a huge population of people experiencing homelessness, drunkards, perverts, tourists and mostly rude and prejudice staff who were clearly fed up with the tourists there too. During my stay the Family Mart convenience store was broken into or was caught up in the midst of crossfire of some kind as the window were busted and the store was closed down for a few days for repairs. I had never seen anything like this in Japan and I still have no idea what exactly happened.
I am not blaming them for the area or the staff within the city, but of course these things weren’t mentioned in their ad. Instead they painted a very different picture and made it sound as though the neighborhood was nice and convenient.
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| I'm all for conservation but when it comes to cleanliness and being a a country were most don't use soap or hot water yet alone wash their hands I'd rather you spend the extra time getting clean. Besides water doesn't cost much here and we are paying ¥25,000-¥40,000 yen a month for a windowless room with no air or ventilation (there were no screens on the windows either)! |
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| Exaggeration much? I have never clogged my drains from hand washing clothing in a freaking bath tub! Talk about being a cheapskate. |
They also had a lot of signage with rules about what you can’t use or do, most of which was to essentially maximize profit by keeping you from using or doing anything outside of your room since you have a personal meter for your room which is used to calculate your electric bill for the month. You were not allowed to use any outlets outside of your room.
The lighting was dim or non-existent throughout most of the house although there were auto lights at the stairs since you could easily fall and break something if you were to miss a step. It was rather dark and had an odd moldy old smell.
There wasn’t dish washing liquid in the kitchen and the only reliable hot water was in the shower as the kitchen sink would give out in less than 3 minutes of hot water usage and would become ice-cold.
They had a very strict rule on smokers and made it very clear that not only could you not smoke in the house, but you were not allowed to be a smoker and live on their property at all. To be totally honest I didn’t mind this as I don’t smoke or do drugs and I can’t stand people who do either but that is a bit harsh of a rule to tell an adult that they can't smoke even if they are outside and nowhere near the house.
Anyway I was desperate and the rent was a lot cheaper than any of the other share houses that I saw. It was being run by an elderly Japanese couple and they didn’t appear to be hiding anything at all. They even gave me a $50 discount on my rent and said it would be an ongoing discount for me as they really hoped that I’d stay long term and they openly expressed this. They quickly orchestrated a group dinner in celebration of myself and another new tenant who was a Japanese native. This made me quite happy and made me feel at home. I felt exactly like I did when I had first came to Japan 2 years ago.
My first impression of them was that they were heaven sent! I needed a place that was cheaper than my last and that I could move into quickly. There were no deposits to make. No hidden or special fees and in the end it even put an additional $50 back into my pocket.
The neighborhood was dangerous, but I discovered a new tourist area, cool restaurants and even befriended a few people (and had a ton of unwanted nanpas too) which made up for the scary part of things.
Not long after being there reality set in and I needed to recover from all of my unexpected spending as I had practically drained my bank account paying off my own debt from loans, my tuition, last months rent, this month’s rent, my phone bills, groceries, website etc.. I had my boyfriend buy me a ton of rice and curry as well as hair extensions and a wig (my hair was very damaged). He even gave me $1,000 to help with moving, covering my transportation fees, and to pay for movers. My man isn’t rich, but he did everything he could to help me since he isn’t physically here with me in Japan at the moment. He even lost money in the process as the exchange rate for Vietnamese currency to Japanese yen is very poor and transferring money is a hassle.
They quickly explained the rules to me, accepted my first month's rent, and expressed how they wanted me to decide if I would like to stay long-term (by share house standards that is) after about 20 days. I thought this was odd and seemed as if they were afraid I’d find problems and leave like some past tenants may have done, but I figured it was just them being polite and trying to make sure I felt at home. Besides I was glad that they seemed desperate and thirsty as I figured this would help me avoid yet another scam and crazy share house experience.
After having been there for about 10 days I received a message directly from the owner outside of the group chat via the LINE app in which I was told since I had been there for nearly a month (not really but um okay…) they were wondering if I’d planned to stay and if I liked it there so far despite me already telling them that I had intended to stay until at least May if not June. Of course naturally after having been there for close to two weeks I discovered more and more problems such as how moldy, dusty, and dirty the bathrooms, kitchenware was, or how creepy some of the tenants were, but despite all of this, I knew I could deal with it as my own belongings were due to be delivered by Yamato Transportation in a few days, and I’d soon be able to use my own kitchenware.
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| 1 of the 3 outdated dirty, dusty kitchen that don't have clean soap and sponges nor do they have clean dishes to cook with. All things that most hostels and share houses have. |
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| Their moldy dirty bathroom which commonly had bugs inside the room. There's only one bath so everyone must take turns. |
I told them that I loved it and that I had planned to stay until about May or April (which is when my boyfriend would return to Japan). They were excited and added me to an additional LINE chat that was just me the owner and her husband in it and it was name after me and my room number “Rin #301” they stupidly used a picture of Brown the Bear as the group chat photo because I’m black I’m sure, and it was out of poor yet somewhat excusable ignorance (for those of you who think I’m reaching here imagine this being done in reverse). As someone who enjoys race jokes I laughed at this and told my mom and boyfriend. No hard feelings but they should be more careful as another foreigner might take offense to this.
How It All Started
Anyway just days later I was preparing curry in the kitchen as I played Crazy Taxi on my phone and scrolled through Instagram and Facebook watching videos, laughing and texting. I normally avoided talking to anyone at the house much as I personally hate small talk and fake conversation and unfortunately most Japanese people don’t seem to know boundaries when asking questions to foreigners and will ask about your dating preferences, sex life, and a lot of personal background information which I don’t feel obligated to share and I hate having to pretend to be clueless about Japanese culture or worship it in order to not cause anyone’s feelings to get hurt.
I wasn’t wearing makeup and my hair was a mess. The house was all male tenants which made me a bit uncomfortable when it came to talking around the house not being fully dressed (hair makeup out of my night clothes).
I came downstairs to cook in the main kitchen late at night in the hopes of avoiding other tenants, but shortly after I began cleaning and preparing to cook the other new Japanese male tenant came into the room and began talking to me I spoke to him briefly and continued cleaning. I have OCD (I'm a washer, and ritualistic eater) and I tend to clean everything thoroughly even after it has already been clean but I always wash my dishes before I eat from them or cook with them and I even use my own soap, dishes, cookware, and sponges (whenever I have them). Just as I was finishing up the owner came in and spoke to me. I honestly didn’t recognize her and thought that she was a new Japanese female tenant I spoke but avoided making eye contact as my skin was broken out really bad and again I felt self-conscious. I wasn’t wearing makeup my hair was a mess, I was in my boyfriend's pajamas and was just trying to cook a late night dinner. Anyway the owner “Noco” as she calls herself quickly rinsed out and placed a very small pot onto the large burner that I had planned to use! I had a large pot as I was going to make a large pot of rice and use two curry packs since I hadn’t been eating much lately. I decided to wait for her to finish boiling her water on the large burner and instead used the smaller one just to keep the water warm since it was going to take time for the water to go for ice-cold to boiling hot (I wanted to give it a head start). Unfortunately Japanese stove tops suck and while there were two eyes to choose from only one had a high enough heat setting to deep-fry or boil food which was the larger burner that Noco was using.
I waited for about 15 minutes just standing over the stove with my back towards the dinning area and continued to play around on my phone switching between social apps and mobile games. Noco began talking to the other tenant about me wasting electricity (in Japanese thinking that I couldn't understand her) since I wasn’t doing anything with the water despite the fact that I was near the stove. She then asked him (in Japanese) to check on the water that I was boiling (it wasn't really boiling) and see if anything was in there. Next she asked me if I was okay to which I replied “yes, I’m fine”. Soon after she sent him over again to look at what I was doing on my phone since it appeared odd for me be standing over the stove and looking down at my phone instead of joining their fake conversation at the table and conversing with everyone else or actively cooking. What she didn’t know is that I was waiting on her to remove her pot so that I could begin cooking. She eventually emptied the pot but kept it on the burner. I waited a moment before eventually adding more water to my pot and moving it to the big burner and setting her small empty pot aside. As soon as I moved it she instantly told me that they had rice cookers available to which I replied that I knew that and I thanked her. She then told me about 5 minutes after I had added rice to the pot that I shouldn’t cook rice on the stove because it is a waste of energy. She asked me to stop. I explained to her that I prefer to cook it on the stove and that I don’t usually take this long to cook, but that I had been waiting on her to finish using the large burner. She couldn’t understand me despite the fact that I repeated myself 3 times slowly so not belting her words I simply pressed the off button without removing the pot as I needed time to think about how I was going to finish cooking my rice. and figured that I might as well use the bit of heat that was left on the stove while I pondered. She became very angry in a passive way and soon both her and her minion tenant left the kitchen area.
Moments later she messaged me explaining how she was “saddened" by me ignoring her and explained that I am not allowed to cook rice on the stove there anymore. I told her that I was microwaving it instead and that I wouldn’t use their kitchen at all and would be moving next month once my lease ended.
Noco then told me a fake story about how I ruined their pots from burning rice in the past and that her sister (who called herself) Rin had tried to clean up the mess that I made, but that it was too difficult because I had used all of their hot water and damaged their pots beyond repair which caused other people’s food to burn despite the fact that I used the same pot every time and I was the only tenant who actually cooked in the kitchen or used that pot. I always cleaned up behind myself and I always soaked the pot in warm soap water and set it aside to be cleaned by me later. I explained that while it is true that I had burned rice, that this had taken place days ago and nobody cared to bring it up as an issue until just now conveniently. There wasn’t a fire just smoke and I quickly aired out the room and cleaned off the surfaces that were dirty. This is also why I didn’t leave my food in the kitchen alone like I had done in the past so that this would never happen again. That is why I stood by the stove. I would be standing there to prevent anything from burning or a fire potentially starting as I’d be right there with the pot.
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| They said nothing about me using the microwave to make rice the day before but suddenly it became a problem today. |
The next day I kept to myself even more than usual and practically locked myself into my room to avoid any confrontation. I could feel that there was a change in the atmosphere. My neighbors acted odd around me and nobody was speaking to me all of a sudden. Part of me liked this since I hate small talk with people I don’t care to know but I knew better than to see this as a positive and became skeptical. I decided to use the big stove to heat up my curry packets the next day as well as the portable plug up stove in combination with the microwave on the opposite side of the share house since there was more than one kitchen and I didn’t feel like talking to anyone or hearing them complaining about me.
Just my luck, the next day (now 2 days after the first incident) they began stalking me on the various cameras throughout the house tracking my every move. It seemed like a horror movie. Noco’s husband Gandhi (as he calls himself) sent me a passive aggressive message telling me that it’s no longer my choice to not use the kitchen but that now they’re telling me that I am not allowed to use any of their kitchen items. He then proceeds to insist that I use the rice cooker in my room and despite the fact that there is a rice setting on most microwaves and nothing was said about this the other day I was not told that I am not allowed to microwave rice either because its too hard on the microwave and uses up too much energy.
I replied by telling him that the rice cookers were dirty and that I didn’t cook rice on the stove but I boiled curry packets which just took minutes.
I explained that I have no problem honoring their wish for me to not use their kitchen and expressed how I’d love as soon as March 2nd came around and would leave sooner if I could get my money back. At first Gandhi expressed that they don’t give refunds which is understandable and I never asked for one, but I simply stated why I couldn’t leave since it wasn’t possible with the little remaining money that I had, the fact that I still hadn’t fully moved into this place since I was waiting on Yamato to deliver my belongings from the last place, and the fact that I needed time to search for a new place.
Gandhi expressed that he wanted me to leave and would give me a refund. He then told me that I had until Saturday (just a couple of days total) to pack up and leave or else they’d call the police and act as though I had broken into their place and was trespassing. They made it very clear to me that if my belongings were there past 10:00am on Saturday (which was their “checkout time”) that my belongings would be taken to the police station’s lost and found area.
Despite me begging them to allow me to stay until March 2nd as I had originally stated, my words were twisted against me and they decided the day and time and gave me a partial refund to move out with subtracting both the days I had stayed and the the electric bill from my total refund. I was furious but I knew that God didn’t allow me to come this far for nothing. I had to waste about $500 to have Yamato come back twice in a week to move my stuff again. I had to quickly find an apartment in just a couple of days with less than $1,000 USD (that's impossible in Japan) and I had to do all of this alone while still working a job and studying for school. Mind you that you typically need at least $2,000 minimum to move into a new place here on average and there aren't a ton of options in Osaka. As someone with a lot of boxes and luggage it wouldn't have been possible to have a taxi move this somewhere else and I can't stay at a share house with several boxes and bags as I'd be taking up all of the space with my things.
Gandhi passed the bucket and blamed it on the fact that I said I could leave that weekend if I got a refund which I can admit I shouldn’t have said that out of anger but I never said a partial refund nor did I give an exact date or time for when I could. He then said it was too late as they had conveniently rented out ALL 3 of the remaining rooms that they had showed me upon moving in including my own in just about 48 hours which I knew was a lie. I was in disbelief. I then asked for my pictures to be removed from the advertisements on Facebook to which they became angry and accused me of being a bad person and tried to remind me how I had posed for the pictures so they had the right to share them which was the most ridiculous thing a business has ever told me.
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| I'd LOVE to leave after I get paid and my lease is up! Otherwise if I had even been given a full refund and a decent amount of time to go see new place It may have been possible. It is hard to move into anywhere fast especially when you work, study, and have an apartment full of stuff to move. A NORMAL LANDLORD would apologise for the dirty appliances and go check them out and clean things but NOPE good old Japanese people LOVE tradition! If it aint broke don't fix it! There was too much pride involved. They knew their shit was dirty! Nobody really cooks! It's an all guy share house besides the owners and her sister who all creepishly live in the same room. |
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| How is asking for my pictures to be taken down rude haha? We are in Japan after all! I'd request the same in America. Besides even if things went great here staying at a shit share house is embarrassing. I don't want the whole world knowing my address but I guess you know where I used to live now haha but this is different! |
Japan has much stricter rules in regards to imagery of adults then most countries do and it’s common courtesy even in America to not only ask for permission to photograph someone, but to get their permission to use it for advertising. I only knew that they had shared my pictures on their social media accounts because I searched the share house by name since their Craigslist ad that I replied to left out a lot of this information including the name. They eventually lightly blurred my face which I expressed wasn’t enough as I was still identifiable. They eventually cropped the pictures significantly which just made it look even worse for there advertisement as the quality of the picture was very grainy and the owners sister Rin (regrettably I’m sure) asked me to stand and to sit in the center probably because they’ve never had a “cute” black female tenant and the exotic look would make their old run down share house look nice and welcoming to everyone I suppose.
I couldn’t even wrap my mind around why they’d want to use a picture of someone who they saw as rude and that they were evicting from their share house as the poster child of their establishment?
I was thankfully able to find a new apartment that was very cheap and bigger than any of my previous places. My new place is privately owned and I know the landlord directly. I was able to move in fro less than $1,000 again but this time it was for a real apartment and not just a small room. My neighborhood is very quiet, peaceful and residential. I am located near several train lines, malls, airports, beaches, landmarks, and tourist destinations. While I still prefer Kyoto and maybe even Osaka I am grateful for this new adventure and experience and I hope that some day they will learn their lesson to. You will always read what you sow. If it had been left up to them I would have been homeless and lost all of my belongings as well as humiliated by the police infant of countless people.
They may have started off nice and loosened up by giving me a few extra hours to have my belongings moved thanks to me kissing up to them to earn a few more hours, but at the end of the day the entirety of how they dealt with me was very unprofessional. My words, actions and behaviour shouldn't change the way that I am treated as a guest or a paying customer as long as I am not hurting anyone which I didn't. All of this was started over a tenant boiling some water for rice in the kitchen for too long which resulted in them bringing up the fact that I burned it once in the past. I didn’t receive any second chances or warnings. I wasn’t given any time to find a new place. All of my business was secretly shared with my housemates in detail after they kicked me out of the group chat which was also unprofessional and an invasion of my privacy as a paying tenant. It was very embarrassing so say the least.
I didn’t want to write this or make any of these videos “exposing” them as the good and optimistic part of me is grateful that they gave me a place to stay at quickly after my previous bad experience and I was able to take great pictures and videos and meet some new people here, but I am sick and tried of allowing Japanese people to belittle or take advantage of foreigners here because they know that the law is on their side.
I have contacted the police in regards to issues with housing and the laws were ignored. The focus became on whether I was here legally or not and the police even tried to detain/question me about how I treated a grown man who broke into my own house (in the past)!
My Japanese friends even expressed to me that this was illegal since we signed a contract that didn’t state any of these made up rules about what you can cook and for how long you can do so. They expressed how unprofessional it was and apologized on behalf of Noco and Gandhi. I know better than to blame every Japanese person of being evil and prejudice, but I also believe that it takes bad publicity, condemnation and people who are bold enough to address these issues and share their stories without sugar coating or constantly reminding people that bad stuff can happen everywhere.
I can’t imagine what would have happened if I were a jobless student, or if I didn’t have a mom and a boyfriend to help me out. I had already wasted the money I had saved buying things for my hair, food, toiletries and paying other bills. Most of my friends are broke, jobless, and struggling even more than me.
It is nearly impossible to find a place in Japan within such a short amount of time and what such a small amount of money to work with. I only received back less than $200 USD which is too little to even stay at a hostel for the two weeks that I would have needed which means that it was ultimately cheating me for them to have made me leave before March 2nd.
Even the share houses that I contacted either ignored me or required too much money upfront for me to be able to move in within the 48 hour time span I had. I also needed an exact address to have my items shipped to and the money to pay for them to be shipped once again in the first place.
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| Despite them doing my dirty I still cleaned my room and left everything as it was before with the exception of the pillow case it was a little stained from my makeup. |
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| After asking for a time extension they decided to cave in since I cleaned the room and left at the time they asked me to. They allowed me to stand by the door inside until my items were picked up. |
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| Gandhi stupidly asked for my address so that they can mail me my things should I accidentally forget somethings LMAO yeah right and why would I want you to know where I live? I also didn't have a place yet. They knew this and didn't care. He lied and claimed that someone else was going to be renting all 3 of their vacant rooms. This didn't happen. In fact they are still looking for a tenant as I type this. |
The worst part is that Noco and Gandhi don’t feel remorseful because they don’t see how anything that they did was wrong. They don’t see how making me leave early with just a partial refund and then renting out my rent shortly after is a scam (they basically got two months rent in a month). They really feel as though evicting me was justified since I “wasted energy”, burned my rice, and said I was planning to move anyway.
If anything they're happy that I was struggling because it gave them power again. They wanted to be the ones that were forcing me out instead of me leaving on my own. They made this clear by acting as though it were their idea to ban me from using the kitchen. It was all a matter of control.
Shortly before I left some of the other tenants finally spoke to me about what happened and told me about the lies that were being spread from the owners in regards to why I was being kicked out. They expressed some of truth about why I was leaving, but were too stupid to realize how irrational it was to not only kick out a tenant who literally does nothing to anyone for burning food but to have a kitchen (3 of them to be exact) and then decide who can and cannot use it and to dictate what can be cooked in them.
It is one thing for them to kick me out but it is another to violate my privacy and share my personal information since unlike Noco and Gandhi I am not a multi-business owner and as a Japanese persona they should know better than anyone how much confidentiality and privacy is valued here in Japan.
Apparently, according to the other European tenants they have kicked out countless people before me under similar ridiculous circumstances and they were also exploiting their European and non-Japanese Asian staff (who have difficulty finding work on their visas as well as because they're not native English speakers) at their restaurants by not paying them for the entire duration of their shifts.
They were so petty that they purposefully left the front door wide open overnight after my boxes and luggage had arrived in the main entrance making it easy for someone to steal or mess with my belongings.
I am not upset at them anymore. I am now glad that this bad event took place as it pushed me to travel, explore, make new friends, find a new job, and to get a bigger place that was worth the amount I was paying.
I would never recommend that anyone stay at Cuurong Apartment. I didn’t think it was possible to top Sakura House or Mayflower Guest House, but Noco and Gandhi somehow managed to do so. They started off as a seemingly sweet old Japanese couple but quickly became rude, defensive, and flat out liars.
It’s a shame that they didn’t consider how treating your tenants, customers, and staff poorly would result in negative reviews.
I wanted to leave a review on their Facebook page but I’d rather leave a post here and simply tag them on YouTube.
I can admit my "wrong" as a tenant. I suppose 20 minutes is a long time to cook on the stove. I admit that I did almost cause a fire by not standing with my food. I did burn my rice before (it just boiled over and some rice at the bottom stuck to the pan nothing was actually burnt), but none of these things were an issue until there was a misunderstanding about whether or not I had ignored instructions to not cook rice on the stove then past things that had never been addressed were brought up.Also who can honestly say that they always stand with their food have never burned anything and never cooked a meal for more than 15 minutes?
Cuurong Apartment isn’t worth the $300-$400 that they charge for a small dusty, moldy room with bathrooms that wreak of urine and then to still have to pay your own electric bill?! You can rent an entire apartment just about anywhere in Kansai for the same amount of money. The owners of Cuurong are greedy, unprofessional, and rude. Their practices are unethical. The apartment is run like a social club and if you don’t make an effort to go out of your way and befriend everyone enthusiastically or if you use anything in the house that they can’t charge you for such as a shower that takes too long, hand washing a shirt, cooking on the stove tops, or charging a phone or computer you will jeopardize your stay. If they decide that they don’t like you for whatever reason they will force you out of the property and embarrass you in front of everyone.
I feel sorry for anyone who’s first experience at a share house was here at Cuurong Apartment. I can assure you that not all gaijin houses are this bad and not every Japanese person is going to scam you or violate your privacy.
I can only imagine how poorly their bars are run behind the scenes based off of what two of the European tenants told me before I left. It’s a shame that a couple with so many businesses treats their foreign staff and customers like shit as soon as they get their money from them.
Unless you’re desperately like I was and need a place to stay fast or you’re just planning to stay for less than a month I wouldn’t rent this place long-term. It is in need of many repairs and remodeling. The owners are distrusting and creepy and will stalk you upon moving in. You will always feel like your every move within the house is being watched as their are several cameras in every room that are on 24/7 and I believe that there is even a camera in the bedrooms and in the changing area outside of the shower (although I am not 100% sure about these last two rooms).
This was by far the scariest situation that I have ever been in here in Japan, and I know that I only made it through all of this because of God himself. I cannot explain how everything conveniently came together at the last minute. I felt hopeless and legitimately feared that I’d become homeless and lose all of my stuff. I made several stressful trips to train station lockers and travelled back and forth for several hours to move my belongings all by myself with very short notice.
I hope that Noco and Gandhi, the owners of Apartments Cuurong (Cuurong Apartment) and Nocosarejima Bar will change their unfair practices, update their apartment, modify their contract's rules, and adjust their behavior towards their foreign tenants and staff.
Please watch my YouTube video for more details, video, and pictures of this share house.
Watch My Story Time Video From Apartments Cuurong
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