Background: My language school classes start on Jan. 7th in Tokyo, and am trying to nail a date when I'll move from the US. I will be bringing my cat with me, and have the paperwork and tests done for that. Ideally I want to move no later than Dec. 26th since I want to attend a New years event, but am very flexible to when exactly.
There are a couple realtor websites that say they rent pre-furnished apartments and accept people who are on student visas. Some of the listings say they allow "pets" (I haven't contacted them yet if a cat specifically is okay since I know pets usually means a dog). But I have seen old posts on here that to rent an apartment in Tokyo, you need things like a Japanese bank account, and to get a Japanese bank account you need a registered address, so they say you should sign up for a sharehouse for the first month to register that as your address for the bank, and you can apartment hunt from there.
The problem with that is most (all?) sharehouses wouldn't allow a cat. However, there are airbnb's that do explicitly allow a cat, and even have monthly rates that aren't too bad. Is there any problems planning to stay at an airbnb for 2-4 weeks while I find a more permanent apartment? Or do I need a more recognized place of residence to sign a lease or to do the prerequisites needed to sign a lease?
by TrappedOwl