Two such resources are Real Estate Japan and GaijinPot Apartments. Moving to Japan typically has two options: an apartment or a sharing home. Apartments, often known as manshiyon ("mansions") in Japan, are the ideal alternative for city inhabitants. They are close to everything, have one small room and one or more bathrooms, and can be bought with a monthly rent. Sharing houses are usually found in smaller cities or villages and take up to five people. The house is divided into rooms based on how many people are staying there at any given time, so it's easy to add or remove members from the household. There are two types of apartments in Japan: fixed-term and long-term. In a fixed-term apartment, you move into a new apartment every month or so. You can choose your landlord and building, but most are run by a company and they tend to offer the same type of apartment throughout the country. These are usually compact studios with a kitchenette. A common complaint about them is that they are too small, especially if you have anything larger than a backpack full of clothes. If you want to stay in an apartment longer than a month, you should look into renting a long-term apartment. Here, you can pick and choose which rooms you need and where you would like to live within the building.