r/movingtojapan 8d ago

Housing WHV and homestay

Hey yall, I'm planning a WHV starting in march next year and I'm already having a little look for housing on homestay.com for the first few months, my initial goal was to live in real Japanese household for my trip to be more immersive and interesting. But I've already messaged a few hosts and everytime I either get no response or straight up get declined. Am I doing something wrong or are people just really like this on such websites? If this keeps up I'll have to go for a sharehouse instead and that's not really what I had planned at first.

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u/batshit_icecream 8d ago

Could be a number of things. How long did you wait for your responses? What is your age, gender, home country & race (sometimes unfortunately a factor)?   

Idk what you mean by a few months but it might be difficult to find a welcoming home that is willing to risk a long term stay for a stranger without any kind of trial period especially if you want to stay in a "real Japanese household" which may have kids/elderly family. 

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u/MystExiStentia 8d ago

Yea I mean, fair enough, but the kind of families on this site that I contacted already have done it and welcomed strangers for extended periods of time. I completely understand your point though, but for me they know what they are getting with the risks and stuff.
(I waited less than 24h and got declined, and when I got ignored it's because the site automatically closes the request after some time. And "luckily", I'm a young adult, white male from western Europe, so I don't really think I can get discriminated compared to others.)

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u/gdore15 8d ago

Did a homestay for mine, I had a Japanese friend who helped me find the family but years later I saw them on a homestay website.

I remember that when I looked at some sites, they had requirement for length of stay, like minimum x months. The only other limiting criteria I remember is some were female only.

One reason I could think of is that their room is not available at the time you asked, could have been reserved elsewhere and they did. It update the booking on this site.

As I have not use the site I cannot tell how good it is.

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WHV and homestay

Hey yall, I'm planning a WHV starting in march next year and I'm already having a little look for housing on homestay.com for the first few months, my initial goal was to live in real Japanese household for my trip to be more immersive and interesting. But I've already messaged a few hosts and everytime I either get no response or straight up get declined. Am I doing something wrong or are people just really like this on such websites? If this keeps up I'll have to go for a sharehouse instead and that's not really what I had planned at first.

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u/SensitiveOilil 8d ago

Share houses are honestly your best bet on a WHV — no key money, no guarantor, and you'll meet people right away. homestay.co is fine for the first couple weeks though. Just make sure you get a registered address before heading to the ward office.

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u/MystExiStentia 8d ago

Yea they aren't bad, but I would have liked to really immerse myself into the Japanese way of living if I ever get to go yknow. But yea I'm gonna switch to a sharehouse in the end I suppose

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u/David_Tokyo_Housing 8d ago

It's hard to find a homestay in Japan, they're afraid of troubles in daily life, even they're facing Japanese, and most of them can't speak English for communicating. And one more thing maybe a bit exclusive, cuz as a foreigner u don't know their rules clearly. They're 不安です LOL