Every year, sometime in late November, it happens. A guest from Germany or Canada messages us at 11pm: “The apartment is freezing. Is the heating broken?” Almost every time, the heating works fine. They’re just meeting Japanese housing in winter for the first time: no central heating, single-pane windows, and a remote control written entirely in kanji.
October is the right time to get ready. It’s still mild enough that nobody’s complaining, and contractors aren’t booked solid yet. Here’s how we think about winter at our properties: heating, condensation, and the questions you can answer before guests have to ask them.
Every year, sometime in late May, I open the Japan Meteorological Agency’s forecast and check the same thing: when does tsuyu start? Because from that moment, a three-week countdown begins for our Tokyo properties, and there’s a lot to get done.
Japan’s rainy season isn’t just inconvenient for guests — it’s genuinely risky for properties. If you manage short-term rentals in Japan and haven’t built a pre-tsuyu routine yet, this post is for you.
There’s a particular kind of stress that comes from getting a plumber to your Tokyo property. Not the burst pipe itself — that part is almost relaxing by comparison. The hard part is what comes after the emergency is fixed: explaining what happened, asking about preventative work, requesting a quote for the next job. In Japanese. Over the phone. While the plumber is already putting his shoes back on.
If you manage property in Japan and aren’t fluent, you know exactly what I mean.