How to find an apartment in Kyoto (without selling a kidney)

As we leave in two days for Kyoto we have begun looking for an apartment. After reading a fellow Japan-blogger's post about the terrors of finding an apartment as a Westerner, we were a little nervous about how this would go.

Neither of us has any interest in selling our kidneys and we definitely don't have any Japanese ancestry, so the thought of having to beg people to rent to us became a real possibility. Thankfully, Kev's business partner H-san is amazing and has begun to help us find housing.

Our biggest tip when moving abroad: have amazingly nice friends in the country who will vouch for you and help convince real estate agents that you are as great as they are.

Since H-san found out we were moving, he has contacted countless agents, found apartments they would rent to us (all of which were gorgeous) and has even set up a day for us to go view apartments.

He also sent us links to the following websites, all of which are pretty user friendly, even if you don't speak Japanese (just click big buttons and anything that looks like a map). Here are two that we really like (obviously http://www.minimini-kyoto.jp is still high on the list too)

http://www.h-nw.jp

http://www.flat-a.co.jp

We will post again on this topic, after the housing-hunt late next week!