The "furniture" in the furnished apartment was :

a small 2nd hand stool
a small fold away table
a bookshelf
a kitchen 2 ring gas stove
a collection of used cutlery
curtains for each room
a twin tub cycle washer (broken)
an air conditioner (semi broken, about 10 years old)

The cost of this apartment was 71,000円 (355 pounds) per month, it was in a shared building with 8 other apartments the same style.Wooden frame,2 ply sheets of mitre boarding as walls with a plastic wood effect exterior. No doors all open plan,paper thin walls and 2 rooms 9 ft x 9 ft with a kitchenette, bathroom washing machine area.It was 15 minutes walk away from the station in quiet residential area next to a rubbish recycle point.Now by Japanese standards the size was very generous, though the rent was ridiculously high. The quality of the building was very poor, there was nowhere to hang washing and the apartments were infested with cockroaches and prone to mould and smelt terrible.The noise from the neighbours was unbearable.In summer it was ridiculously hot as the air con was insufficient and in winter I would wake with a cold nose and could see my frosted breath.

The worst part of this apartment was for the first 6 months I was there I had to pay "deposit money" and "charges", this was to cover "administration", "deposit" and "bedding costs" The latter a single mattress, a duvet and pillow was charged at 50,000円 (250 pounds the actual cost being more likely 10,000円).Before starting the job and coming to Japan I was notified there would be these charges and it was all presented by the eikaiwa reps as perfectly easy to manage your finances with your monthly salary of 250,000円(Generous wage in Japan, the same a university graduate would be paid in an atypical office job) Though they did suggest taking about 1000 pounds of savings for emergencies and settling in. By November my finances were looking like this from my 250,000円 wage :

When I did make the decision to move to Japan, The majority of my furniture I put out "on lend" to friends and family, some was put into storage but I basically stripped down all my material possessions. I sold a large deal of my music studio, putting the remaining equipment into storage. The funds I kept aside from the sale were to rebuild the studio in Japan.That was my "savings" that I used for "settling in": Basically to get by each month for 6 months. If I was to regret, I think the sale of my studio would be the biggest regret about uprooting and moving to Japan.It's only natural that relocating to a new country people have teething troubles and homesickness, I consider the time I lived in the eikaiwa apartment as an all time low. It was humbling and in retrospect I think it was an experience I deserved having had the luxuries I'd had and experiencing "building up from zero" was a good exercise in humility.

I was still thankful in many ways, there are people without homes, no jobs,no food, no matter how little you have you still have to have thanks for it unless one truly has nothing at all. My discontent came from what had been a very comfortable environment and stable working condition to something that was being presented as equally comfortable and secure. The reality was very, very far from the truth. I think everyone that has worked at an eikaiwa has an axe to grind with the way they were treated. In the big picture, it wasn't abject poverty or slave wage labour conditions...but it wasn't more than four or five steps away from it...In eikaiwa your naivety is certainly taken advantage of.

If I had just graduated from university or arrived from a stint backpacking round India the eikaiwa job & apartment might have been appealing, but it wasnt and thankfully to my very supportive partner, we've saved and moved to a better place.I've been released from the eikaiwa and now work as an Assistant Language Teacher in Elementary schools. Again, by no means have we moved to anything the same as I had before, but step by step its improving and were both very happy with our new home together.It's the same rent as my last place but split between the two of us.I couldn't have done it without her, quite literally. She had to sign all the papers and process the moving deal with me out of the picture as getting the place with a foreigner on the signed papers would be impossible.

So heres' to the future, onwards and upwards !

ADDENDUM 2007
At time of writing this apartments for foreigners had been quite limited and in some ways still are. Even if your fully fluent in Japanese with 3 months of rent in your pocket, walking into a standard high street realtor or rental estate agent and getting an apartment is no easy task.

Gaijin friendly sites have popped up in recent years such as :

http://www.sakura-house.com/ - Provides shared hostel type for travellers as well as fully furnished apartments at reasonable prices.

http://www.tokyoapartments.jp - The realistic range, apartments as good as you'll find in any high street real estate at realistic prices.

http://www.housingjapan.com/ - Who rents these places is a complete mystery to me, Roppongi & Hiroo Hilltop apartments, 5 roomed studio apartment convenientely located near Ebisu with a rooftop garden BBQ area, etc ¥2,380,000 per month, Thats more than half my yeary salary in one month.Anyone paying this amount of money for rent in Tokyo is rich beyond "human being" and mostly likely in league with "The Dark Side" and should be doused in petrol near a naked flame asap.