Housekeeping and small repairs
A tidy home matters more as the years pass. We are looking at regular cleaning and a call-out route for small jobs such as changing a light bulb. Whether this is included in a fee or paid per visit is open.
Support services, and where our part ends
This page separates three things: everyday help we would like to arrange, care that is not ours to provide, and the questions worth asking any senior housing provider, ourselves included.
Status today. None of the help described below is currently being provided. The items are ideas under discussion. Providers, frequency and prices are not decided, and no fee is being charged through this website.
Help we would like to arrange
Errands and shopping
Picking up groceries, posting a parcel, collecting a prescription that your pharmacy has already prepared. We would agree the details with each person, not apply a standard menu.
Getting about
A shared vehicle for trips to town and for appointments is one option; arrangements with local taxi companies is another. We have chosen neither.
Help with phones and tablets
Video calls with grandchildren, sharing photos, reading a message. Patient, step-by-step help when it is asked for, with no assumption that anyone needs it.
We prefer to build help around the person, not around a list. Two neighbours may want entirely different things, and a person who needs almost nothing this year may want more next year. The way we would work is to ask, write down what was agreed, and review it when you wish.
Health and care
Not a medical or nursing service
Alpine Brook Harbor does not operate a clinic, a nursing service or a care home, and this website does not claim to. We do not state any registration or licence number here, because none has been supplied.
Your health stays with your own doctors, your local clinic and the hospital you already use. If you need long-term care, the route in Japan runs through the long-term care insurance system: you apply at your municipal office, the needs of the person are assessed there, and services are delivered by registered providers. That is separate from where you live, and we cannot apply on your behalf or decide what care you qualify for.
A residence that itself provides care or meals for older people has to be notified or registered with the prefecture. If you want to know where we stand on this, ask us in writing and we will tell you the position as it is at that date.
In an emergency
Call 119 for an ambulance or the fire service. This website and its enquiry form cannot receive urgent messages, and nobody is watching them around the clock.
Family
Relatives in the conversation
A move like this affects the whole family, and many people prefer to talk it through with a son, a daughter or a friend. Relatives are welcome to write to us or to join a conversation, as long as the person concerned wants them there.
Our intention is to put what has been agreed in writing and to speak about a person's affairs only with that person's say-so. Please remember that the enquiry form is not the place for health or financial details.
Before you decide
Questions to ask any senior housing provider
Whoever you speak to, ours or somebody else's, these questions are worth putting in writing. We would rather you asked them of us than took our word.
- Is the operator notified or registered as a paid nursing home (有料老人ホーム) or a senior-friendly rental housing scheme (サービス付き高齢者向け住宅), and under what number?
- Who holds the real estate licence (宅地建物取引業免許) if the home is being sold or brokered?
- What exactly is covered by the monthly fee, and what is charged extra?
- Is there an entrance payment (入居一時金)? How is it calculated, and what is refunded if you leave early or the contract ends?
- What happens if your care needs grow? Can you stay, and who provides the care?
- Who is on site at night, how many people, and how is an emergency handled?
- Can you see the contract and the explanation of important matters (重要事項説明書) well before anyone asks for a signature?
- Where does a complaint go if something goes wrong?
Limits
What we do not do
- We do not give medical, nursing, legal, tax or financial advice.
- We do not arrange loans, insurance or investment products.
- We do not guarantee any outcome, availability or date.
- We do not ask for deposits or payments through this website.
Ask us
Want these answers in writing?
Send us your questions about support. We will tell you what exists, what is only an idea and what is not ours to provide.