If that's your rental allowance, you'll be fine. When I first came here, I had a rental allowance (disclaimer: I've been here on a pay-my-own-way basis for the last 5 years or so). I tried to negotiate a deal where I could take less expensive quarters and get some percentage of the excess for myself. No dice. Nice if you can do it, but...

On the other hand, if $5k is your *entire* package (over and above salary, I hope), then you're in much better shape that I was when I came over ;-). Save some of that because expat benefits are usually short-lived. At least that's my experience.

BTW, I noticed that another thread somewhere mentioned that one could not rent a single-family home in Japan but that's not really true. A few years back we were considering moving away from Tokyo (to either Kawasaki or Yokohama) and there were plenty of affordable houses on the market. None of them were new, of course, and there is a certain benefit to the all-concrete "mansion" buildings (like fewer cockroaches ;-), but don't ignore the possibility of a house with a (very small) yard. They're around.