Teaching English in Japan

I’ve been looking around for different english schools. From preliminary searching I think I shouldn’t even stop to consider NOVA as they’re not even paying teachers at the moment, and when they do they treat them badly. The one place that does seem pretty good is JET, they pay a bit more (thats not that important to me), they find you decent accomodation, they’re not so uptight about ‘fraternising’ with students. The one problem I have though is that there seems to be a lengthy application process, and it would take until halfway through next year to actually start.

Can anyone suggest other places which want people ASAP and are still reasonable about things like accomodation, etc?

Is it hard finding a place to rent in Japan? For the record I am doing first year japanese at uni right now - so I know the basics at least.