apartment hunting in japan is a job
after work today Ayako and I spent time looking over print-outs of apartments, internet listings, etc. We reviewed quite a few different apartments, some new, some not so new. Its hard to get an idea of what you might like from floor plans, or the occasional photo. But its also very time consuming to go and look at these places (and setup appointments).
Anyway, finding an apartment in Tokyo is no easy task. We want something fairly modern (read “new” there), with about 50 meters sq (i believe her current apartment is about 20m sq).
Oh and want it as economical as possible, but being in Tokyo - things are expensive. So her current place is about 850$ a month, and the places we are looking at (that have more than just 1 room - we want 1 kitchen, 1 living, and 1 bedroom) cost anywhere from 1,000$ to 3,000$ a month depending on location and size.
Our budget mandates something less than 1,400$ a month — and that is really stretching it (our target is 1,200 or less). So right now we are scouring both east and west Tokyo. Ayako’s work is closer to East Tokyo - she works in Ebisu. My work is in central Tokyo - so either way is good for me. We would prefer a place close to where we are now, but this is a semi-expensive part of the city (close to Shinjuku, Shibuya - hot spots in Tokyo).
I learned an interesting fact about measurements today. Many rooms are measured by jyou which is based on the size of a standard tatami mat. So many times you might here a room is X jyou big ~~ so many tatami mats big.
Heres a link to see a room with tatami mats, and the explanation of jyou if you can read Japanese.
