Wednesday 20 February 2013

Apartment hunting in Tokyo

Last week, after a few more uneventful days spent in Holland, I started my 4 month journey in Japan. The flight from Amsterdam to Paris was also very uneventful. I did learn to never fly KLM again though. Compared to British Airways their airplanes are old and even though I didn't fly business class, I saw the KLM business class seats were the same as economy seats. The food during the flight I didn't even bother with, because it looked unappetizing.
Transferring at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport was a nightmare. I never have any issues finding my way around airports, maps or any location for that matter, but Charles de Gaulle gave me major headache. Everybody transferring is sent to the arrivals hall and is supposed to figure out where to go from there. The problem is that unless you arrive at the same terminal your connecting flight departs from, you'll have no means of finding out which terminal your connecting flight will depart from. So once I realized this, I asked people working at the airport to tell me where to go and because I had so much time between flights, I fortunately enough did not miss my connecting flight.
The 2nd part of the trip was with JAL, the Japanese Airline company. They were much better than KLM, but also not quite as good as British Airways. I thought the service was slightly better. For example I slept through the first meal, but they had posted a note that I would see when I woke up, telling me I could eat my meal later at my own convenience! Pretty amazing! Another good thing for me was that everything was labeled in English AND Japanese, so I could keep myself entertained by figuring out what all the Kanjis meant.
However, there were a few things that bothered me. First of all the 2nd meal was quite bad. Maybe it's because this flight departed from Paris and thus the Frenchies had tried to produce some Japanese meals and failed terribly on the 2nd one. It was inedible. Second, I found out there was no face moisturizer in the toilets. I always like to freshen up a little with that, especially after a 10+ hour flight just before landing it's nice to be able to put some moisturizer on your face. I'm not sure if this is just a great addition by British Airways or something that's lacking on JAL flights. Either way, I will most likely fly British Airways again next time.

After landing, I picked up my mobile WiFi and got going to Tsukiji, where my hotel for the first night was conveniently located. This meant that after dropping off my bags I could go and get some sushi. Aswell as for dinner... and for breakfast the next morning. If you're interested in all the meals I eat, I recommend you check out my food blog:
http://tokyofoodjournal.blogspot.jp/
I will only post about food in this blog when it's something very good and even in that case I'll just link to the other blog.

After sushi breakfast I had my first appointment with a real estate agent. I was shown 3 apartments on the first day. The first one was extremely centrally located in Kyoubashi. Very close to Tokyo Station.




At only 200.000¥ per month(divide by about 100 to get dollars and euros. divide by about 100 and then take 2/3 to get the amount in pounts. So about 2k dollars/euros per month and about 1.4k pounds) it was quite cheap, but I was also quite surprised at how small it was.

Moving on, I saw a place in East Shinjuku. A bit more expensive at about 275.000¥ per month, but also bigger. However I wasn't so sure yet about the area, so I'd have to do more investigating before deciding I'd want to live there.


Lastly I saw an apartment in Roppongi, which is as central as you can get. However, it is also one of the most busy places, because it's one of  'the' nightlife areas in Tokyo. Furthermore, it's the area with the most foreigners and I've come to experience Japan, so I don't really wanna live in the most 'western'  part in all of Tokyo. Last but not least, while Tokyo is about as safe as it gets, a 36 million people city where it's not that uncommon to see a 10 year old girl commuting on her own on the subways/trains, Roppongi is, from what I've heard, one of the least safe areas in Tokyo. All in all, at 275.000¥ I wasn't too interested in living there.





All in all, not the greatest apartments. However, on the 2nd day in Tokyo I was shown a couple of more interesting apartments by another company. First up was a location I REALLY wanted to live. South-East Ginza, a 3 minute walk from Tsukiji, the fish market. This'd mean I could go eat fresh sushi whenever I wanted. Breakfast, Lunch AND dinner! Furthermore there was a gym right across the street and the apartment was the nicest I had seen so far and not that much more expensive at 300.000¥.



After this one, I was taken to Kioicho to see another apartment. It turned out to be next door to the hotel I had stayed in for the first week when I came to Tokyo last year. I absolutely love the area and with my current knowledge of Tokyo, I think this is my single favorite place to live in the entire city. The apartment wasn't bad either.

The only downside was no front lobby/concierge service. This one also cost 300.000¥ per month.

The last apartment I saw on Friday was in Shinagawa.







Definitely the nicest apartment I had seen and slightly cheaper than the previous 2 at a little under 300.000¥. However after scouting the Shinagawa area, I discovered it was quite boring. Very blend with not too much to do, so that dampened my enthusiasm a bit and put the Tsukiji and Kioichi apartments from this Friday in the lead.

Friday evening I met my first Couchsurfing host, Trevor, the most English person I've ever met. He is clearly very fond and proud of England, but spends 3 months out of the year in Tokyo for business. He has a nice little place in Seijou outside of the city center and he was overall a very welcoming host. I stayed with him up till Monday.

Saturday I saw just one apartment in Ikebukuro, but it turned out to be by far the best one I had seen up till then.






This was 275.000¥. If you think this doesn't look any bigger than the other apartments, then you are very much correct. That is, because the apartment that I was being offered was occupied and I could not see inside the actual apartment. Instead of 30 m2, the actual apartment in question is 40 m2 and is a 1BR instead of a Studio. Here's a video of it:

The best feature about this apartment is the location. It is a 2 minute walk from a major train station(Ikebukuro) and if you think 2 minute walks are too much, how about having a gym in the same street, which'll only take you a 10-15 second sprint to reach. At this point I was pretty much set on going with this apartment and even though I was going to see 2 more on Sunday, I couldn't imagine anything beating this.
That afternoon I made a trip all the way up to Saitama to meet Robert, a dutch friend living in Tokyo. I got to see where he lives and afterwards we had a solid sushi meal.

The last apartments on Sunday were located in Shinjuku. One of, if not the biggest, most massive district in Tokyo. Especially at night, it's filled with neon lights, skyscrapers and of course people.








First I was shown this 2nd floor apartment. It wasn't bad, but especially because of an inconvenient location I didn't like this any better than the one I saw on Saturday. Afterwards however we went on to another, much nicer building and I was shown 2 more apartments.











Although very, very nice, this 20+th floor apartment was a bit expensive at 400.000¥, so I was shown a slightly cheaper apartment.








This apartment was about the same size at 60 m2, but a lot cheaper at 330.000¥ per month. More expensive than the Ikebukuro apartment, but also 50% bigger and clearly much, much nicer. Furthermore there was weekly instead of monthly cleaning and additional features in the building such as complimentary breakfast.

After having seen this apartment in Shinjuku, I was completely lost and unsure which one I liked better. I spent an entire afternoon walking around Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, seeing which area I liked best, but came to the conclusion that while very different they are both great in their own ways. Ikebukuro is slightly smaller and more quiet, especially the area surrounding the apartment is very quiet and relaxed with almost no traffic. Yet once you cross the station, there's a ton of stuff to do and as I experienced it gets plenty busy on Saturday evenings(and other evenings too I'm sure).
Shinjuku on the other hand is basically always busy. Even on Sunday mornings there's a lot of people around. The Shinuku apartment is also not in the middle of the crowds. It is located on a big street, but because it's on the 20+th floor, traffic won't bother you. It's right next to the skyscraper district and since I very much like the architecture of skyscrapers that's a good thing! The only downside to the Shinjuku apartment is that it's a good 10 minute walk from both the main train station and the fitness, which means a lot more unpleasant commuting each week. Especially in the summer heat it will be extra unpleasant.

Eventually after (but not because of) negotiating 8400¥(25k¥ for the total stay! Almost a free Sukiyabashi Jiro meal!!!) off of the price of the Ikebukuro apartment, I decided to go with that one, because of the far more convenient location. I'd have rather paid a bit more for the Shinjuku place, because it was definitely worth it, but it could not overcome it's somewhat inconvenient location. I will be signing the contract and all before leaving Tokyo on Saturday and then moving in on the 19th of March after I get back from Seoul.

On Monday I met my new CS Host with whom I'll be staying until I leave Tokyo on Saturday. His name is Kyan, he's Chinese, but grew up partly in Canada, partly in Japan and currently lives and works in Tokyo. We're getting along great so far and tonight I'll be eating my first non-Japanese meal ever in Japan with him and one of his friends. It's probably a good thing, because there's actually a lot of good non-Japanese food in Tokyo, so I better start eating some of that. I've probably been missing out.

Kyan also has a great Ramen bar around the corner where I went for lunch the other day and I may actually go back there, because it was really really good. Best meal of the month so far. Check it out here:
http://tokyofoodjournal.blogspot.jp/2013/02/ramen-in-azabujuban_19.html

Lastly I just wanna say I feel really relaxed and happy so far in Japan. It really feels like home already. Hopefully that trend continues! I'm superexcited to go to Seoul in March, meet Korean people, eat Korean food, play Poker at the APPT, go to the GSL Finals, go to a SICK SICK Beethoven concert and go on a complimentary meal+tour organized by Pokerstars! But I may be even more excited to start my life in Tokyo after I get back from Seoul... and to finally hit the gym again, because it feels like it's been an eternity!!!

I'll leave you with a few snapshots I took of Shinjuku and Shinjuku Central Park.