As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m living in Shinjuku on the west side of the city. Remember, Tokyo is more like a state… there are many cities (and wards, like counties) inside of it. When people not familiar with the area traditionally think of Tokyo – myself included until I visited here a few times – they think of one huge city with the name “Tokyo”. The cities actually included in what people think of as Tokyo are something like: Aoyama, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Harajuku, etc.
The part of Shinjuku my mansion is in is primarily composed of businesses. It’s literally right next to the Park Hyatt hotel. That’s the hotel in the movie Lost In Translation with the fancy bar with a great view. The area has pluses and minuses at least from my experience so far in the past few days.
Good:
- Close to Shinjuku station (about 8 minute walk).
- Easy and fairly close to work (walk to Shinjuku station + 10 minute train ride).
- Easy to get to a lot of other cities from Shinjuku station.
- Fairly quiet at night time, no crazies outside.
- Plenty of food options and a cubic assload of convenience stores.（コンビニ）
Bad:
- No night life in this area (it dies at night time since it’s all businesses), specifically west Shinjuku. East has more things going on.
- Expensive due to location.
- Barely any grocery stores. For the people that do live here, I’ve been told that the majority are living here are high rollers with their companies paying for their rent entirely. Apparently those types of people don’t care about groceries and just go to nice restaurants all the time. The closest grocery store is about 20-25 minutes away walking.
Now, for a picture of the inside:
This is the main and pretty much only room. This mansion is a “1K” which in Japan apartment measurement terms means 1 room plus a kitchen. It’s about 210 sq. ft. So yeah, it’s small. Relative to the picture above, there is a small separate kitchen in the upper right corner (2 burners, medium sized fridge, microwave) and to the right of where the picture was taken is the bathroom. An example of a much bigger apartment would be a 2LDK – 2 rooms plus living, dining, and kitchen rooms.
The apartment building itself is 15 stories and is fairly nice (and thus expensive, doh!). My apartment is on the 3rd floor. It would have been nicer to be higher up since I don’t have a view and people across the way can see in through my window. Oh well, no worries.
I’m sure I’ll discover more good and bad things about this area in the future. For now, I’m happy.
Wow, that is small! Is that a concrete wall 2-feet from the window?
Still, sounds like a fancy place. How are the neighbors?
I can see from the picture how it looks like there is a wall right there. No, there is a small balcony out there with a clothes drying rack and then the Park Hyatt hotel is across the way. It’s probably like 30 feet to the wall, there is a small street below.
I haven’t met any neighbors yet – dunno if I’m supposed to introduce myself or what. I literally have not even seen a single person coming into or out of this building either. Perhaps only ninjas live here? Ok… dumb joke.
Ohayou gozaimasu, Mark. I have been reading some of your entries and I find your enthusiams and journey to be quite interesting and humorous. ^^ I Hope you don’t mind me asking, but it’s been a long life dream of mine to live in Tokyo. How much did your 1K go for? Is the cost of living over there worse then in the states? What was the hardest thing you encountered while living there?
P.S. Your drunk yoi and ii blog was hilarious. Reminds me of the time me karate sensei’s wife was pissed drunk and started screaming out at a karate gathering, that she was “Saki-ada” (Spanish drunk way of saying Saked up). (^_^)
Hi Andrea – comparisons depends on where you are from in the US but yes, the cost of living in Tokyo is high. Especially high for the square footage you get. E.g., you could pay $1300 a month for a 1K (for a single person, maybe reasonable rent in NYC) but the square footage will be in the ballpark of 300 or so.
After my experience I’m convinced the hardest thing, more difficult than language, is cultural misunderstanding. Just not coming from the same frame of reference as the person your talking to. It can also be quite interesting as it often brings new perspective to life.
Thanks for the 411 Mark. Yeah, I’m from Miami. I’m a Latino/Asian mix, but still I make a lot of cultural errors with my Japanese friends. Thank goodness they laugh at my mistakes though, because they figure I’m American. ^^; I feel bad for this one guy though. I was reading his blog about cultural errors and twice told his wife (while they were dating) that he hoped she died or that he’s sorry for her death by giving her funeral flowers when she was upset or sick. He didn’t know, but I’m glad that he still managed to marry her. LOL!
Thank you so much Mark. And thank you for posting your journey in a viewable blog. It truly is enlightening and fascinating. (^_^)/