Create meetup in Tokyochevron_right
Select a place on the map to change the location.
I want to meet
Verified required?
want to meet at fmd_good Brew Lab
want to meet at fmd_good Vintage Avenue
want to meet at fmd_good Local House
explore Tokyo Guides
bar_chart Trends in Tokyo
Recommendations for apartments in Tokyo?
honestly the biggest stress killer is just picking a building that's been around a while. the new towers in Toyosu or Shiodome look great but they're full of families and the elevators get jammed at 8am. older stock from the 90s in places like Azabu Juban or Hiroo often has way better soundproofing and the rents are actually negotiable if you go through a smaller local agent, not the big portals. walk into a real estate office near the station, they all speak enough English for a contract, and you'll skip the bidding wars that Suumo listings trigger.
another thing nobody mentions is the garbage room. sounds dumb but if the building has a trash chute or a 24h garbage room, you save yourself the 8am sorting ritual with the neighborhood obasan. some of those central wards have strict rules, like no trash on certain days, and it'll wreck your mornings. check for a place that's 'gomi 24 jikan' and you're golden.
if you're open to slightly less central, try Gotanda. it's three stops from Shibuya but rents drop like 20% and it's got the Meguro River right there for walks. plus the Tokyu line gets you to the airport without transferring through Shinagawa chaos. just avoid the east side of the station, that's where the love hotels are.
For a low-stress move into central Tokyo, skip the big English sites like GaijinPot and go straight to UR Urban Renaissance Agency. Their apartments are no key money, no renewal fee, no guarantor needed, which cuts out the two biggest headaches and the most confusing paperwork. They have solid stock in places like Toyosu, Minami-Senju, and Akasaka, and the contracts are in plain Japanese, but the staff at their branches handle English fine.
If you want a private landlord, use a site like Suumo or Homes, but filter for "furnished" or "monthly" leases to avoid the insane deposit culture. For a truly frictionless start, look at Sakura House or Oakhouse, they're share houses but they have single units too, and you can move in within a week with just a passport and a credit card. The tradeoff is smaller rooms and thinner walls, but the zero-deposit, zero-agency-fee model makes the first month way less stressful.
Location-wise, if you want central but not soul-crushing, Meguro or Ebisu balance quiet with convenience, and the Yamanote Line access means you won't need to learn a complex transfer just to get home. Avoid anything that requires a 10-minute walk from the station in August, the humidity will break you.
The real stress in Tokyo isn't finding the apartment, it's the move-in day itself. Utilities, internet, and gas all need separate appointments, and most companies only do installs in Japanese. If you can, get a place that already has internet wired up, many newer towers in Shiodome or Shinagawa do. That alone saves you a week of waiting and a phone call where you'll be put on hold forever.
For the actual search, I'd add At Home to the list, it's less polished than Suumo but sometimes has listings that haven't hit the big portals yet. And don't sleep on the neighborhood around Shimbashi, it empties out at night and rent drops compared to Ginza one stop away, plus you've got the Yurikamome and Oedo lines if you're not tied to the Yamanote. Just check if the building has a genkan with enough space, half the listings in that area are shoeboxes where you'll be doing the one-shoe-hop to get inside.
Where can I find crispy, pan-fried bacon similar to a certain international style?
if u have a costco membership the kirkland thick cut is the move, 4 packs of 500g for around 2500 yen and it crisps up proper in a cold pan. for smaller runs, precce in azabudai hills & the basement at isetan shinjuku both carry imported US & danish brands in the chilled case, just read the label for "thick cut" or "smoked" and not "loin". also worth knowing japanese bacon is often wet-cured so pat it dry before frying or it steams instead of crisping
kaldi coffee farm is hit or miss but their smoked bacon from denmark shows up pretty regular, the 200g pack runs about 600 yen. what actually works better for me is asking the butcher counter at peacock or life to slice the block bacon thick, like 5mm, they do it for free and it crisps way better than the pre-packed stuff. also fwiw cheap bacon crisps faster, the fatty supermarket kind at 300 yen a pack works fine if u cook it from cold in a dry pan and pour off the fat as it renders.
tbh the gyomu super store brand bacon is surprisingly decent for crisping up, its not thick cut but if you cook it low and slow it gets pretty crunchy. the key is the dry cure vs wet cure thing, wet cure steams. also check hanamasa if you have one nearby, they sell big packs of american style bacon thats actually smoked and firm.
load 2 more replies