Job Discussion Forums

[Black_Beer_Man]

A teacher in my area explained these two terms to me recently. Apato and Mansion are two categories of apartments. He said that apatos were typically two storied apartment buildings "flimsily built".

Sadly, I learned this too late. I had already moved into an apato. The rent is cheaper, but I have to deal with thin walls that feel like cheap wooden panels. The noise pretty easily travels through from my next door neighbor's apartment. It's so bad that I can even hear him sneeze.

The building has wooden floors and the tenet above me stomps on his floor (my ceiling) and wakes me up sometimes in the wee hours of the morning.

My advice to newbies is to move into a mansion (which is a higher quality building). The price difference is slightly higher- maybe 10,000 yen a month. Sometimes the price is the same as apato. Also, make sure it has cement floors.

Avoid moving into an apato at all costs if you value your sanity.

[TokyoLiz]

I lived in a typical "apaato", a 1k plus loft on the second floor of a building, for nearly years. It's okay, but not that private.

In ground floor concrete rooms, damp and mold are serious problems. A friend who could only afford a ground floor mansion had dehumidifiers running all year. The senmenjo, bathroom and toilet had poor air circulation, and her clothes were coated in blue mold before she figured out the remedy. The room had carpets, too. Carpets attract mites and ticks.

For the last year, I have lived in an older 2 story house. It's a classic 1970s building with tatami, a tokonoma, shoji, fusuma and a big kitchen.The collective age of the neighbours is 700 years. So it's quiet except for cleaning and the neighbour lady's enka habit.

I think I'm the second noisiest house because I host guests from abroad.

[nightsintodreams]

I've lived in one mansion, three Leo Palaces and a BOE apartment. I've never had any of the problems listed above. Everyone's experience is different.

[rxk22]

I thought the def of apt vs Mansion varied by region? For instance in Kansai, I heard that Mansion was for 1ks.

[Pitarou]

[TokyoLiz]

Oops. I meant nearly *10 years.

Like Pitarou says, it depends on the quality of the building. The place I lived in was awesome. Until The Big One. After that, I walked downhill in through the kitchen

[nightsintodreams]

I went along with your definintion but I always thought an アパート　was the individual apartment/flat, where as the　マンション was the building as a whole (i.e. a block of flats, as we say in British English).

[kah5217]

I'm in the first floor of a 2 story LP.

Pros:
Window can be a door
No stairs
More room for laundry/airing bedding
If you like animals, you sometimes see them outside your window

Cons:
Upstairs neighbor is always dropping stuff on the floor
Can't leave the window open at night without worrying about intruders
My window faces the street so no privacy with open curtain
More bugs can come in

The walls are selectively thin, I think. For instance, I can hear snoring and occasional tub draining, and of course drunken taiko practice. But I rarely hear others' televisions, and the neighbors must not be into any vices because I haven't heard anything embarrassing.

[Black_Beer_Man]

[Pitarou]

[teacheratlarge]

Some of the mansions are poorly built too. The first one I was sharing in Tokyo also had the noise problem with where the bathrooms connected so you could hear someone coughing in the next apartment as if they were in the same room!

Also the rooms didn't retain cold or hot air well (poor insulation).