Job Discussion Forums

[ESLgeek]

Hi everyone,
Does anyone know anything about the area around Myoden station on the Tozai line in Tokyo? I'm arriving in Tokyo next week and I'm going to see a room in a house there. The room is only 36000 a month plus utilities and the guy says it should fit myself and my boyfriend. Does this seem just too ridiculously cheap! Any opinions are great.

[reasonJP]

If it's 36 each, that sounds about right. 36 for the both of you, expect a tight fit and/or a roach situation.

[Apsara]

Do you know the size of the room? 6 tatami, 4.5 tatami? You are right, that is suspiciously cheap. I would be expecting a very small room in a very old building, quite a long way from the station. Most guest houses seem to have vermin problems to some extent. One I lived in had the most unbelievably roach infested kitchen, and the other had a rat (possibly more than one). Both cost more than your place.

[ESLgeek]

It's a 6 tatami room.

[Khyron]

[chinagirl]

I'll second that. Go for a small apartment with 2-3 rooms.

[Apsara]

It's quite understandable that they might not have the money to move into and furnish an apartment right away, however it might be worth spending a bit more than �36,000 to get somewhere decent.

That end of the Tozai line is very popular with Indian people who have recently arrived in Japan and it's quite possible that that guesthouse caters to a lot of Indians not yet used to the cost of living in Japan, hence the low prices. It may well be fine- if you try it and don't like it you should be able to find somewhere else fairly easily.

Have you looked at Sakura House's guesthouses or apartments? I have heard good things about some of them.

[ESLgeek]

Oh man - that room in Myoden was absolutely disastrous! There was a leak in the ceiling, a huge pile of dirty laundry, cracking paint - I don't know why anyone would live there unless they were really poor. We found a nice place in Narimasu.