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we've all seen the videos with the tiny
apartments and luxury apartments and
pretty much everything in between
major cities like tokyo japan are known
for their high rent prices and small
spaces but i've always wondered where
exactly is tokyo's cheapest apartment so
i looked for it
and i found it and this
this is it right here let's take a peek
inside
look at this okay so i think we can
turn on the light first wow
this
this is tiny
so
just walking this hallway alone as an
experience i kind of gotta turn sideways
the landlord told me that he was just
gonna leave everything unlocked for me
and requested that
when i'm done i just make sure to turn
off
all of the lights there's
another floor up here
and this this is the room here now i've
gotta
start by turning on the lights here
there we go
okay
yeah this makes sense also i should
mention that when i say cheapest
apartment in tokyo i don't just mean the
greater tokyo area like the 23 wards i
mean within central tokyo like within
the borders of the yamanote line the
major line that hits all the tokyo
stations this place here is very central
almost in the middle of tokyo and what
we'll call it call it cozy at the time
of recording this is actually the
cheapest apartment in central tokyo at
only
9800 yen that's like it's like a hundred
dollars but do not
it's appearance fool you we are playing
fast and loose with that word
apartment so let's take a more detailed
look at this place
what it has and more importantly what
doesn't and i guess what makes it so
cheap start right near the entrance so
right near the entrance here there's a
little bit of a storage space
again don't let the wide-angle lens fool
you this space is actually pretty tight
like again i'd be hard-pressed
to properly
properly fit in here and then you've got
the sink space
here again fairly small really basic it
does have running water only cold water
no hot
you've got a drawer there for your
cutlery
and some standard under sink storage
here with a super luxury
knife rack now you'll notice there's no
burner you probably could use an
induction burner and plug it in
here but i think that's that's the best
you're gonna get
it's a lot of switches actually
and they do nothing
i'm probably turning on the lights in
somebody else's room as i do that and
this is the
entire room right here
now i know the lens makes this place
look big and wide and as you can it is
not
it's only 15 meters squared which
honestly is almost certainly bigger than
my first place in tokyo so it's
definitely livable but you've also
probably already noticed that
living here comes with a few
catches aside from the lack of hot water
and the mystery pipe that just runs
through here you'll also notice that
there's no air conditioner in here
whatsoever which honestly might not be
too bad in the summer if you have a fan
it's pretty hot day today actually but
inside here is somewhat cool i can't
really speak for the winter i assume it
would be cold also before i forget one
of my favorite little features is this
tiny little underfloor storage area
which a lot of people tend to use for
like cold food storage and stuff like
that but okay wow that is
that is actually much more spacious than
i was originally expecting you
you could store a lot under there
okay also very
it's just a plug in the middle of the
wall i guess if you put like a little
end table there it'd be perfect but
let's take a peek out here
and this
is the view you get
okay
not the fanciest view in the world but
also not the worst i've had places that
the window has opened up just straight
into a wall that you just touch on the
other side so as far as views go this
isn't bad and
i think this area right here would
actually be the hookup for your washing
machine should you have one but you may
not need one we'll talk about that in a
minute and then you would just place the
washing machine itself
right here and then i guess the rest
just brings you out into this little
little backyard space here i wonder if
we can get up onto the roof i feel like
we could be able to get onto that roof
right
we're definitely going to try to get up
on the roof because you may have also
noticed
there's no bathroom in here
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that's because there is no washroom
there's no bath
no shower
and
no toilet well
except for except for one person so
there's two rooms right here
and if we head up these stairs
which have no semblance of a railing
there are two rooms right here
and
one more
right here and you might think
that this
is the bathroom
also this guy's into skateboarding and i
love that she's skateboarded out here
today
but this here
says that this toilet is for
room 203
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only now we'll take a quick peek
and that's the entire thing
toilet with a little bit of a shower
back there and for the life of me
i can't find a light
even
up here
in the roof area
i'm pretty sure there's nothing and
this is one of the things that makes it
so cheap
despite being the central tokyo area all
right let's take a look
okay so that pretty much just dumps you
out right
on the roof and this this does not feel
safe and actually speaking of safety
that's another big part is that this
building was built in 1978 which was
before japan's new building codes for
earthquakes which means the structural
insect but basically the the building
there's a good chance it would not hold
up well
in an earthquake so those older places
tend to be cheaper as well but you know
what that that means that this is the
last place that you would want to be if
an earthquake hit so i'm just gonna
just gonna slowly
but all that aside the location isn't
bad and it's not that far from the
station i think it's only like 10 to 15
minutes from atagawabashi station which
is right on the yurakucho line and
these stairs these stairs are terrifying
there's a stair back there that you
could completely lose your quality like
just trying not to
i'm just trying not to fall here
there we go but if you're like me you're
probably curious about what everybody
else does for the bathroom who lives
here so
let me show you and
as we do
let's check out the area because we're
gonna have to
we're gonna have to go for a bit of a
walk
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right next door is a cafe and
gluten-free bakery so it's pretty cool
too and then you can't see anything
because of us
what wonderful timing
right on the other side across the
street there's actually a coin laundry
and a domino's pizza
and i'm pretty sure the bathroom is down
that way
i actually wouldn't mind living right in
front of dominoes and i think the
washroom
is here at the meijiro dai library which
i think is just down here actually i was
lucky enough to meet two of the
gentlemen who lived there one said he
was a student the other said he was a
part-time worker both super friendly
neither one entirely keen on being in
the video but that's fine that's fine
and it looks like yeah that's the
library right there and it's just about
a minute maybe two if you're walking
really slow down from where the
apartment is
and they have washrooms on each floor of
the library
but
the library and the washrooms are only
open
until 7pm
that's a pretty huge catch
i don't i don't know about you but for
me only being able to use the nearest
washroom until like 7pm
feels like a pretty big
caveat that's a major plot twist mind
you if we're okay let's try and stay
positive the nearest convenience store
is only like a maybe five to ten minute
walk so i i guess
i'm tempted to say it could be worse but
this is this is pretty much the worst
i've ever seen i don't know let's let's
stay positive about it one of the other
things that makes this place a little
more we'll say affordable
is that it is far
from soundproof almost the entire time
that i've been in here i've been
battling noise from the outside because
there it is it's just this is what it's
been like
the whole time
far from quiet and honestly inside the
room is is not much better
i'd actually considered renting this
place out for a month just to just see
what it'd be like to live here from i
thought it might be fun the company who
manages this place i think they're
called heya maru specializes in places
under 60 000 yen cheap apartments in
tokyo for under like five
six hundred dollars a month but i also
kind of felt that this place should just
remain open
for for somebody who really needs it
find you the advertisements for this
place do say you can use it as an extra
sleeping space or you can use it for
storage but i i don't know what i would
i don't think i would store anything
here i don't trust the locks on the
windows let alone the one
on the door and personally i don't think
i'd be able to get past the washroom
situation i just couldn't would you be
able to speaking of which i also found
out what our mystery tube is for it's
you know 203 when he gets to enjoy his
luxury washroom yeah it just just passes
just passes right through there so
one more
benefit to check out it's like the
michaelsk paper company in here
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place is built really well at least
that's a is that's a bonus