- Good morning guys!
Alright so today's video is sponsored by Social Apartment
and I am so happy that they invited me here because
this is something I've always wanted to experience
but I never got a chance to in my life unfortunately,
so today we are going to experience what it's like
to live in a shared living space.
I am so excited, I have always wanted to do this.
I feel like it's a really awesome way to meet people and
make friends and I think we're gonna have
a lot of fun today.
The lobby area is just so nice looking.
I am so excited to see my room and explore
the rest of the place, so I'm gonna give you guys a tour.
We're gonna talk to some people that live here and
I think it's gonna be lots of fun, so let's go.
So now we're gonna enter the lounge/living area.
Oh my God.
- People play that.
- That's awesome.
- We've had people (mumble) games up in here.
- So they provide video game consoles;
there's a Wi, U, a PS4 and a big gorgeous pool table.
I haven't seen one of these in a while.
This is the kitchen area, where people who live here
can come to cook. Wow! I love how everything's provided.
It'd be really easy to move in here.
You wouldn't have to worry about bringing
a whole bunch of things with you.
So as long as you just generally clean up after yourself.
- We provide the dish soap and everything,
sponges and everything, so when you have used something,
we ask that you clean it, put it away;
but in terms of cleaning out the sink, mopping the floors,
cleaning out the fridge, those kind of things,
we handle all of that. I remember my first apartment.
- Yeah. If you haven't lived in Japan before,
this might not look like anything special to you;
but having this countertop area is such a luxury.
In Japan, it's very often a sink about this big
and then, maybe, like one burner.
And then that's it. There's no countertop in between.
(Spooky music)
So this is great, this is lots of space.
Do lots of people make a big nabe and then
share it with others?
- Yeah, so we have a lot of nabe parties.
- Cool. And here's the espresso machine that
I probably cannot figure out how to work,
but it looks like it makes delicious espresso.
- There's actually a waiting list for them.
- No way, wow! Two hundred dollar toaster,
where else would you get the chance to use a
$200 toaster.
- Obviously a microwave.
- Microwave.
- And I love that we have an oven here.
- Yes, I love that you have an oven.
I can't live without one, ever since I got one
my life has been so much better.
So everyone gets their own storage box to store
dry food, cooking supplies and stuff like that;
so you don't have to keep it in your room
and clutter your room.
- Alright, we're going to explore the Working Lounge now.
(Girl whispering)
- They have a studio space here where you can
come and get some work done. If you're like me,
and you don't get anything done in your own room,
this is perfect. They've got one Mac computer
that's available for everyone to use.
- And copy machine and printers for everyone to use as well.
- Awesome.
- Up on the 10th floor, they have a bar.
It's a seated bar area where you can just hang out
and chat with people. Any drinks you find in here
are free to take. You can just help yourself.
People just come and bring stuff and leave it
for everyone to share. There's a microwave and a
portable burner if you want to whip up some food
on the counter here. At nighttime,
it gets really lively in here, especially on the weekends.
- The view from the bar at nighttime is gorgeous.
They don't mention this on their pamphlet but
the building is located right in the middle of
three Poke stops.
- Alright, now I'm gonna take you guys up to
my favorite part of the entire apartment,
the rooftop terrace. Look at the view!
You can see the skytree, the skytree is so beautiful
at nighttime, guys.
And down below here, all these trees along the river are
cherry blossoms, so in the spring it must look amazing!
They have all these seated areas so you can come up here
and bring food and they also have a barbecue here
that you can use whenever you like and have a barbecue
with everybody and they also have all the tools and
everything that you would need to do that.
- Also on the top floor is the laundry area,
which is completely free for residents to use;
but they also have a special laundry service
where they will do your laundry for you twice a month,
wash it, dry it and fold it up.
I thought that was really neat.
- We're about to go into our room for the night
and see what it looks like.
Everything's gray, guys, it's gray.
- They have both furnished rooms and non-furnished rooms.
You have your own personal, tiny kitchen set here
so you can cook in your room if you would like to;
but of course there's the gorgeous kitchen space downstairs.
And the fridge.
The washroom area has a toilet, a sink and a shower;
so you have everything that you need in your room.
- And here's the bedroom. It's so pretty.
I'm loving the gray decor.
There's a closet here,
air conditioner, a definite necessity in Japan.
And we're up on the 10th floor so we have amazing view
of the park outside.
Wow, we're so high up.
I love it, it's a nice size for a Japanese apartment.
The floors are gorgeous, everything is so new.
- We're taking a rest in the room for a while
and while I'm sitting here, I just want to give you guys
my general thoughts on the living space. I love this place!
It's so nice. Everything is so clean and
everybody who is using the space makes sure they
clean up after themselves. They're really respectful and
as we were walking through the building, all the people
that live here were greeting us, saying Hi;
and it just feels like such a warm and friendly
atmosphere and I think it would be such a great place
to make friends. I get lots of questions about
how to make friends living in Japan and, myself,
as someone who doesn't like to drink and go clubbing,
I really don't have many tips other than
meet people at school, meet people at work,
but now that I know that a place like this exists,
if you're worried about coming to Japan on your own
and not knowing anybody, living in an apartment like this
would just be perfect for you.
You would have, like, over 100 other people living
with you that you see every day.
In the kitchen, in the lounge, out on the deck,
and you can just chat with them and I feel like
it would be so easy to make so many friends.
Everyone is just so sweet.
It's just such a great group of people.
It's a Friday afternoon, so lots of people are at work
or at school and there aren't too many people in
the shared areas at the moment; but apparently Friday night
can get kind of lively so I'm looking forward
to seeing who's hanging out at the bar later on
or going to go to the cafe for dinner really soon and
try out some of those sandwiches.
And I can't wait, cause I love a good sandwich.
Alright, we are downstairs at the cafe now
and we're gonna grab some drinks.
They have a really cool menu.
I think I'm gonna go for the elder flower sour
with grapefruit.
(Man speaking Japanese)
- They're making all their original syrups for the drinks
in house here.
(Techno music)
(Woman speaking Japanese)
- That is a good sandwich.
Alright, it's just starting to get dark outside
and people are gonna be coming home from work
so we're gonna go check out the lounge area;
see what everyone's up to down there.
- We found someone cooking dinner.
(Woman speaking Japanese)
- We have now joined a group of wonderful girls
who are making yaki soba. It's so much fun.
I love this place, I don't wanna go home.
(People speaking Japanese)
(Laughter)
- We're having an awesome time here talking with everybody.
We've made friends from one, two, three, four
different countries so far.
We're hearing all different languages.
It's so much fun.
So there's about ten people in the kitchen right now
just cooking and chatting and apparently it's gonna get
busier and busier as the night goes on.
They told me that the peak will probably be around
midnight. It's about 10 p.m. right now.
Alright, we're back in our room now and I think
we're gonna go to sleep. We're getting pretty sleepy.
We had a blast downstairs with everybody.
I'm having so much fun here,
I'm gonna be sad to leave tomorrow.
But we still have some time in the morning.
We're gonna wake up and have breakfast,
see what's going on in the kitchen and
hang out with everybody a bit more,
so I'll see you guys in the morning. Good night.
Good morning, guys.
We're downstairs in the kitchen area now
and it's time to try out the toaster.
I brought my bread. Ooh, someone else is making something.
I'm so excited to try the toaster.
Apparently it cooks your toast with steam.
So you fill up this tiny, little cup with water
and empty it into here.
- Ooh, it looks nice. Whoa. Whoa.
- Ta da!
Okay, let's try this toast.
It looks really nice.
Mmm, it's crispy on the outside,
but still really fluffy and chewy on the inside.
Alright, so we're back at home now.
I didn't want to leave, to be honest.
We had such an awesome time, it was a lot of fun.
And we were only there for one night
and we already made friends with five different people
from five different countries.
I can just imagine what it would be like if
I spent a whole year or two there.
A few things that stood out to me were there were
lots of Japanese people living there,
so if you are coming to Japan and wanting to make
Japanese friends, I think this would be a really,
really good way to do that.
They're interested in learning English and
you can learn Japanese from them,
kind of like a language exchange.
It's just a perfect opportunity to do that.
There's so many chances for you to just sit down
and chill with people and chat, cook together.
Really easy environment to make friends.
I can give you guys some details on the price now
and cover some questions that you might have
about living there.
The price is approximately 1,000 US dollars a month;
and if you've never lived in Tokyo or
looked at prices of apartments in Tokyo,
that might seem kind of expensive, however
that is the general price of an apartment in this area.
You're paying the same as you would for a regular apartment,
but you have all the bonus features of the shared
living spaces and the laundry service and
the opportunities to make friends and
all the really cool appliances.
So it really amazed me that they were able to
keep the price as low as they do.
As for the length of time that you can live there,
the shortest amount of time is three months,
but that would be perfect if you are coming on
a tourist visa. You could rent this place out for
three months and not have to worry about insane hotel
or Air BnB costs for such a long period of time.
And because they have the furnished rooms as well as
the non-furnished rooms, it's like staying in a hotel,
but cooler.
One question you guys probably have, I know I would
wonder this, is if you're allowed to have friends
come over to your apartment. Lots of places like this
will not allow you to have friends come over to visit.
And especially not let them sleep over,
but that is perfectly okay in this place.
They say they welcome it,
they love to have the social environment,
so friends visiting is okay, friends sleeping over is okay.
The first night is completely free if you have
someone stay over, you don't need to tell anybody.
But if they are planning to stay for a longer period of time
say your friend's coming to Japan for two weeks,
and they want to crash with you,
you will pay a small fee of 1,000 yen per day
for them to stay there just to cover the cost of utilities
and stuff that they would be using,
that's like $10 per day. It's really, really cheap.
There are one-year and two-year plans as well,
so the longer you stay in the apartment,
the cheaper your rent will be per month;
so they give you a little bonus if you do agree
to stay for one or two years.
One other thing that I found was really awesome
with this place is you can apply from overseas,
so you do not need to come to Japan,
get a hotel while you're searching for an apartment,
and deal with all that stuff once you're here.
You can plan it all from home overseas
and get it all set up and then you can just move
right in when you come to Japan.
Anybody who's lived in Japan before knows
that getting an apartment here is such a pain in the butt.
They are so strict with foreigners,
there are so many apartments that just say flat out
no foreigners, don't want any foreigners living here.
It can be really stressful.
I also really like the cafe downstairs,
the sandwich was amazing. It was so good, guys.
They have a really creative drink menu,
I really enjoyed the drinks.
And residents get a 5,000 yen credit to use
at the cafe every month. I thought that was really neat,
so you can get a few free meals there,
you can get like a drink every day and it would be covered.
I thought that was nice.
Alright, guys, so I guess that's
all I have to share with you today
about this place; so if you have any other questions,
please ask me in the comments and
I will try my best to answer them.
I will also leave their website down below
so you can read a little bit more into detail
about the prices. I had such a fun experience
and I really, really recommend looking into this
if you're thinking about coming to Japan.
I'm so sad that I didn't have this opportunity
when I was first starting out here,
because I think it would have been a wonderful
way to 1) make new friends; 2) practice Japanese;
and 3) just have like a welcoming, helpful
environment when you're just getting started up
in a new country. That can be really important.
Anyway thank you so much for watching
and I will see you guys soon. Bye!
(Techno music)