of all the things we've seen in this
gigantic apartment so far this is the
thing that's impressed me the most the
concept of a garden
on the rooftop of a building in the
center of the city
japan often gets a lot of attention for
its tiny apartments and small spaces i
mean for my first three years living
here in my apartment
i had to use an ironing board as a
valuable kitchen space as a kitchen
counter
it was pretty pretty sad in hindsight
but what is life like on the other side
of the fence
a good friend of mine living here in
tokyo who runs a luxury real estate
business recently got in touch to say
that he could get us inside
one of the biggest apartments in all of
tokyo an apartment that cost a
staggering
twenty thousand dollars per month now to
put that in perspective
a studio apartment in tokyo on average
costs about a hundred thousand yet about
a thousand dollars you get about 35
square meters for that so what do you
get when you pay
20 times that amount honestly i don't
know i've never been inside anywhere
like this before so
let's go and find out this is going to
be depressing
[Music]
this is alex shapiro he owns my home
real estate yes
and what have you got for me today alex
you mentioned a 20
000 apartment yes i have an amazing
place for you
right in between two of tokyo's most
desirable neighborhoods
uh with probably the best rooftop garden
in all of tokyo maybe all of japan
actually i don't think i've been
anywhere with a rooftop garden before so
i could barely believe that yeah scotty
can't even believe that
and also the camera person should
probably introduce who they are because
they're
somebody who's good so charlotte hi
she is joining us today sharla is going
to look at a separate property um
and i'm going to make a video about that
and i'll link that in the description
box so you can check it out as well so
two properties the one i'm looking at is
twenty thousand dollars and the one
you're looking at is fifteen grand
thirteen thousand dollars so both pretty
exclusive exciting properties so check
out her video thank you
let's go let's do it if you were to pick
two of the trendiest neighborhoods in
central tokyo odds are the shopping
districts of harajuku and the motto
sandor be
at the top of the list and our property
today is just a two minute walk from
harajuku's infamous
takeshita street nestled on the fourth
floor of what is essentially
a post-modern castle we just got out of
the elevator we've got the big
intimidating looking door here but if
you look around here you can actually
see
the garden it falls that by standards of
the garden in tokyo
that is it's pretty damn impressive i
just want to stop you right there that's
not actually the garden by the way
that's not the garden that's just the
inner garden
i will show you the actual garden in a
second all right but
if you look right over there you can see
that little faucet over there
right that is where you wash your dog's
feet after you take them for a walk wow
joking so is the dog washing feet garden
exactly it's the technical term for it
good god all right let's let's go let's
go through this
all right like a nuclear bunker door
isn't it how thick that is
solid wood then you go through here you
have a solid wood what you think is a
wall
but this is actually all
shoe storage for if you take a look
right over here
that has a lot of storage yes but if you
come over here let's check out the
living spaces first
so if we come over here you'll see the
first part of the living quarters this
is
the first bedroom the first how many
bedrooms are that's four bedrooms
actually
room so this is the least
big let's call it the smallest of all
the bedrooms of course you have
plenty of storage space over here if you
go around
all this is closets on the wall again so
this is
a bit bigger than most bedrooms in most
apartments in japan and this is just the
first bedroom i'm also the smallest
you have you'll see a lot more sun in
here because it's a corner room
so you have windows on all sides and by
the way all these windows
very rare for japan if you take a look
this is
dual pane glass so nice in the winter
also nice in the summer
and also barely noise we're right in the
middle of the world's biggest city you
can barely hear
a pin drop yeah the only thing you hear
in here is the ac running that's pretty
much it
yeah and look at the view yeah
for me that's already my favorite thing
about this apartment the view is really
quite impressive you can go through the
master bathroom
to get to the master bedroom if you take
a look over here you have the first of
two
jacuzzi baths also if you look over
there there's a tv
so you can watch watch the abroad japan
channel watch abroad in japan
weeknights at 7 on youtube and if you
look over here
this is amazing this is where you can
hang your clothes because i mean
people in japan don't really use dryers
and this kind of stores up if you don't
want that
that is also we talked about ironing
boards you can use that as an ironing
board holder over there
oh wow so this is the kitchen uh that is
the kitchen yes that's your kitchen
exactly what is this again this is like
the hanging clothes room
exactly and this is basically already
bigger than my kitchen
yes that's that's sad i think that says
more about me than the house but
that's cool all right now let's go check
out the master bedroom
and oh my god it is massive let's take a
look around
[Music]
this is essentially the size of my
apartment
in one room
it's a very open place and when you
mention it's bigger than your apartment
it might be
because this place is actually over 40
square meters just for this room
so most japanese apartments in tokyo at
least are
a bit smaller than that so where would
you like put the bed in here do you
think
you wouldn't do it if i was to do it i
would have a california king-sized bed
right in the middle i'd go all feng shui
in the middle nothing touching the walls
because there are no walls
and also you don't need to have any kind
of like
wardrobes or anything because if you
come over here
you'll see the entire wall
here is your closet and you got to
remember in japan they don't
usually keep you know shoes in the
closet door this is just for clothing
and you know suitcases and you put your
socks in here
beautiful right great for putting your
socks in
so i want to take you to the first part
of the living room area which would be
the kitchen
come on over here it's like amazing here
it is
it's amazing there we go he's very he's
very good at this
that's right i tried this got the living
room
and dining room yeah
this is it what i mean what is this that
last room is about 40
meters square that was just over 40
meters squared this is
83 square meters large so
again you said that's about you know the
size of your apartment you could fit two
of your apartments in here what would
you put in here well you could
put an airplane in here you built a
small airplane but airplane nonetheless
well i mean if you want to do it
by vehicles you could actually fit four
cars into here so
that's one thing that's our new unit of
measurement how many cars can you fit in
the room in your living room
in your living room yeah nice i mean
really the biggest thing you have to
wonder is
how big of a tv do you get how many
sofas do you want you know it's that
kind of stuff how big of a
dining room table do you want but this
is
the perfect place to have you know any
kind of reception
or any kind of you know large parties
also if you don't want the kitchen in
view you can just
you know take it right out of you just
like that
yeah but i would have my wait you just
you just hid in the kitchen yeah don't
make that look like it's not spectacular
that is ridiculous
hidden in the kitchen with a door i'll
show it to you again many apartments can
do this
with the marble countertops by the way
how much did you say
just over 2 million yet
let's see i don't have a tv over here i
would have a big
maybe uh 100 inch or something like that
right there
why not right you know big l shaped
couch or something like that
that's what i would do here what would
you do i would just roll around on the
floor
and laugh about how brilliant i was if i
lived somewhere like this
just roll and roll and roll yeah who
actually lives somewhere like this
because i don't know anyone
who would live in this sort of apartment
so who actually is aimed at
well this is mostly for diplomats and
also like high-level diplomats usually
the minister counselor type of level
and also the heads of different
companies over here
and just very very rich bulk so it's
paid for by
typically companies or embassies they're
the kind of people that pay for it
generally speaking
expenses yeah uh this guy is
the intercom this is so when people you
know want to buzz in when you want to
buzz in people they'll
show their faces over here but you know
that's pretty normal for japanese houses
and apartments but the very very strange
thing that this has right here
is this button right here it's in
japanese but it translates to
a button used to allow the elevator to
come up here
this elevator does not come up to the
fourth floor usually this is on the
fourth floor
uh so what you have to do is either use
the key to get in
or if you just want somebody to come up
without you having to go downstairs you
press that and the elevator will start
working into the fourth floor as well
i want one yeah i don't have an elevator
to my phone buy one
that's so cool can i come up no i'm not
gonna press the button
unless you've got chocolate so uh just
one more thing i want to show you
just if you step out of the living room
come over here there's one more bedroom
and
yeah it's just a guest bed but i would
still like to show it to you well we've
already seen a bedroom that was the size
of a small
airport so yes now just keep in mind
this is the guest bedroom and this is
larger than most
master bedrooms in japanese apartments
and again
these are all closets right here for
when you're i don't know
your parents come in uh wait just put
your parents in there yeah
stick them right it's amazing i fit my
whole family in there
most apartments and houses in japan only
have one bathroom
like full bathroom with a bath and
shower and everything but this one
they decided you know what i'm not gonna
do that we're gonna have the
bathroom over there for you know
everybody that lives here generally
but we're also going to have a specific
bathroom
for the uh oh here
wow this is really nice yeah the floor's
heated yeah and
somebody left the floor heaters on and
they are very very
nice oh wow yeah that's nice so nice
yeah in winter that'd be perfect
so now we're in the mini garden that's
on the fourth floor
but uh chris likes to call it the dog
garden by the way dog garden the secret
garden that's not so secret because
every single room can see it
exactly chris's super garden right yes
now the reason it's called the dog
garden is because of this guy right here
which is a shower
specifically made to wash your dog's
feet if i lived here
which is never going to happen i would
probably just sit like out here
maybe i'll have like a table here yeah
sit drink my coffee
play with the dog wash my dog's feet
yeah it'd be glorious
now this is again the mini garden and
when i said that there's a big garden
this is not the big garden we're gonna
go see that in a second
[Music]
so now we're on the top floor and we're
ready to go out to the garden ready for
this
i'm ready there we go
right out here is the garden that i was
talking about and this is just
the entrance to the garden let's take a
look over here
yep follow me so now we're just kind of
in the hallway area
of the garden now if you come on over
here you can see the main
part of the garden itself this is like
your own private english garden if
anything you can kind of walk around
here
you know just through and get lost on
your rooftop how many places have you
been to where you can get lost
on your rooftop nowhere no no this is
a great place to sit and eat muffins it
is
that's what i'm thinking muffins and
crumpets yes and scones
whatever you call them up there okay so
we were just in the jungle side
of the garden i want to show you the
more i'd say functional side of it
if you come on over here just over these
rocks on the ground
but you'll see this beautiful bench
built right into
the uh the wall over here and i would
actually put my table out here i would
have some kind of dinner parties out
here what would you do
would you just sleep there meditate
meditate meditate this is the meditation
garden
it's just really peaceful like a little
bit of a zen garden
vibe going on here i would sit here
morning coffee
crumpets scones scones of all the things
we've seen in this
gigantic apartment so far all the rooms
and there were many
uh this is the thing that's impressed me
the most i think the concept of a garden
on the rooftop of a building in the
center of the city uh i mean my garden
space
is is like a balcony this big
covered in dirty washing and it's not
nice this is like an oasis in the heart
of the city
yes um and i am quite envious i mean
seeing a big apartment's one thing but
seeing a garden like this
it's just i yeah i'm quite jealous do
you feel jealous when you come to
these apartments and you're showing
people around well of course i am
jealous of the people that are able to
live in these kind of places i mean this
garden is probably the size of my entire
apartment
but i know i hope one day that i can get
to the level that i can have a garden
like this that's how i feel
you keep selling apartments like this
yeah you can do it one day i believe in
you
this area here is the size of my entire
apartment
and just the fact that they have an
outdoor space is just crazy to me i've
lived in japan for 15 years i've never
had
a garden i've only had a little balcony
that was maybe half the size of this
bench
so yeah this is pretty amazing i
honestly didn't even know
that houses of this size existed
in central tokyo just blows my mind
the kitchen 80 square meters
what i've never had an apartment that
big
while this post-modern castle already
clocks in at 20
dollars a month just merely deciding to
move in will set you back a further
hundred and thirty thousand dollars in
fees upfront
there's the first two months rent the
security deposit the insurance
the lock changing fee the guarantor
company fee and finally the
agency commission and if you pay all
that congratulations the place
is all yours and if you're not bankrupt
by this point don't worry
the neighborhood car park will finish
off what's left
yeah so we just left we've only been
here for i don't know maybe an
hour or two or something and it came out
to
eighteen hundred yen for that twenty
dollars yeah more or less
don't you love harajuku
[Music]
thank you for showing us around alex
yeah it was a lot of fun one of the most
difficult things
foreigners face when coming to japan is
getting an apartment certainly when i
moved to sendai
when they found out i was a foreigner
they were like you can't stay here you
can't
and that kind of shut me down have you
found that to be a problem
in tokyo as well yes it is absolutely a
problem over here and
i have to ask every time um our
foreigners allowed to stay here
and yeah that takes up probably you know
half of my time when i'm searching for
places
calling them up and asking if they're
foreign friendly and even
still if they are foreign friendly a lot
of the times they will change
the conditions that you have to meet you
know they'll change the amount of money
that you have to pay in order to move in
why is it more difficult for foreigners
to get an apartment in japan
from your experience they think of
foreigners as a flight risk
so they can just take off without paying
but yeah that and also they
i mean sometimes they've had bad
experiences with foreigners in the past
and
sometimes it's just kind of like they
don't trust foreigners
you have to look for both sides of the
coin to some extent why absolutely if
you're a landlord
and you've got 10 applicants one of them
is foreign maybe you are going to
skew towards japanese tenants right yeah
less risk so you've been running this
company for two years now yes
what led you to get into the world of
real estate in japan i mean that's
pretty impressive
i think you're the only foreign business
owner i know working in the world real
estate
so my partner and i saw that there was a
big gap between
you know the amount of foreign people
that want to live over here and a lot
and
the places that actually can deal with
having
foreign people coming to their offices
so this is a big problem is that even if
you you know even if there are
properties out there that are foreign
friendly
it's still hard to find a real realtor
that can actually deal with you in
english
and that is you know one of obviously
one of the services that we provide
but um the dog is sleeping
she's snoring right on my own snoring
well away well yeah that's
what they do pugs hugs just snoring and
yeah all day long
sky's the real style of the show today i
did that
fantastic well thank you so much alex
for showing us around yeah it's a lot of
fun
you can check out ihome real estate in
the description box below and if you
want to contact alex more directly
you have kind of more exclusive hidden
properties as well yeah website yes so a
lot of the places that i
actually have i can't show on the
website so if yes there's a lot of
secret
places so uh including the one that i
showed you today oh a secret yes
don't tell anyone and if you want to see
the second video we did with sharla on
her channel you can click on the card
above here and see how we got on
in property number two and thank you to
sharla for being the world's best
cameraman but for now guys
as always many thanks for watching we'll
see you next time yeah
thank you very much bye goodbye