there's a door beginning to tail it hey
guys welcome to Tokyo creative play I am
your host Emma isn't it I'm here with
Paris hey guys so we're kind of maybe
the thing that we're most well known for
is we've both done videos on tiny
Japanese apartments or dorm rooms or
yeah we've both stayed in different
kinds of Japanese accommodation and made
videos on it so that's how you might
know us um so we've had a bit of
experience with Japanese accommodation
and housing and over time if you lived
here for a while you might also know
that finding apartments here is quite
difficult there are certain things that
get in the way on some places don't
accept foreigners rent can be high in
some places there's different problems
but the thing that we're gonna be doing
today is we're going to be looking at
different layouts of Japanese apartments
or housing and trying to figure out what
the problem is what is wrong with it and
when we figure it out we have to pass
the buzzer it is a competition so we
have to figure it out fast and we'll let
you guys know enter out the way you're
gonna find out some tips and tricks on
how to find good housing in Japan so I'm
gonna be Jeff let's get started
so we're looking at a layout if you were
looking for a house in Japan this is the
kind of layout that you will see there's
different things that mean different
things like um if you find an apartment
it'll be like a 1ld k1 which means like
$1 is like one room one ldk is like a
living room a dining kitchen and then
the number means how many other rooms
there are in the house so the one that
we're looking at all right it says ldk
12 which means living room dining room
kitchen oh wait what is that this I
don't know what that I don't know when
the kanji is underneath the closet okay
there's a random door in the middle of
it's just there's no purpose for that
door it's in the middle of the living
dining kitchen ah and it there's no
point to it because it's just an open
space so if it would have been a hallway
yeah yeah so if you just ignore the door
this is quite a nice place same thing
okay my tip number one for Japanese
housing is definitely look a lot before
you choose a place there are so many
websites out there that can help you and
a lot of them cater especially towards
foreigners and our English friendly as
well so definitely there's gaijin part
and also know what kind of house you're
looking for whether you're looking for
an apartment for yourself or a share
house or if you're sharing with friends
definitely look at all the options that
you can before you choose one and pick a
couple of options as well just in case
one of them isn't like it was before
next one right it's a tummy room and ldk
area is this adventure this is just as a
tummy room so you can use it as a
bedroom
I don't know just like us um is there
like there's no closet in the bedroom
like it's opening in the living room no
mm-hmm is there no way to get to the
stairs and there's no there's no
indication that there are multiple
floors it's just got a staircase that is
leading up from nothing where imagine if
you didn't notice that and you moved in
and suddenly you just find these
mysterious stairs that'd be so freaky
okay
so my second tip when looking for houses
in Japan is definitely look at all of
the added costs to each apartment
because there's gonna be the amount that
you pay every month which is usually
gonna look pretty good because housing
Japan is actually quite cheap especially
compared to Australia but the thing that
costs a lot is the move-in price so
there's gonna be things like security
costs a month's deposit and then key
money gift money guarantor money they'll
just keep adding up more and more and
more and so I know a friend who moved in
and their rent was like $2,000 a month
and the move-in cost was about $10,000
Wow yeah so expensive if you're paying
like $700 a month you might have to pay
maybe $2,000 to me yeah around it
depends if it's like apartment or share
house it but it should tell you how much
the moving feels like the contracting
fee so mine is only around 500 oh that's
because it's a share house but the
apartments are a lot more expensive yeah
and I originally when I came here that
really similar partment that was kind of
a a foreigner friendly month-to-month
contract all Wi-Fi and everything all
utilities included so I didn't have to
pay I think I just had to pay a deposit
for that and then I got the deposit back
at the end so I didn't have to pay
anything upfront which was great except
for the fact that it was you know they
that 8 square meter apartment so it was
all good except for the actual size also
be careful if you have a pet sometimes
that can double or there is always at
least gonna be an extra cost for the pet
itself so just be careful with that I
search from when I lived in my tiny
apartment I searched for in your
apartment for five months because I had
a visa situation anybody in Australia
really quick I have a video where I talk
about things you have to do with the
working holiday visa in Australia if you
try to get an apartment in Japan you can
check it out cool I was on the working
holiday visa from Australia which is
only a 6-month visa you can renew it
twice it could be it for your not
because it says six months you can't get
a housing contract because they only
allow you to have housing contracts for
one year or more so many places would
give me a house that's how I ended up in
the its gonna meet your apartment and
how long was that 11 months so I was
there for 11 months and I went insane
alright this one there's two two tummy
rooms it's the bar in the bottom left
hand corner and the toilet is up in the
left toilet and it the bath is in the
kitchen
sorry these are real apartments in Japan
you have to go all the way through the
kitchen just to take a shower or shake a
bath is so weird
it's don't even to close it that you can
put pop stuff I mean looks like open
yeah there's no so awkward what if
someone is like
yeah yeah I don't know you're so cold in
the winter there'd be nothing to
disclose such a terrible design plan
yeah so um one thing we should talk
about is the tatami because this has a
two rooms of tatami um in Japan also a
lot of the time they measured the room
size back to Tommy Matt's six tatami mat
sized room but - Tommy I personally
don't think I could have a house with
tatami because you know the purpose of
the room is to have maybe a futon or
like a floor table you gotta be really
careful with it - Tommy you can't spill
stuff on it tell me you're having to
move my housing tip I think for me the
most important thing is space so it's
knowing the conversions of the space so
when I was looking at rooms I was
looking at eight meter rooms nine meter
rooms and 10 meter rooms but in America
we go by feet so maybe like 13 feet by
10 feet it's like a normal room size but
when I saw eight meters squared I was
like I don't know what that means so I
had to do the conversions and I got a
room that's actually 12 0.25 meters and
that's about like 130 square feet that's
how we usually ask it yeah it's a it's a
really nice sized room so I think just
finding out what's most important to you
about the space you're gonna move it to
like do you want a big room or do you
want a lot of lights do you want like
the windows so I think you should think
about what's most important and then
kind of make a list and have things you
want the most at the top and then
whatever you don't care about as much I
bet it's a bottom like pros and cons
yeah and then decide on your room it's
good to understand that something that
might be really normal in your country
and might be really like like sunlight
you know it's kind of normal for houses
in the I guess America and Australia to
have a lot of sunlight but I didn't
realize that here that you really need
to check like what way your your room is
facing what if there's a building
directly opposite units gonna Billings
are really close sometimes yeah so it's
like even if you're facing a certain
direction you might not get light so
it's best if you can definitely visit
please or at least just see pictures of
the place in the daytime and that way
you can like have an idea of what its
gonna be like
gonna be what the hell is okay so first
thing I notice is that this toilet in
the very middle of the apartment and
then there's four doors
I don't like there's literally four
doors and it's just the toilet so it's
like anyone could enter is a duplicating
toilet that's so awkward yeah right
behind the toilet both sides of the
toilet and right in front so you'd have
to lock four doors if you wanted to use
the bathroom and I don't know if you
forgot to lock one I mean I don't know
it's gonna happen okay oh sorry
it's okay how do you get to the end over
the if to climb through the window for
the kitchen because that's a kitchen
yeah you have to hop over the kitchen to
get outside yeah so the last tip we're
just gonna tell you generally how to
find an apartment as a foreigner coming
to Japan so there's also options to do
share houses there's Oh Cal Sakura house
and social apartment and all of them are
really awesome because they have like
different features such as maybe a gym a
theater and then also the people within
the share house are all very talkative
so it's a really good way to make
friends if it's your first time moving
to Japan and right now I live in a share
house too and it's so nice like our
kitchen is huge my bedrooms really huge
and then also the bathroom is and
everything are really big and it came
furnished as well if you're moving here
for a long time but you don't want to
spend as much money like on furniture
and stuff like that I think it's really
beneficial to live in a share house okay
well the end school is a
I'm sorry I just went sorry I got so
competitive
oh no people get away with making homes
like this so just about rank on is so
tiny
yeah why is the bathroom in the very
center of the house that so awkward
that's like the guy's so weird there's
so much stuff happening on one side this
is - that's the games that's the game
come in English so it's okay
thanks for coming I will see you again
soon bye all right guys so I'm at the
train station and literally everyone has
been staring at me sir Thank You Emma
and yeah get prepared for next time cuz
I'm gonna get you back
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