Liberation!

I'm very happy to say that in three days I will finally be moving into my own apartment. After coming back from Tibet as serene as the Buddha himself, my housemate did a couple of things that made my stress levels hit Defcon 5 and I realised our co-living situation was completely unsustainable. It's dawned on me that I'm so busy all the time and I'm constantly surrounded by people all day, so my personal space has become more important than ever. In any case, I will be here for several years to come, so it makes sense to move into my own place now.

For those of you who know Tokyo, I'm moving to Yoyogi, eight minutes walk from JR Yoyogi Station and 15 minutes walk from Shinjuku Station. For those of you who don't know Tokyo, this means I live slap bang in the centre of Tokyo!! Well, you can argue that Tokyo either doesn't have a centre, or that it has lots of centres, but to me the arc encompassing Shinjuku/Yoyogi/Harajuku/Shibuya is the centre of Tokyo. It's the perfect location for me: it's within walking distance of Shinjuku and Yoyogi Park; easy cycling distance of so many places like Harajuku, Shibuya and Shimokitazawa; the nearby train station has the two lines that I use the most and it's cuts my commute to the various places I got to work and study by fifteen minutes.


(The crazy thing about this photo is that, while the area depicted is huge, it only represents at most a third of Tokyo.)

Moving apartment in Japan is an insanely expensive affair. My new rent is 400 pounds a month. You pay one month's rent in advance + one or two month's non-refundable deposit ("gratitude money") + one to two month's deposit refunded when you leave + one month's rent in estate agent fees + approximately half a month's rent in other shitty fees. So in my case I've had to pay about 2400 pounds upfront. Other people have it worse sometimes. (I'm not rich, by the way, this has involved a massive loan from my parents).

I don't know what the prices are like in London, but I imagine you would probably get more space for that kind of money, plus furniture/facilities, albeit probably in a slightly run down, noisy place. In Japan, rooms come completely bare and to most Westerners would seem very small. My rent will go from the current 350 pounds a month to 450 pounds a month, plus I have the extra expense of having to buy my own washing machine, fridge, microwave, hoover and crockery etc. But it will be my own uncluttered, hamsterless space and will feel way bigger as a result, and I will be considerably happier.

I've always grown up in smallish rooms so I know how to make the most of space. It looks like the place is dead quiet as it's in a residential dead end. What I love about the room is one whole wall consists of built-in cupboard space, so all my stuff that's been lying exposed in my current cupboard-less room can be hidden from view and I can keep my actual living space simple. And did I mention already that it'll be hamster free?!!