Apartment Hunt

Sooner than later I had to find my own place. So the hunt was on. Lehman gave me a bilingual broker and off we went. We used three weekends checking out apartments. Of course my ideal apartment had suddenly changed from "clean and safe" to "high tech and brand new."

Here the Japanese want everything to be brand new including their apartments. It's not like NY were everyone wants to be in the century old brownstone brick houses "cause it's just so charming". After a while people just don't want to live there - not because something is wrong with it -simply because it's old. So they tear it down and start again. There's always construction here.

I really didn't believe that apartments can come smaller than those in NY. I didn't believe it until now. They're sooo small. I kept telling the agent that she need to show me bigger places. But the problems is that I didn't want to pay bigger money.

My apartment in NY was a little over 400 sqft for $1200. Here I was looking at apartments between 300 and 400 sqft for $1500 and up (rough fx conversion). More money for less space. Also, I was only looking at places that are less than 20 mins by train from work. So, considering the close proximity to work, the apartments are a bargain. It's like living in Manhattan for half price if you ask me.

In the end I did go over my budget but I think it was worth it... maybe.