Apartment Hunting

Having had months to peruse housing advertisements for apartments in Japan, I've had a chance to get very familiar with what our future Japanese apartment might look like....

The stereotype:

  Weird stacked layouts with tiny rooms (yes those are meters squared...)

 Green tatomi mat floors. Although the green is super classy, the mats also come in natural tan as well. Also note the paper/bamboo sliding doors...Apparently a classic sign of all things Japanese.

 Oh your bathroom vanity is bigger than this kitchen? Surprising...since you likely live in a "Western" country where you have to use your kitchen two to three times a day. In Japan they apparently don't cook, use dishes, or store food. That little white square? Oh, that's the refrigerator...you know to keep your TINY Japanese food cold. There is also no baking or dish cleaning (by machine or hand) in Japan either.

 Closet space is one thing they go big on. For as tiny as Japanese housing can be, based on the pictures the closet space is killer! Although not walk-in, the apartments all seem to have multiple closets and some, like the one pictured, are very deep and wide.  

This last set of photos were a joke I think. Having looked at hundreds of apartments located in the same large neighborhood in Kyoto, I have never seen anything like the kitchen below. I swear I didn't pull this off of an American city's Craigslist either. This is a genuine (HUGE) Kyoto, lavender kitchen. 

If you just can't get enough of Japanese housing, check out our other blog post, about my (Megan) dream apartment!