After much search I found two apartments that would accept my application, one is near Kamata station in Ota and the other one is near Saginomiya station in Nakano.
I visited both and apartments themselves are ok, with some upsides and downsides for both of them.
Kamata seems to be a lively area with many shops, restaurants etc. and Saginomiya seems to be quieter but not far from interesting places. A few articles on Google says Kamata is a nightlife area and may be less safe especially at night (?) but I don’t know.
One potential downside of the apartment in Kamata is it’s right across a high scool and an elementary school. Right now I guess schools are closed, but when they are open, will it be too noisy or problematic due to teenagers? I’m new to Japan so I am not sure.
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2 factors I missed:
– I work from home so I don’t need to commute daily, but since we are new to Japan we’d like to explore and sightsee so I didn’t want to live super far from city.
– Haneda airport is not a big plus since I don’t fly often and when I do it will probably be from Narita airport (haneda doesn’t have the flights I’ll take, or they are more expensive than Narita)
by joiSoi