Hi everyone. I am heading to Japan in 3 weeks for work and should be staying in Tokyo for 3months. I am in two minds about whether to try and get a short term apartment or just stay in hotels for the time I’m there.
If I do go the apartment route I need some advice on where to stay. I did find a really nice one in Akasaka on gaijinpot, but I have heard some bad things about the website and a Japanese co-worker told me this area is a bit boring. I’ve tried looking in Shibuya and Shinjuku but coming up with a bit of a blank on nice looking apartments. If someone can give there thoughts on this area/website I would appreciate it!
Generally would it make sense to book a hotel and then apartment hunt when I am there? Or just stay in a hotel? I’ve got lots of thoughts and not much guidance as to what to do! I’m hoping some of you can provide me with some useful advice.
For context, work should be paying for accomodation within reason so if its fairly priced it should be fine. Describing myself a little bit, I am not really a party animal, but I love food (who doesn’t!), and want to experience a lot of the culture (Izakayas for example) and see some tourist sites. I think my work will be mainly around Shibuya but the location could change, and I will probably go to Akihabara a lot, so transport links are important.
If you made it this far thanks for reading to the end!
3 comments
You left out the most important part. Why do you want an apartment instead of a hotel?
Finding them in Shibuya is easy, just search “shibuya
furnished apartments monthly”.
https://www.tokyoapartments.jp/serviced-apartments/SHIBUYA-CAST-SERVICED-APARTMENTS+10261.html
I live about 10min walk from this building and I’ve lived in Shibuya almost 15 years so fire away.
I just booked a monthly furnished apartment near Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (somewhat cheaper than Shibuya proper to be fair) through the site Metro Residences, and it cost 168k JPY for 1 month ($1250 USD). You can probably get a cheaper price if you book for 3 months + I’m sure I’m paying the foreigner tax, but I don’t mind because this is already way lower than what I was budgeting for. They have loads of promotions for cheaper first month’s rent going on their website as well, I’m guessing the demand from their target market of “people moving to Tokyo looking for monthly apartments on an English friendly website” is still in the process of recovering after COVID….
The other site I looked at, and corresponded w/ their sales department was Hmlet. They have a few places in / near Shibuya but they were more expensive especially for a 1 month rental. But the apts look nicer and larger.
Maybe not the most helpful because website/communication/… might be Japanese only, but since I’m in a very similar situation (2m+1w business trip to Tokyo), I’ll add my two cents:
So far I looked at monthly rentals at
* https://www.good-monthly.com/
* https://monthly.homes.jp/tokyo
and b/c I made good sharehouse experiences in Tokyo in the past I also searched on
* https://tokyosharehouse.com/
At one point I also saw some really nice single apartment+common use lounge/exchange space thingies but they were only for 6m+ contracts